Collective or en-bloc property sales in Singapore have come to a standstill and the market is unlikely to recover unless sellers lower their price expectations and stop aiming for huge windfalls, real estate services firm Colliers International said on Friday (Aug 22). This is because government policy measures to curtail speculative real estate activity and to foster financial prudence have taken much...
General
Charges that developers have to pay to enhance the use of land will be lowered for almost half of the geographical sectors in the non-landed residential segment for the next six months — the first decline since March 2012 — amid a slowing property market as a result of repeated rounds of government curbs. Analysts said the downward revision in development charge (DC) rates for the segment in the...
Strata landed housing, also known as cluster homes, are set to get more greenery and become more spacious under a new set of guidelines unveiled by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday (Aug 22). Under the revised guidelines, which will take effect on Saturday, a new set of formulae will determine the maximum number of houses developers are allowed to build in various types of strata landed...
It has been about a year since a new housing policy allowed singles to buy two-room flats directly from the HDB. Since then, more than 5,200 two-room flats in non-mature estates have been put up for sale, and 2,765 units have been sold under the scheme, with about 560 successful applicants collecting their keys so far. This exceeds the 1,550 units set aside for singles. These include applications under...
About 293,000 HDB flats in Singapore are owned by residents aged 55 and older and 72 per cent of these flats are three- and four-room units. This means these seniors have the option to sublet or 'right size' to monetise their flat. Selling part of their leaseback to the HDB is another option - for those who have met their CPF drawdown age, which is currently at 63. Madam Han Siew Lan, 65, has been...
With cooling measures still in place, home prices in Jurong are unlikely to increase significantly, a property watcher said. This is despite the redevelopment plans for the area, which were announced at Sunday's (Aug 17) National Day Rally. Real estate agency PropNex says prices of HDB resale flats in Jurong have gone up by 70 per cent in the last seven years. There has also been a rise for the private...
With the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) framework proving effective in keeping housing prices in check, some of the property cooling measures introduced over the past five years may have become redundant, said real estate experts yesterday. At a discussion at the annual National Real Estate Congress, panellists highlighted the Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) — imposed in February 2010 and subsequently...
While there is little doubt that buildings from the Republic’s colonial past are representations of heritage and history, their newer peers also have a part to play in shaping the unique Singapore identity, experts told TODAY. Developments such as Marina Bay Sands, which officially opened in 2010, and Gardens by the Bay, which opened two years later, have emerged as icons for both residents, who...
The private housing market remained in the doldrums in July, with sales of private homes remaining flat as developers continued to scale back new launches. Property developers sold 484 new private homes last month, up marginally from the 482 units sold in June, latest data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed on Friday (Aug 15). Including executive condominiums (ECs), 535 new units were...
Two new residential sites have been released for sale, and these are expected to yield about 900 residential units when developed, according to both the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Housing and Development Board (HDB). The residential site at Lorong Puntong and Executive Condominium (EC) site at Sembawang Road/Canberra Link were launched for sale on Monday (Aug 18) under the second half...