Contrary to common perception, Singapore is not short of space. Across the spectrum from residential to commercial and industrial property, the volume of vacant space is turning out to be a blessing for tenants, who now have much better bargaining power than before. The latest official data show a total of 21,268 private residential units were unoccupied in the second quarter of this year, translating...
Expert Corner
Parents looking for a home near a school of their choice so that their children may stand a better chance of acceptance need not buy in the neighbourhood as it may sometimes be better to rent the property. By the end of this month, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will complete this year’s Primary One Registration Exercise. If you are a parent, where you live could affect your child’s chances of...
If you like to have a drink or two before you return home after a hard day’s work, Clarke Quay is as good a place as any. It is great for people-watching and there are plenty of bars and restaurants to choose from. Clarke Quay has the added advantage of having its own station on the North East MRT Line (NEL). Even if you have had one too many, you can still safely return home to any condominium within...
When the Government introduced loan curbs via the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) framework last June, the private housing market went into a tailspin. The repercussions — tepid sales and weak prices — were so severe, some market analysts took to describing the curbs as cooling measures. Many tend to forget that the majority of private home buyers these days are investors first rather than...
As you sit on your balcony, would you rather enjoy the sunrise or the sunset over the water? When it comes to property prices, it makes a difference. As measured along the East-West MRT line, you pay less for private housing in the east than you do in the west. Using Raffles Place’s median price per square foot (psf) as the basis for comparison, as you move east or west along the MRT line, prices...
To see how impactful the government’s cooling measures have been, look no further than District 9. Data from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) for last month showed that the median Transactions-Over-X Value (TOX) for District 9, which consists of Orchard, Cairnhill and River Valley, was negative S$130,000. Each month, SRX algorithms compare the actual transacted value for each unit in a...
Last week, a commercial site in Woodlands attracted strong interest from developers, including some of the biggest names in the business. Yesterday, the Government awarded the tender to a consortium of Far East Civil Engineering, Tannery Holdings and Sekisui House, which had beaten seven other bids with its offer of nearly S$634 million. That translates to about S$907 per square foot per plot ratio...
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) last month revised its resale flat policy to require buyers to sign the option to purchase before getting a valuation, effectively consigning the concept of cash-over-valuation (COV) to history. As expected, there has been some confusion since, as buyers and sellers look for new ways to find the “market price” of resale flats offered for sale. Some industry...
Newly-released government flash estimates for housing prices in the first three months of the year show that they have continued their downward trend. Private home prices fell a further 1.3 per cent from the previous quarter, while Housing and Development Board resale prices sank another 1.5 per cent. The downtrend was no surprise, as updates from other real estate bodies providing monthly data have...
On Monday, a piece of Singapore’s public housing story was consigned to the annals of history after National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said in Parliament that buyers and sellers of Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flats must agree on a price before seeking an official valuation for the purpose of applying for an HDB housing loan. Cash-over-valuation (COV) — the difference between...