SingHaiyi launching two freehold condo projects in Bartley

Its more than 5 years since a freehold project was launched in Bartley. The show-flats of two condominium projects in Bartley by SingHaiyi Group will open for viewing. The property developer announced this at a media preview at 16 Tai Seng Street, where potential buyers can view the show-flats. The Gazania in How Sun Drive will have 250 units across seven five-storey blocks, while The Lilium in How Sun Road will have 80 units in two five-storey blocks. The two developments will be launched together in about two weeks and are due to be completed in the second half of 2022. Units at The Gazania are likely to be priced from about $1 million for a one-bedroom unit of about 440 sq ft, and from about $3.3 million for a 1,800 sq ft four-bedroom penthouse. The Lilium will have two-to four-bedroom units that are expected to cost about 5 per cent to 10 per cent less per sq ft. Developer appointed marketing agency - Huttons Asia's real estate professional Kiwi Lim estimate that half of the units will be launched first. 


Private home sales pick up on back of new launches

Private home sales are on the rebound after the festive lull, as developers in Singapore sold 1,054 units last month, up from the 455 units they moved in February. The latest number is also 47 per cent higher than the 716 units sold in March last year. The figures - which exclude executive condominium (EC) units - were released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority based on its survey of licensed housing developers. Market observers point to a supply-led increase, noting the slew of recent launches. Most believe that demand will remain healthy in the coming months as more projects are rolled out, giving buyers more options. Ten developments were launched last month, including two mega projects, Treasure at Tampines and The Florence Residences, which accounted for more than a third of the total new private home sales last month. Huttons Asia real estate professional Kiwi Lim believe that this is due to the resilience of the real estate market in Singapore.

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No-sale licence issued to Normanton Park project

Kingsford Huray Development has been hit with a no-sale licence for its project at the former Normanton Park site, prohibiting it from selling units before the Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) is obtained. In June, Kingsford Huray was granted approval for a 1,882-unit project on the site, comprising 1,863 apartments and 19 strata terrace houses. But the Controller of Housing (COH) issued a no-sale licence for the project on Jan 15, "as the company had failed to meet the requirements for a sale licence", said a Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) spokesman in response to queries. Under the Normanton Park project's no-sale licence, the COH must also be informed within 14 days of any changes to persons holding responsible positions in Kingsford Huray, and any changes to the particulars of the developer and/or the project, as set out in the licence.

Sharp drop in Singapore Q1 property investment sales

​Real estate investment sales in Singapore fell 52 per cent year on year to S$5.3 billion in the first quarter of 2019, on cooling in the latest bout of en-bloc fever and from residential property curbs. The corresponding period in 2018 had seen a record level of residential collective sales. The overall slump was despite strong growth in investment sales in the hospitality, commercial, industrial and mixed-use sectors. Investment sales refer to all private property sales at transacted prices of S$5 million and above, including successfully awarded state land tenders In the residential sector, the July 2018 cooling measures continued to depress sales.

Investment sales plunged by 82 per cent from a year ago to S$1.7 billion amid declines in all sub-segments, including collective sales and Good Class Bungalows. This sector accounted for 32 per cent of the total investment sales in the quarter. On the other hand, public land sales booked a bumper quarter, recording 32 per cent growth year on year to S$2.1 billion. They accounted for 40 per cent of total investment sales, and four of the top five largest transactions during the quarter were Government Land Sales (GLS). Commercial investment sales quadrupled on a year-on-year basis to S$1.1 billion in the first quarter on a low base. 


UBS S'pore taking up all office space at redeveloped Park Mall

Developer SingHaiyi Group and its joint venture (JV) partners, Suntec Reit and Haiyi Holdings, announced that UBS Singapore has signed on to take up all the office space at the redeveloped Park Mall building, confirming a Business Times report on April 1 that UBS was mulling over a consolidation of its Singapore office footprint. Located at 9 Penang Road, the property is now undergoing redevelopment, which is on track to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year, SingHaiyi said. UBS Singapore will take up 381,000 sq ft of net lettable area, spanning eight levels across two towers. It plans to move into the 10-storey Grade A office building in the second half of next year. Besides UBS Singapore, the redeveloped building has drawn strong interest from potential retail tenants, including food and beverage outlets as well as ancillary services, SingHaiyi added. The redeveloped building is located near Singapore's prime shopping belt Orchard Road and Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. It also has 15,000 sq ft of retail space and an extended 99-year lease which will expire on Dec 7, 2115.


Jurong tourism site set to tax developers' creativity

Thinking out of the box will be imperative for developers eyeing the new Jurong Lake District (JLD) tourism development project. The site will have to stand out from among the S$9 billion expansion to be made to the integrated resorts (IRs) and the growing number of theme parks in the region, industry watchers said. The government announced that the now-vacant seven-hectare site next to Chinese Gardens will be the location for a hotel, attractions, eateries and shops by 2026. The need for novel development ideas is clear when one compares the seven-ha size to that of Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, which take up 15.5 ha and 49 ha - two and seven times bigger respectively. An expression of interest (EOI) exercise by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) will close in November.

Jewel Changi Airport will be a Singapore icon, says architect

Multi-award-winning architect Moshe Safdie says he expects Jewel Changi Airport to become a powerful icon for Singapore. Mr Safdie, 80, who also designed Marina Bay Sands, said he did not expect MBS to become a landmark symbol of Singapore, possibly exceeding the status of the Sydney Opera House. "I do predict now, though, that Jewel will become an icon for Singapore no less than MBS," he told reporters on Friday, ahead of Jewel Changi Airport's official opening.

At 90,000 sq m, Jewel's retail size is comparable to CapitaLand's ION Orchard, which has a retail footprint of about 88,000 sq m. Raffles City remains CapitaLand's largest mixed-use development in Singapore at 320,490 sq m GFA. Jewel's total GFA spans 135,700 sq m, comprising 90,000 sq m of retail; 21,100 sq m of indoor gardens and attractions; 19,400 sq m of facilities for airport operations; while 5,200 sq m has been set aside for hotel space. About 25 per cent of Jewel's over 280 stores comprise new-to-market brands, new concepts or flagship stores. Nearly 50 per cent of the brands in Jewel are home-grown Singapore ones, with stores such as the Rich & Good Cake Shop, Birds of Paradise gelato store and Tiger Beer's new concept, Tiger Street Lab, attracting long queues during the Jewel's preview.
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​Huttons Asia real estate professional Kiwi Lim believe that in addition to the awesome beauty and entertainment at Jewel Changi Airport, the huge array of amenities and food offered by the cinema and 280 shops and retail outlets at Jewel Changi Airport will make living in the east a very attractive option.  

URA launches Bugis site, postpones tender of One-North parcel

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has launched the tender of a site on Tan Quee Lan Street under the Confirmed List of the first half 2019 Government Land Sales (GLS) programme. The 99-year leasehold site sits on a site area of 11,530.9 sq m and has a maximum gross floor area of 48,430 sq m. It can potentially yield up to 580 residential units. The site has a maximum building height of 30 storeys for a high rise zone and six storeys for a low rise zone. Meanwhile, the tender for a residential site at one-north Gateway under the Confirmed List, which was originally scheduled for this month, will be postponed to June "to facilitate a review of planning parameters and tender conditions for the site," URA said The tender for the Tan Quee Lan Street site will close at 12 noon on Sept 5. Its closing will be batched with another site at Bernam Street which is scheduled for sale in May under the first half 2019 GLS programme, said URA.


OCBC said to be seeking buyer for Mt Elizabeth property

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) is looking to sell a 22-storey freehold servicedresidence development at 2, Mount Elizabeth Link, sources told The Business Times. The district 9 property housing 72 serviced apartments is leased to Frasers Hospitality, which operates it as Fraser Residence Singapore. The property's existing gross floor area of about 104,400 sq ft (subject to a final survey) is around 2.95 times the site's land area of 35,385 sq ft. This is higher than the 2.8 plot ratio indicated for the residential-zoned site in Master Plan 2014 and Draft Master Plan 2019.


Feb home loans shrink for first time since 2006
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Housing loans in Singapore hit another low in February, with mortgages contracting over the month for the first time since April 2006, preliminary data from the Monetary Authority of SIngapore showed. Mortgages booked in February on a net basis came in at S$203.8 billion, falling from S$204.3 billion in January. From a year ago, housing loans in February continued to grow, but at its slowest yet of 1.2 per cent since BT began compiling bank lending data from 1991. With housing loans making up three quarters of consumer lending, overall consumer loans from a year ago grew at its weakest on BT's record. Consumer loans grew just 0.5 per cent in February from a year ago, to S$264.96 billion, decelerating from 0.8 per cent year-on-year growth in January. 

Prime areas lead slide in private home prices in Q1

Apartments and condos in the prime areas or Core Central Region (CCR) led declines in private home prices in the first quarter of this year. Compared with the other submarkets, CCR has been the hardest hit by last July's hike in additional buyer's stamp duty (ABSD) rates, which impacts investors and foreigners more severely. Based on the Urban Redevelopment Authority's flash estimate data for the first quarter of 2019, the price index for non-landed homes in the CCR fell 2.9 per cent quarter-on- quarter - the sharpest quarterly drop since the 5.2 per cent slide in Q2 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. The latest decline in the index, combined with the 1 per cent fall in the preceding quarter, takes the total decline to 3.9 per cent from the recent peak in Q3 2018. URA's overall private home price index too contracted for the second consecutive quarter. The 0.6 per cent (flash estimate) decline in Q1 2019 was a bigger drop than the 0.1 per cent q-o-q dip in the preceding quarter.

Weaker sentiment in the residential market is likely to persist in the near-term and may discourage buyers from committing early for fear that prices could erode further in the coming quarters. It also does not help when there is a steady stream of new launches in the pipeline due to the fiveyear (sales) deadline for developers - which means buyers are also spoilt for choice. Moving forward, the less-than-ideal take-up rates at some recent launches are likely to nudge developers to price projects more sensitively in the coming months if they want to move units and better manage sales inventory. 


HDB resale prices down 0.3% in Q1

Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flat prices dipped 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 compared with the quarter before, according to the latest flash estimates. The resale price index was 131, down from the 131.4 in the fourth quarter of 2018. The final figures, with more detailed public housing data, will be released on April 26. Although prices have continued to fall for a third consecutive quarter, the quarter-on-quarter change is still considered moderate and the decline is at a slower pace when compared to a year ago at 0.8 per cent. There may be more positive sentiment for the HDB resale market in the coming months, she added, as the government makes changes to the Central Provident Fund loan rules on the purchase of older flats. In May, HDB is also expected to offer about 3,400 Build-To-Order flats in Kallang/Whampoa, Tengah and Woodlands. There will also be a concurrent Sale of Balance Flats exercise.

HDB resale volume up 26.1% in March

The volume of Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flats grew by 26.1 per cent in March, marking the highest jump in eight months since August last year. There were 1,657 HDB resale transactions in March, up from the 1,314 units sold in the previous month, according to flash estimates from a real estate portal. However, resale volume in March was 12.7 per cent lower than the 1,897 units transacted in the same month last year. The data also showed that resale prices had inched up by 0.2 per cent in March, compared with February. But this was still a 1 per cent decline from last March, and down 13.7 per cent from its peak in April 2013. 


Beyond the core: Singapore's office decentralisation

When property developer Ho Bee Land bought a commercial site at North Buona Vista Drive for S$410.99 million in 2010, observers said then that the resulting office product would be untested for the area. The project, sited outside the Central Business District (CBD) in a university and R&D enclave, was targeted at multinationals keen to set up headquarters near their research facilities. But as Ho Bee tells The Business Times, getting corporates to sign up "was not easy, as one-north is not known as an office location. We struggled initially." As the one-north MRT station and retail mall Star Vista were built up, Ho Bee's move paid off. Since completion in 2013, that building, The Metropolis, has contributed significantly to the company's annual bottom line, with rental income accounting for 42 per cent of its revenue in FY2018. Today, The Metropolis is fully occupied.

​The Metropolis is one of several "decentralised" office spaces in Singapore that have sprung up over the years, as the government continues its efforts to build employment areas outside the CBD - in line with a decades-long policy to put more jobs outside the city centre. Plans are already in the works for three major economic gateways in Singapore's east, west and north, including a second CBD in Jurong Lake District. Taking things a step further, the government just this week announced plans to encourage more non-office use into the CBD, which could change the make-up of the country's traditional business hub and lead more office tenants to move outwards. Offices outside the CBD see good take-up rates today, though industry players say a cocktail of considerations - ranging from cost to occupier profile - weigh on corporates' minds.

Over 40km of cycling paths to be built in next five years

​More than 40km of cycling paths will be built in five towns over the next five years as part of efforts to expand the cycling infrastructure here, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced. Tenders to build the paths - to be located in Woodlands, Toa Payoh, Choa Chu Kang, Geylang and Queenstown - will be called later in the year, the authority added. The 7km of cycling paths in Toa Payoh will be a first for the town, Singapore's second-oldest housing estate and the first built by HDB. Meanwhile, Woodlands will see 20km added to its current 4km of cycling paths and more than 8km of park connectors. This will make the cycling network for the northern town among the largest here. The new paths will also connect to key amenities as well as four MRT stations - Marsiling, Woodlands and Admiralty MRT stations on the North-South Line, and the Woodlands South station on the Thomson-East Coast Line which will open by the end of this year. An additional 12km of cycling paths will be a major boost to the existing half-kilometre stretch in Choa Chu Kang.


Underground plans for three districts

District-level underground plans, released for the first time under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) Draft Master Plan, will help the nation build deeper and wider, freeing up more surface land for people-centric uses. Three-dimensional subterranean maps of Marina Bay, Jurong Innovation District and Punggol Digital District were rolled out at the launch of the Draft Master Plan at the URA Centre in Maxwell Road. The underground plans are part of a strategy to create spaces for the future as well as build capacity for growth. Some other highlights from the plan, which may be gazetted later this year: one-stop neighbourhood hubs, greater southern waterfront, transforming paya lebar air base. 

Greater Southern Waterfront development will start in 5-10 years

Development of the Greater Southern Waterfront will begin in five to ten years with certain precincts, kicking off with Pasir Panjang Power District and the site of the existing Keppel Club. Under the Draft Master Plan 2019, the Greater Southern Waterfront - which stretches across the southern coastline from Pasir Panjang to Marina East - will total 2,000 hectares (ha) and is envisaged to be a gateway for live, work and play. About 1,000 ha of land from the 2,000 ha site will be freed up for development after the City Terminals and Pasir Panjang Terminal are shifted to Tuas. Mount Faber has also been earmarked as one of the precincts that will be developed within the next five to ten years as part of the Greater Southern Waterfront. Pasir Panjang Power District will be "given a new lease of life as a lifestyle and heritage destination," said the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA, adding that agencies are already looking at potential ways to reuse the former power station buildings and open up the grounds for public access. URA and the Singapore Land Authority will be initiating a competition next month to reach out to the public for potential ideas for the precinct.

​Meanwhile, the site that is occupied by the Keppel Club will be redeveloped into a new residential precinct by the waterfront when the current lease expires in 2021. The site is near both Telok Blangah and Labrador Park MRT stations. Transport connectivity for residents in the adjoining areas is expected to improve as they reduce travelling time by going through the future town instead of around it. Meanwhile, Huttons Asia head of research, Lee Sze Teck, pointed out that the government is continuing to decentralise jobs from the central areas as it outlined more plans for Paya Lebar, Changi, Woodlands Regional Centre and Punggol Digital District under the Draft Master Plan 2019.

Singapore to have 1,000ha more parks and park connectors

In 15 years' time, nine in 10 Singaporeans will be just a 10-minute walk away from a park. This enhanced City in a Garden vision was unveiled in the Draft Master Plan, which shows 1,000ha more parks and park connectors across the island. The expansion is an almost 13 per cent increase over the existing 7,800ha. This is part of a "conscious and deliberate effort" to protect natural spaces and increase ecological resilience, said Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong at the launch of the Draft Master Plan.


New CBD options offer flexibility in medium to long-term

City Developments Limited (CDL) and Hong Leong Holdings are among the property players that could benefit from the government's push to inject greater vibrancy into the central business district (CBD). The CBD Incentive Scheme, which offers a higher gross plot ratio to pave the way for older CBD office buildings to be converted into hotels, homes or mixed-used projects, makes for greater flexibility in the medium to long term, but owners can choose not to redevelop their existing properties in the near term amid headwinds, analysts say. The scheme is targeted at office buildings in certain parts of the CBD - Anson, Cecil Street, Shenton Way, Robinson Road and Tanjong Pagar. Buildings under 20 years old or which have gone through significant asset enhancements from the last TOP date are excluded from the scheme. Site area is also a qualifying criterion. The allowable increase in plot ratios is capped at 25 per cent for most proposed land uses and at 30 per cent for residential with commercial use in the first storey in the Anson and Cecil Street areas.