While the pace of transactions in the traditional prime districts of 9, 10 and 11 has slowed following the property cooling measures introduced by the government on Dec 8, that in the CBD area remains lively, especially for new apartment towers completed in 2011 such as One Shenton and The Clift. “It is quite interesting to see that the property prices in the CBD area are still holding up, at above...
General
The number of Housing & Development Board (HDB) flats being sublet has more than tripled in the past five years. The reasons include the relaxation of subletting rules, and an increase in foreigners. With more HDB home-owners using their flats to earn rental income, some analysts are concerned this will lead to a shortage of supply in the resale market. The number of HDB flats on the rental market...
The days of en-bloc fever appear to be in the past, with new data released by the National Development Minister suggesting that such activity has slowed in recent years. In his latest blog post, Mr Khaw Boon Wan revealed that some 1,400 private housing units were sold through en-bloc activities in 2011. He said this number is low compared to the peak in 2007, when 5,862 units were sold. Mr Khaw said it...
After new home sales dropped 63 percent in December, property firm Colliers International predicts a challenging year for the market across the price spectrum. It noted that mid-tier to high-end segments will see a decline in foreign buyers, as many of them have been driven out by the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) measure. “Although the low interest rate environment could continue to support...
Singapore’s housing market may be experiencing a slowdown, but mixed-use developments are gaining in popularity here. Over the past year or so, there have been several high-profile mixed developments launched, including Fusionopolis at one-north, Changi City within Changi Business Park and Scotts Square along Scotts Road. This week saw the launch of Watertown (pictured) in Punggol Central, a joint...
CapitaCommercial Trust (CCT), one of Singapore's leading commercial property owners, said its income growth was flat last quarter, due to the economic slowdown. Distribution Per Unit (DPU) was down 0.5 per cent from a year ago to S$54 million. Its shares, however, rallied three per cent. For the landlord of Raffles City and eight other commercial buildings in Singapore, CapitaCommercial's stalled...
Last year, property developers sold an average of 1,300 homes per month. The recently-released December new private home sales figure of 632 is slightly less than half that number. Can we predict that overall home sales will be halved this year? This will be a huge concern for developers - their unsold stock will simply balloon. Or is last month the worst it can get and that conditions can only improve...
Property developer Keppel Land has said it is growing a stronger commercial presence overseas. This is to help achieve a more balanced portfolio amid the cloudy outlook for 2012. Keppel Land Group CEO Kevin Wong said: "We are trying to reduce our (exposure to) volatility of any particular property sector. (As a result of) the cooling measures of the residential market, we are trying to move to the office...
Ascott Residence Trust (Ascott Reit) has announced a distribution per unit of 8.53 cents for the full year in 2011. That is up by 13 per cent on-year, better than its own forecast. Revenue meanwhile increased by 39 per cent on-year to S$288.7 million. Ascott Reit said the better results were mainly due to strong performance of its properties. Despite the cloudy outlook for this year, it remains...
Office rents have started to show signs of falling and analysts say the pipeline of new office space is not going to help. According to Colliers International, rents in the Central Business District fell by 1.6 per cent on-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2011. The decline was worse in the Grade A micro market of Raffles Place and New Downtown, where rents fell by 4.3 per cent. This is the first drop...