Prices of Singapore's luxury prime homes remained stable for the second straight quarter as buyers stayed cautious after recent government tightening measures, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. Overall, the Singapore mass residential market saw a 12 per cent increase in prices in 2010 driven by positive sentiment on the back of strong economic performance. However the high-end market has been more subdued...
General
Shopping malls along Orchard Road are going for facelifts even though they are relatively new, due to rising competition from brand-new shopping centres - which are forcing the existing ones to spruce up their act. Instead of refurbishing a shopping centre after a decade or two, mall owners are tweaking the look and feel of even relatively new buildings. Analysts say this is because the ownership of many...
CDL Hospitality Trusts has said it is planning to buy Studio M Hotel in Singapore for S$154 million. This works out to about S$428,000 per room. CDL said the acquisition is expected to be immediately yield-enhancing and would also broaden the earnings base of its portfolio. It added that the hotel has achieved impressive occupancy of 88.9 per cent since starting full operations in June last year. The...
CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) has put The Fortredale, a prime freehold residential site located at 2 Tanjong Rhu Road, up for sale through a public tender. With an area of 23,020 sq ft, the site is zoned for residential use under the 2008 Master Plan. It has a 2.1 gross plot ratio and a permissible building height of up to 24 storeys. The site was previously an en bloc sale site sold by CBRE in 1996 and...
Mainboard-listed construction firm United Engineers on Tuesday said its net profit has jumped more than three-fold to S$186.2 million for the full year ended December 31. This compares to profits of S$52.2 million in 2009. The higher profit was on the back of a 28 per cent rise in revenue to S$901.4 million. United Engineers said revenue was mainly boosted by progressive revenue recognition from its...
Non-landed private home prices galloped in January, despite the stringent measures announced by the Government to cool the exuberance in the property market. Flash estimates released by the National University of Singapore Institute of Real Estate Studies showed that the overall Singapore Residential Price Index rose 2.6 per cent month-on-month. That is more than double the 1-per-cent increase in the...
The Ministry of National Development (MND) has revised the rates for development charges (DC) for the next six months, as part of its half-yearly review. The increases in the rate of DC, the tax payable by the developer when a property site is developed into a more valuable project, will take effect from March 1. On average, the rates for landed residential property have increased by 18 per cent, with...
Since the Interim Rental Housing (IRH) scheme was introduced in January 2009, about 1,600 families have benefited from it, said Senior Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of National Development, Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman. Of these, about 430 families have moved out of the IRH scheme into longer-term living arrangements, such as public rental flats. Another 430 families will be moving to home-ownership...
Bank loans in Singapore for January rose 1.8 per cent to S$328.7 billion from the previous month. This is a 16 per cent increase compared to a year ago, according to provisional bank lending data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. All segments recorded a rise, with the manufacturing segment posting the strongest loans growth at 2.5 per cent to S$11.2 billion from December. Housing and bridging...
Non-landed private home prices in Singapore galloped higher in January despite the government's recent stringent measures to choke off property speculation. Flash estimates compiled by the National University of Singapore Institute of Real Estate Studies show the overall Singapore Residential Price Index rising by 2.6 percent month-on-month. This is more than double the one percent increase in the index...