Senior citizens who sold off their old flats and moved to a studio apartment have made around S$200,000 each from the scheme. This is the amount they gained after paying off outstanding loans for the old flat and fully paying for the new studio apartment. National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan revealed this in his blog on Wednesday as he described the Studio Apartment scheme as one which has...
General
A planned 38-hectare private housing estate in Ang Mo Kio could prove to be a hit with property buyers. This is according to some property analysts who noted that there are now few locations near the city and in mature estates available for new landed housing. The area - bordered by Tagore Road, Lentor Drive and Yio Chu Kang Road - is just a forested place now but the plan is to turn it into a new...
Expect more private homes to be launched in the coming months. According to analysts Channel NewsAsia spoke with, some developers plan to launch their projects during the current window -- after the festive period in the first quarter of the year and before the year-end holiday season. More than 3,500 units were launched per quarter in the second and third quarters last year, compared to some 2,600...
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) has doubled the grace period for long-time tenants affected by a rule that restricts them from transferring their business space. The three-year assignment grace window will be extended to six years for commercial and industrial tenants who have been HDB tenants for at least 15 years as of Oct 16 last year, Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan said...
Lotte Shopping has postponed the listing of an up to US$1 billion (S$1.25 billion) real estate investment trust (REIT) in Singapore, underscoring lacklustre appetite for initial public offerings amid volatile market conditions. The operator of South Korea’s largest department store chain said in a regulatory filing yesterday it might reconsider the option if global financial markets improve, but is...
As Pasar Geylang Serai's 50th anniversary celebrations end, the authorities are busy preparing for the next phase of the iconic market's development. A bridge will be built to connect the market to the area's upcoming civic centre - Wisma Geylang Serai - and there will also be links to the new Paya Lebar commercial hub. Pasar Geylang Serai is one of Singapore's oldest markets. To end Pasar Geylang...
The Commonwealth Towers condominium near the Queenstown MRT station saw strong demand at its launch on Thursday. Developers said that as at 8pm, 175 of the 400 units launched were sold, with at least another 100 buyers waiting in line. One property analyst said the lack of recent launches in the area may have driven up sales for the project. Many people took advantage of the May Day holiday to...
Investors are snapping up hotel assets in Singapore, where the average daily room rate is the highest in Asia, driven by a record number of leisure and corporate visitors. Eleven hotels valued at S$2.45 billion were sold in Singapore last year, four times the total in 2012, said property broker Savills. “We are seeing some pretty aggressive bidding just to get into Singapore,” said Mr Robert...
Repeated rounds of cooling measures and loan restrictions may have put a squeeze on home prices here, but potential buyers continue to view affordability as a major concern and are calling for additional curbs to bring prices down even further. A biannual survey by real estate portal iProperty.com showed yesterday that 51 per cent of the 2,853 Singapore respondents intend to buy a property in the next...
Hit by repeated rounds of cooling measures and loan restrictions, the housing market has emerged as a concern for Singapore’s banks, with loans to the sector and new mortgage applications slowing. Housing and bridging loans expanded 7.9 per cent in March to S$168.9 billion from S$156.6 billion a year earlier, central bank data showed yesterday. However, this compares with a compound annual growth rate...