National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan has written about the importance for owners of public flats to take up mortgage reducing insurance (MRI). In his blog post published on Friday, he said such insurance can help pay off the outstanding loan on a flat, should tragedy happen to the breadwinner. He cited the case of a couple who died suddenly, leaving their only child behind. The teenager was...
General
Sales of new private homes in Singapore plunged in July. Figures from the Urban Redevelopment Authority show that just 481 units of new homes were sold last month, down 73 percent from June. 1,806 units were sold in June. Market watchers had anticipated the sharp drop in sales transactions on the back of new loan curbs introduced on 29 June and the lack of new major project launches in July. The...
A commercial site at Cecil Street/Telok Ayer Street has attracted four bids at the close of its tender on Thursday. The top bid was submitted by Frasers Centrepoint through FC Commercial Trustee Pte Ltd for S$923.95 million. This works out to about S$1,111 per square foot per plot ratio. The lowest bid came in at S$707 million from AT Capital Holdings. Analysts expect the break-even for this site to...
A bigger grant for Singaporeans hoping to buy three- and four-room flats from the Housing and Development Board (HDB). That's one of the calls from the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for National Development. It says a bigger grant will make public housing more affordable and bring down homebuyers' monthly mortgage and years spent servicing a loan. 24-year-old Kelvin Goh and his wife...
The move to grow the clean technology segment in Singapore got a boost on Thursday as an eco-business park, CleanTech One, was officially opened by JTC Corporation. It is the first development in the larger CleanTech Park. The new development is part of the government's initiative to grow the clean technology (cleantech) segment. CleanTech One gives companies the opportunity to develop and test...
Property analysts expect new private home sales in Singapore to likely plunge by some 63 percent in July. And they say the sharp drop in sales volume is partly due to new property loan restrictions implemented on June 29. Two projects - J-Gateway and Jewel@Buangkok - accounted for more than half of the 1,806 new homes sold in June. But sales in July are expected to weaken considerably. Based...
Property market watchers said the HDB resale market is showing signs of cooling. Median cash premiums (cash-over-valuation) for HDB resale flats hit a two and a half year low in July at S$20,000. This is down from a peak of S$35,000 in January 2013. Resale flat prices also recorded a 0.5 per cent rise in the second quarter, the lowest growth since 2009. Analysts said this could be the result of...
With major Singapore developers like CapitaLand and City Development warning that the Singapore's real estate market will face headwinds in the near term, many of Singapore's small and medium-sized developers are looking overseas for new growth frontiers. Developer TEE Land recently announced new developments in Malaysia, Thailand and New Zealand. It attributes 25 per cent of the company's revenue...
Land prices of executive condominium (EC) sites have grown at a faster pace compared with private residential plots in the last three years. SLP International Property Consultants says the cost of 99-year leasehold mass-market sites rose 40 percent, slower than the 50 percent increase in land prices EC sites sold under the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme. EVIA Real Estate, one of the consortium...
The government will look into closing Waterloo Street to motorised traffic once a month for arts and cultural initiatives. This was a suggestion by Member of Parliament Ang Hin Kee. He said the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth should consider providing a localised platform for arts and cultural groups to partner training institutes like LASALLE College of the Arts and Nanyang Academy of Fine...