News At A Glance

The strong private residential sales momentum of 2020 has carried over to 2021. Furthermore, preliminary estimates of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) residential price index in 2020 showed that private home prices have risen by 2.9% over the fourth quarter of 2020. Should the sales momentum continue, prices are expected to increase at a firmer pace this year. With more than 3,000 new private sales in the first quarter of 2021, developers whose projects are gradually selling down have begun sourcing to replenish their land banks. The upcoming Government Land Sales (GLS) tender...

Advance estimates released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on April 14 showed that the Singapore economy grew by 0.2 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter of 2021, a turnaround from the 2.4 per cent contraction recorded in the previous quarter. The manufacturing sector was the best performer, posting year-on-year growth of 7.5 per cent, better than the 7.3 per cent expansion it saw in the whole of 2020. This growth was aided by output expansions in electronics, precision engineering, chemicals and biomedical manufacturing. Construction, though it shrank 20...

Chinese tech giants are expanding in Singapore as they face increasing regulatory pressures at home and sanctions in other key markets. Messaging-and-gaming behemoth Tencent is opening a hub and TikTok owner ByteDance is establishing a regional HQ, while e-commerce giant Alibaba is investing in property. According to Dr Chen Guoli, professor of strategy at the Singapore campus of business school INSEAD, Singapore is considered as a more neutral country under the current climate of geopolitical uncertainty.  Singapore has always maintained good ties with Beijing and the West, and tech...

Workspace provider JustCo announced that it will manage Metro’s office building in Tampines from Q3 2021 onwards. Located at 7 and 9 Tampines Grande, Asia Green comprises about 30,000 sq ft of office space. This is a deviation from the traditional way in which landlords just offer an empty office space. They are now open to tie-up with co-working space provider so as to gain access to more collaboration and networking platforms. Meanwhile, WeWork is looking to launch its new location at 21 Collyer Quay in the next nine to 12 months.  

RETAIL operators with physical outlets are struggling due to the relentless rise of online shopping both in Singapore and overseas. Landlords have seen rents fell by 15% year-on-year in 2020. In 2019, Singapore Tourism Board announced plans to revamp the Orchard Road shopping belt, but with international leisure travel unlikely to resume yet, it is unlikely that the buzz will return. CapitaLand has marked down the valuation of ION Orchard, Jewel Changi Airport by 8% and 17% respectively from a year ago. For malls held by CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT), the latest valuations of...

Singapore announced on Wednesday (Mar 24) a shift towards a more “flexible and hybrid” way of working. More employees will be permitted to return to the workplace from Apr 5. Split team arrangements are no longer mandatory. There will also be no limit on the proportion of an employee’s working time that can be spent at the workplace. Here are the updated requirements for safe management measures at the workplace issued by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM): 1. STAGGERED START TIMES, FLEXIBLE WORK HOURS Employers must ensure staggered start times to ensure that staff members a...

The Budget 2021 statement was delivered by Deputy Prime Minster Heng Swee Kiat on 16 February 2021.  Last year, 5 budgets were rolled out with nearly S$100 bn to help Singaporeans and businesses cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, ending the financial year with a record Budget deficit of S$64.9 bn. Dampened by the pandemic, Singapore saw its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 5.4%. Budget 2021, also dubbed the Emerging Stronger Together Budget is set to help Singapore get on the path of recovery.  The Emerging Stronger Together Budget will see $11 bn set aside for...

Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) flash estimates reveal an increase of 2.1% from Q3 to Q4 2020 in the overall private property price index, continuing the upward trend from an increase of 0.8% in Q3 2020. Prices of non-landed properties grew by 3.2% Q-o-Q in Q4, the steepest quarterly increase since Q2 2018, when prices increased 3.4%. Overall prices increased 2.2% despite the severe economic downturn, as compared to 2.7% in 2019, signaling a strong underlying demand in Singapore. In Q4, prices of non-landed homes in the city fringe or rest of the central region (RCR) saw the greatest...

The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR Project) has officially been thrown in the water, 4 years after the agreement was signed in 2016.  Multiple changes had been proposed by the Malaysian government following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the two governments were unable to come to an agreement even after several discussions. Prior to the cancellation, the project was twice delayed due to domestic politics in Malaysia. Originally slated to be completed in 2026, plans were eventually pushed to Dec 2031. Bilateral relations remain intact, but tremendous benefits have bee...

In a continuation of the nation’s worst recession, economists expect Singapore’s economic contraction to lead into 2021 until the second half of the year, even in view of the slight pickup in the economy in Q4 of 2020 at 3.8%, an improvement to the 5.8% drop in Q3 and exceeding expectations by approximately a percentage point. As a whole, economic contraction year-on-year, at 5.8%, was lower than the forecasted 6-6.5%. Though vaccinations have begun both locally and internationally, as some time is needed for its effectiveness to be evinced, the re-opening of borders is unlikely to be imminent...