Airbnb and other short-term letting websites have been a hot topic of debate for some time. In Australia, New South Wales is on the verge of announcing a new short-term letting policy. Our research suggests about a quarter of Airbnb properties in the city are essentially commercial short-term letting operations. But as cities like Berlin and Barcelona have learned, regulating these platforms is...
General
The rejuvenation of Selegie Road will move further along if the owners of two buildings there succeed in their collective sale bids. Selegie Centre, a 10-storey freehold commercial building, has obtained approval from around 90 per cent of owners by share value and strata area to launch a tender with a reserve price of S$120 million. The land rate works out to S$1,942 per square foot per plot ratio...
In recent months, increasing social mixing in public housing estates has been suggested as a way to reduce social stratification and inequality in Singapore. This can be done, for instance, by integrating HDB rental and sold flats within individual blocks. Housing inequality mirrors wider economic inequality. Particular housing policies furthers the gap between the housing standards accessible to people...
Come July, the developer behind the mega mixed-use project Marina One will find out whether its strategy four years ago of holding back half its 1,042 residential units from the market has paid off. M+S Pte Ltd, the joint-venture firm by Malaysia's Khazanah Nasional and Singapore's Temasek Holdings, will release 30 per cent of its 521-unit Garden Tower for sale, with the rest expected to be released in...
A commercial and residential site at Sengkang Central, which was launched under the government land sale (GLS) programme for sale via the dual envelop system, received seven tender submissions at the close of the tender on Thursday. Several major developers joined forces, with the usual partnerships seen. They include a joint bid by CapitaLand Singapore and City Developments Ltd, as well as from Wing...
A five-room HDB at Holland Drive has been sold in June for S$1.1 million, setting a new record for the area. The 38th-floor resale unit at Block 18C Holland Drive has a floor area of 1,259 sq ft, which works out to about S$874 per sq ft (psf). Built under the Selected En Bloc Redevelopment scheme, the unit has a remaining lease of 93 years and has an unblocked view. It was transacted at 16 per...
Wah Loon Engineering founder Alan Chong has recently snapped up one of the tallest conservation shophouses along Boat Quay for S$21.35 million. Spanning six levels, the shophouse has an estimated built-up area of 6,300 sq ft, according to information on the website of Clifton Partners, a real estate investment firm. The property is being sold by an affiliate of the company. Boasting views of the...
Marketing agency Knight Frank is pleased to announce that Kemaman Point, a 89-unit residential development located off Balestier Road, has been sold collectively to Soilbuild Group Holdings Ltd for S$143.88 million. The sale price to redevelop the site to a gross plot ratio (GPR) of 2.8 based on the maximum permissible Gross Floor Area (GFA) of approximately 122,711 sq ft, translates to a land price of...
MAY'S firm pick-up in developers' property sales has prompted consultants to predict a take-off in the second half of the year as more new launches come onstream. While the year got off to a slow start - with residential launches lagging that of last year - developers' sales survey by the Urban Redevelopment Authority for May showed developers sold 53 per cent more private homes (1,121 units) than a...
Developer sales of private homes in May rose by more than half over April as the number of new units launched also saw a sizeable increase. The 1,121 private homes, excluding executive condominiums (ECs), that developers moved in May was up by 53.1 per cent from the 732 units in the month before, according to data from URA on Monday. This was the best monthly take-up since developers sold 1,246 new...