Qingjian Realty (South Pacific) Group on Wednesday laid the foundation for what it touts as Singapore's first Internet-ready executive condominium (EC), with the signing of a memorandum of understanding with telco Singtel and lifestyle app hiLife. iNz Residence will improve on the smart living features first seen in the Visionaire, launched last year by Qingjian Realty as the first EC with smart...
General
Final-year university student Belle Low has been looking to settle down with her boyfriend of four years. So far, her search for a first home has been concentrated largely on Build-to-Order (BTO) flats. But she said the increase in the CPF Housing Grant has opened up an additional option for them: the resale market. In his Budget statement delivered on Monday (Feb 20), Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat...
Two recent charges against local real estate firms promoting overseas residential investments have put the spotlight back on such risky purchases. A financial penalty was imposed on property agency Square Yards last month after it failed to to provide a written note to an investor telling him about the risks involved in a foreign purchase, according to a media release by the Council for Estate Agencies...
A New party has emerged in the race for Jurong Point mall. The Business Times has learnt that Mercatus Co-operative - an NTUC social enterprise that owns and manages suburban malls - is now the front runner for Jurong Point. Its bid is understood to be about S$2.2 billion, which would translate to S$3,343 per square foot based on the 658,000 square feet of commercial net lettable area owned by an...
THE move to enhance the CPF Housing Grant for first-time buyers of resale HDB flats is expected to help sustain the recovery in resale transactions and stabilise resale prices. While most market watchers were not surprised that the government chose against tweaking any property cooling measure, such a boost in housing subsidy for resale flats did catch many off guard. Some consultants, including...
The latest property market data for Q4 2016 shows 13 straight quarters of decline. From the peak in Q3 2013, prices have fallen over 11 per cent (down 3 per cent in 2016 and 3.7 per cent for 2015). Some property industry insiders and analysts are now calling for the government to relax the cooling measures. But it is important not to look at these measures as purely "property cooling" but to view...
In what could be the first transaction in a Good Class Bungalow (GCB) Area this year, a bungalow along Jalan Kampong Chantek off Dunearn Road is changing hands for S$27.59 million. This works out to about S$1,003 per square foot (psf) based on the freehold land area of 27,504 sq ft. Perched on an upward-sloping site is an old vacant house with around 11,000 sq ft built-up area spanning two storeys...
Singapore's Mapletree Investments has bought partner Oakwood Worldwide, the world's largest provider of corporate housing and serviced apartments. The acquisition of US-based Oakwood for an undisclosed sum is in line with Mapletree's strategy to expand outside of Asia. Mapletree first collaborated with Oakwood in 2014, when the two companies signed a $5 billion joint venture deal to open more than...
THOSE hoping for any lifting of property cooling measures may be in for a non-event if the projection of market experts rings true. This is because most industry watchers expect the government to let market forces play out before intervening. Also, tax consultants are not expecting major revisions to other property taxes, though some hope that the government will see it fit to re-introduce tax remission...
DEVELOPERS got off to a good start in housing sales this year, based on the latest government numbers, and industry players are sanguine this will set the tone for the rest of the year as well. Urban Redevelopment Authority data shows that developers moved 381 private homes (excluding executive condominiums or ECs) in January - up 3.8 per cent from December's 367 and 17.6 per cent higher than the 324 in...