Sales of private homes last month fell 6.8 per cent from the previous month despite more new launches during the Chinese New Year holiday period. Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), developers sold 301 new units in February, down from the 323 units sold the previous month, data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority showed on Tuesday (Mar 15). Including ECs, 430 new units were sold last month, down...
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Marriott International is close to winning a bidding war for Starwood Hotels & Resorts that would create the global hotel leader, trumping an offer from China's Anbang. Marriott improved its November cash-and-stock offer for Starwood by more than US$1 billion, to US$13.6 billion, in an amended deal approved by their respective boards of directors, the companies announced in a joint statement on Monday...
Japanese lifestyle brand Muji is planning a new flagship store in Singapore. Masaaki Kanai, chairman of Muji's parent company Ryohin Keikaku, said on Tuesday (Mar 15) that the new flagship store is estimated to be around 3,300 square metres and will feature more lifestyle concepts. "Apart from the usual Muji products, the store will have an 'Open Muji' concept where community creators are invited to...
CapitaLand has partnered with Singapore's coworking space pioneer Collective Works to transform the 12th storey of Capital Tower - its headquarters - into a premium coworking space, as part of its pilot initiatives to test-bed alternative workspaces. In what is a first for a Grade A office building and a landmark deal in the coworking sector, the joint initiative aims to shape the future of office...
Singapore's real estate investment trust (Reit) market is set to consolidate as smaller vehicles merge to cope with rising regulatory costs, according to Cambridge Industrial Trust (CIT). "The wave of consolidation for Singapore Reits is about to begin," Philip Levinson, chief executive officer at Singapore-listed CIT, said. The trust has a market capitalisation of S$730.5 million and focuses on...
KNIGHT Frank's Global House Price index rose 3 per cent in 2015. "Concerns over the global economy in 2015 failed to dent buyer confidence; instead the lingering low interest rate environment influenced sentiment," Knight Frank said in a release on Monday. The index tracks mainstream residential markets in 55 countries across the world. Of these, 43 markets saw prices rise, up from 10 countries in the...
DESPITE much industry lobbying for an extension of deadlines for developers to meet the conditions for additional buyer's stamp duty (ABSD) remission on residential sites, it appears that many developers are sanguine about the looming deadlines. While tight-lipped about their marketing strategies, developers whom BT spoke to are confident that their projects will sell out before the respective ABSD...
A FREEHOLD District 15 bungalow in the Tanjong Katong area owned by the recently bankrupted managing director of spice and nut trader Pars Ram Brothers has been put up for auction as a mortgagee sale. The indicative price of the property, at 85 Branksome Road, is about S$16 million, which translates to S$1,213 per square foot on the land area of 13,189 sq ft. On the site is a single-storey bungalow...
Co-working spaces, a concept which made its way here six years ago, can be a hedge for office landlords against a wave of new office completions. Rather than engage in an intense price war on rental incentives and subsidies, developers can take a dip in this "blue ocean" to gain a competitive advantage over their peers, Cushman & Wakefield says in a new report. One way is to carve out undesirable or...
HIAP HOE, through its subsidiary Meteorite Property, has entered into an agreement to sell a property in Melbourne for A$60 million (S$61.8 million) before taxes to an Australian developer. This would also mean that plans for a joint venture between the two parties will have to be annulled, as the new company was to manage the development of the said property. Hiap Hoe said on Wednesday evening that...