It has been a roller coaster ride for the Singapore property market this year, dipping in the first quarter before registering a sharp rebound. Market watchers have said housing prices will continue to rise next year, spurred by a recovering economy and the opening of the integrated resorts (IRs). The robust turnaround in the property sector was something no one would have predicted. Singapore entered...
2009
One condominium in the east has officially thrown in the towel for an enbloc sale - at least for now. The 1080-unit Mandarin Gardens saw the disbanding of its two-year-old collective sales committee last week. In a letter to residents, the main reasons cited were unfavourable market conditions and the moving in of new residents, whose views the committee felt should be heard. The sales committee had...
Singapore-listed developer Yuexiu Property said on Tuesday that one of its units has acquired a plot of land in China for 544 million yuan or about S$112 million. It said its 95 per cent-owned subsidiary acquired the land in Guangdong's Zhongshan City last week through a public land auction. The plot of land has a permissible gross floor area of about 418,000 square metres and a site area of some 167,000...
Home-buyers, who have applied for the Build-to-Order (BTO) flats at the popular Dawson estate in Queenstown, are seeing stiff competition. Applications ended on Monday and the 1718 premium flats are six-times oversubscribed. SkyVille@Dawson and Skyterrace@Dawson are public flats with premium finishes and designs. The projects comprise studio apartments as well as three-, four- and five-room flats. 9,865...
Property deals in the Singapore market just got bigger in the final quarter of this year, according to global property adviser DTZ Research. The value of property transactions in the fourth quarter are larger compared to the trend of small deals in the first three quarters of 2009. Eight transactions above S$100 million each accounted for 77 per cent of total transaction value in the fourth quarter,...
HDB has accepted an application from a developer to put up a residential land parcel at Sengkang West Avenue for public tender. The land parcel is under HDB's Reserve List system. Under the system, the government will put up a site for tender if it receives an application from a developer who commits to bid for the site at or above the minimum offer price acceptable to the government. In this case, the...
The manager of CapitaCommercial Trust said it has appointed a new head of Finance. The current Finance head, Edward Bin, is being transferred to CapitaLand Commercial to assume the role of vice president of Finance. He will be replaced at CCT by Annie Chua, who is currently the Reit's deputy head of finance. CCT said she is an experienced finance professional who's 20 years in finance and treasury...
Keppel Land has bought a site in northeast China for S$180 million. The purchase was made through its wholly-owned subsidiary Da Di Investment. The 30-hectare site is in Shenyang - the capital city of Liaoning province. Keppel Land plans to build a township on the site, which will comprise about 6,000 homes and some commercial developments. The project will be targeted at the upper-middle market. The...
Mainboard-listed Saizen REIT said on Monday that it has repaid some S$71.3 million loan of a unit, Yugen Kaisha Shingen. It made the repayment last Friday. Giving an update, the REIT said it has fully deployed the net proceeds of about S$41.1 million from the rights issue in making the repayment. It had also utilised its internal cash resources in paying back the money. Saizen REIT's rights issue was...
The construction sector around the world is likely to pick up in 2010 in tandem with the recovering global economy. Accoring to KPMG's 2009 Global Construction Survey, 64 per cent of respondents expect to either increase or maintain profits by next year. The survey sought the view of top management of more than 100 of the world's leading engineering and construction companies. The outlook for the...