National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan used the apples and oranges analogy to clarify why the Housing & Development Board (HDB) has ceased the publication of overall median cash premiums paid by home buyers beyond the valuation of flats across all estates. He said that the overall median cash-over-valuation (COV) figure for resale flats is “misleading and quite irrelevant”, as the data on the...
General
Standing at 43 storeys, the 312-unit The Clift residential tower stands out on the corner of McCallum Street and Telok Ayer Street. It is taller than every other building in its immediate neighbourhood, which comprises mainly conservation shophouses and older office buildings. Developed by property giant, Far East Organization (FEO), the project was completed in 1Q2011. The ground floor shop units have...
National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan expects to take three to five years to substantively solve the imbalance between the supply and demand for HDB resale flats. He said he is confident that resale flat prices will stabilise but stressed that the problem of high prices cannot be solved overnight. He urged Singaporeans to be patient. Mr Khaw said this in response to questions from reporters on the...
As skyscrapers in Singapore get older, industry players have said it can be more cost effective to retrofit, instead of rebuilding them. They said a key consideration will be the rental yield that will be lost during the period of reconstruction. Another reason will be the savings from rising construction costs. The Fuji Xerox towers underwent retrofitting three years ago. But it is not just the...
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it will not take any regulatory action against Global Logistics Properties Limited (GLP) after it has concluded its investigations on the firm. In a statement, the central bank said it has carefully assessed the circumstances of the case relating to an omission of information concerning a non-competition arrangement in its prospectus for public listing in...
Private home prices in Singapore rose at a slower pace of 2 per cent in the second quarter, according to statistics from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). This was in line with the flash estimates which showed a 1.9 per cent increase as announced earlier. The property price index stood at 203 points in the second quarter. In the previous quarter, the price index grew 2.2 per cent to 199.1...
Prices of HDB resale flats rose a steeper 3.1 per cent in the second quarter compared to the 1.6 per cent increase seen in the first quarter. The number of transactions rose by about 6 per cent to some 6,600. The median Cash-Over-Valuation (COV) has also risen. The COV for a 5-room flat in Bishan was S$50,000. In Toa Payoh it was S$70,000. Explaining the steeper increase, key executive officer of ERA...
Mapletree Logistics Trust has reported a 6.7 per cent rise in distribution per unit (DPU) for its second quarter ended June to 1.6 Singapore cents. That is up from 1.5 Singapore cents in the same period last year. The company said that this is mostly due to acquisitions, positive rental reversions and higher occupancy rates of 98.9 per cent. Net property income for the second quarter was S$57 million, a...
Compared to about a month ago, the mood in the public housing market today could not have been any more different. The gloom and anxieties of first-time applicants for new Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats have now been considerably dispelled. Two combined launches offering about 4,000 and 3,500 flats in May and mid-July, respectively, in various HDB new town locations have significantly raised...
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) remains concerned with the potential for a property price bubble in China even though the country's elevated inflation rate may peak within the next month or two. While efforts by China to cool the real estate sector have reduced transaction volumes and property price increases, home prices in some larger cities still look "bubbly", Mr Nigel Chalk, IMF mission chief...