National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan says that lowering the price of state land is equivalent to taking money from Singapore's reserves. Mr Mah was rebutting comments from Workers' Party (WP) Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang, who had proposed that the cost of state land be lowered so that homes can be built cheaper. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a community event on Saturday, Mr Mah...
General
Seven blocks of HUDC flats in opposition-held Hougang will be privatised, after residents voted strongly for the move. They are blocks 344 to 350 in Hougang, Avenue 7. In the mandate exercise conducted in February, 81.5 per cent or 233 units voted for privatisation. The results were announced by the protem committee at Hougang Community Club on Saturday. The road to privatisation took two-and-a-half...
Residents in Eunos can expect to get a S$9.47 million makeover of their constituency. 2,784 units of HDB flats will benefit from the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP) in the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC). The programme is the third to be introduced in the GRC. One of the highlights of the programme is a new multi-purpose plaza. The plaza will be surrounded by a wide range of...
Residents in the newly-redrawn Hong Kah North SMC and Chua Chu Kang GRC will get rejuvenated estates - to the tune of well-over S$450 million. Under a five-year Town Renewal Plan, two new schools will also be constructed. A primary school will be built near Jurong West Street 75 and a school for students with special needs constructed at Choa Chu Kang Grove. S$124.5 million will be spent on cyclical...
Mapletree Commercial Trust is set to raise at least $898 million in an initial public offering in Singapore after pricing the IPO slightly above the mid-point of an indicative price range, a source with direct knowledge of the deal said. The trust, managed by Singapore state investor Temasek’s property arm, priced the IPO at $0.88 a unit against an earlier indicative price range of $0.84-$0.91, the...
The Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) estate in Serangoon North is three signatures away from achieving privatisation. 180 of the 244 households have already signed up - just 1.2 per cent shy of the 75 per cent minimum needed for the proposal. Key benefits of privatising HUDC estates are that home owners will be able to manage their estates and build facilities typically found in condominiums,...
Sales of private residential properties increased in March, bucking four consecutive months of decline. Data released on Friday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed that 1,386 private homes were sold last month, up 25 percent on-month from the 1,105 units sold in February. Including executive condominiums, the total sales would have reached an even more impressive figure of 1,543. The...
Overseas Union Enterprises (OUE) said it plans to buy LCH Hotels, which owns the 320-room Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, for S$224.5 million. OUE will also settle a shareholder loan as well as debt of S$68.5 million. It said the proposed acquisition will expand the earnings base of the company's portfolio of hospitality assets, particularly in light of the group's competitive presence in Singapore's robust...
Property market cooling measures have been the recurring and persistent market risk across Asia over the past few months. Singapore is no exception. Since the introduction of a new set of measures in January, sales volume has slowed and the pace of increase in overall private residential property prices has moderated. The flash estimate of the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) private residential...
The Singapore residential property market has had a very strong recovery since mid-2009 and prices are hitting record highs. However, the recovery has also prompted the Government to announce four rounds of residential property market cooling measures since September 2009. The harshest so far has been the latest round introduced in January, consisting of further hikes in the seller's stamp duty and...