Singapore has been increasingly attracting new citizens and permanent residents (PRs), who help sustain the country's economic growth. Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said local Singaporeans alone are still not sufficient to meet the manpower demands here. He revealed the latest immigration statistics during the debate on the Prime Minister's Office budget on Wednesday. According to the figures,...
General
According to Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the Government Land Sales policy has been a responsible one that is also market-led. The minister made this comment in Parliament on Wednesday in response to questions raised during the Budget debate. He added that the government is doing the right things to sustain Singapore's competitiveness. The Government Land Sales programme came under the...
Property developer CapitaLand said it views the Vietnam market as being the second most important market for itself after Singapore. President and CEO Liew Mun Leong has likened the growth potential of Vietnam to Chinese cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou. To help the company expand in Vietnam, CapitaLand has formed a strategic partnership with another Vietnamese developer. Urbanisation in Vietnam is...
A robust property market and a strong economy have helped developer Ho Bee to report record full-year earnings. Net profit jumped 176 percent on year to S$272 million. This was achieved on the back of record revenues of S$596 million, up 52 percent on year. Ho Bee's development properties reported higher sales due to the progressive recognition of income from its residential projects, including those at...
United Overseas Bank (UOB), Singapore's second-biggest lender by assets, posted a 5.7 percent fall in its fourth-quarter profit, as turmoil in credit markets led to more write-downs. The bank reported net profit of S$506 million for the October-December period, down from S$537 million a year ago. UOB, which had a smaller exposure to risky debt compared to local industry leader DBS, made fresh provisions...
Singapore's sovereign wealth fund has bought the Westin Tokyo hotel from Morgan Stanley and US-based Starwood Capital, the firms said Tuesday, in a deal reportedly worth about US$715 million. The 438-room hotel in Tokyo's Ebisu district will continue to be operated by Starwood Hotels and Resorts under the Westin brand, a joint statement said. The companies gave no financial terms for the purchase by GIC...
Singapore greeted 883,000 visitors in January 2008 setting a new record for visitor arrivals in that month. Not only did visitor arrival figures rise 6.9 per cent higher in January 2008 compared to January 2007, but visitors also stayed longer this time round. The top three markets were Indonesia, China and Australia. Visitor arrivals from China rose 42 per cent than in January 2007. Some 3.5 million...
Developer Koh Brothers has posted a near 10-fold jump in full-year net profit - rising 877 percent to S$39.7 million. The sharp spike in the bottomline was due mainly to fair value gains on investment properties. There was also an exceptional gain of S$5.6 million after the company sold three units in Shantou, China. Sales rose 10 percent to S$285.5 million and Koh Brothers remains bullish about its...
The HDB is launching an executive condominium housing site in Yishun. The land at Yishun Avenue 11 is being made available under the Reserve List System. This means developers interested in purchasing the land, must submit their application with the minimum price they are willing to bid for the land. The site has an area of 15,080 square metres and a gross plot ratio of 2.8. Upon acceptance of the...
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) came under the spotlight in Parliament on Tuesday with MP Ong Kian Min urging it to exercise compassion in cases of mortgage arrears. The MP for Tampines GRC said that while the lower income group in other countries could move to cheaper housing, Singaporeans do not have that option as HDB flats are already the cheapest form of housing. He recounted how nine families...