News At A Glance

Singapore has ousted Hong Kong to be ranked top in terms of growth in prices of luxury properties, according to a recent study. Luxury home prices in Singapore rose 13 per cent in the quarter ended 30 September, compared to a year ago. The gains were attributed partly to the limited availability of high-end properties. The top five performers were Singapore, Edinburgh, Madrid, San Francisco and Tokyo. Hong Kong is now placed 14 th , as its year-on-year price was just 5.5 per cent. Globally, the price of luxury properties rose by 2.7 per cent on average across 43 cities tracked.  London’s p...

Two residential sites and one white site were released for sale under the second half 2018 Government Land Sales (GLS) programme, which could yield a total of 2,000 homes and 540 hotel rooms. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) launched a plot of land at Kampong Java Road for sale, while the Housing & Development Board (HDB) launched an executive condominium site for sale. Both were launched under the Confirmed List and both tenders will close on 15 January 2019. The Kampong Java Road site is the first private housing housing land plot to be launched since the unit size guideline r...

Amid the continued rejuvenation of Singapore’s Beach Road corridor with new flashy developments such as South Beach, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has received a proposal looking at the conservation of the iconic Golden Mile Complex. Completed in 1973 at a cost of $18 million, Golden Mile Complex features the now famous step-terraces and has been a landmark to many Singaporeans when travelling along Nicoll Highway. Earlier in August, over 80 percent of the property’s owners signed a collective sale agreement, pushing to sell off the prime real estate to interested buyers with a r...

Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has revised guidelines on the maximum allowable units in new private flats and condominium developments outside the Central Area, which is smaller than the Core Central Region (CCR). The revised guidelines will apply to new applications for private non-landed residential developments, including executive condominiums and the residential components of mixed-use projects, received on or after 17 January of 2019. URA said it has observed smaller dwelling unit sizes in new private housing projects. In addition, the number of redevelopments in certain...

Singapore’s economy did better than expected for the third quarter of 2018, growing at a rate of 2.6 per cent year-on-year in Q3 2018. This is down from 4.1 per cent in Q2 and 4.6 per cent in Q1. While this makes Q3 the weakest quarter this year, it still managed to beat expectations of 2.4 per cent growth. Several economists have upgraded their full-year growth forecasts. For example, OCBC upgraded its 2018 full-year forecast from 3 per cent to 3.3 per cent after the results. Separately, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has increased the pace of the Singapore dollar’s appreciation, t...

Singapore has topped the HSBC’s Expat Explorer Survey in terms of living conditions for expatriates, the fourth year in a row that the country has been placed at the top. The survey is now in its 11 th year and also measures the salaries of expatriates in the different cities. In that aspect, Singapore was ranked third with expats earning an average salary of US$162,172, just slightly lower than Hong Kong which ranked first and mainland China, which ranked second. Mr Mark Surgenor, Head of Wealth, Asia-Pacific at HSBC, said: “With increased economic prospects across Asia-Pacific, more markets...

Pine Grove has raised its reserve price fom $1.72 billion to $1.86 billion in a last-minute bid to secure the 80 per cent mandate to launch its public tender for collective sale. This came after “pressure and petitions from a small group of owners” who felt that their development ought to be marketed at a higher reserve price. This “unilateral move” has led the marketing agent to resign. Pine Grove must get the 80 per cent mandate by 28 October or consider its collective sale attempt a failure. To-date, 78 per cent of owners have consented to the $1.72 billion price, with the last 2 per cent h...

Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) released on 1 October its flash estimates of the 3 rd  Quarter 2018 private residential property price index. The increase of 0.5% in the overall private residential property index shows that the market is resilient and that there is sufficient appetite from serious buyers who are likely to be first time buyers or PRs less affected by the cooling measures. This is in line with the original intent of the measures, which was to achieve a more gradual, but sustainable, price appreciation in the longer term. For non-landed private residential propert...

Oxley Holdings’ condominium project, Mayfair Gardens, sold 40 per cent of its 215 units its launch weekend. Buyers snapped up 87 units from 29 to 30 September, for an average price of S$1,900 per square foot. Units sold ranged from one-bedroom to four-bedroom apartments. Surprisingly, three of the six penthouses were also sold. Not so surprisingly, 85 per cent of the buyers were Singaporeans while the remaining 15 per cent were permanent residents and foreigners. Marketing as Oxley Holdings’ most upscale development in its portfolio to date, Mayfair Gardens’ facilities include a 75m swimming p...

As Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to impose higher taxes on foreigners looking to buy properties in the UK, high-end and luxury homebuilders are potentially facing a real challenge. Overseas buyers account for roughly half of all residential transactions in central London. UK developers are already struggling to cope with the sluggish demand amid Brexit, a cooling property market and prospects of higher interest rates. London’s stock of unsold homes under construction is at a record, and shares of homebuilders have slumped this year. Some analysts feel that further taxes on international...