As the three Singapore banks get ready to announce their financial results for the quarter ended December, investors will be looking for signs that their earnings this year will break free of the constraints of low short-term interest rates. The benchmark three-month Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (Sibor) is currently at 0.44 per cent, the lowest in more than two decades. Investors had been bearish on...
General
We need to keep an eye on the potentially strong supply of private homes that will come onstream till 2015. In particular, we need to be wary about the supply this and next year, because the global economic recovery remains elusive. Based on the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) release on Jan 28 of Q4 2010 data for private residential properties, the estimated number of residential units that will...
Two stories caught my attention over the past week. The first was an announcement in Geneva by Switzerland's Palaedino Group and Euroasia Investment. They unveiled plans to store and manage gold in Singapore for ultra-wealthy clients who have lost confidence in banks and paper money. The gold will be stored in the high-security Singapore FreePort facility. Palaedino president Leonardo Castellana said...
The path of the two-speed global economic recovery, currently under way, will determine the prospects for commercial property markets worldwide, property consultant DTZ said in its 2011 Global Outlook report. The report states that strong economic growth projections in most Asian and Central and Eastern European countries will trigger strong occupier demand. The growth will also underpin strong rental and...
Residential property prices in China rose 0.95 per cent last month from a month earlier, up from December's increase of 0.90 per cent, a private data provider said yesterday. The China Real Estate Index System (CREIS) said home prices stood at an average 8,645 yuan ($1,677) per sqm in the 100 cities it covers in its survey. The CREIS data is closely watched by real estate investors who believe that it...
Mainboard-listed Second Chance Properties has posted a 35 per cent rise in its second-quarter net profit to S$2.9 million. This came on the back of a 3.4 per cent increase in revenue to S$9.7 million over the same three months ended December 31. The company said the increase in net profit was mainly due to better performance of its apparel division and the substantial increase in its rental income. That...
The Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore (REDAS) said the latest property cooling measures introduced last month have stabilised the property market. Market watchers share the same view, but pointed out that it is the volume of transactions in the suburban market that has tapered off. They added that for the high-end property market, the number of transactions may have been lower from last...
The preview for Canberra Residences, located along Canberra Drive in the northern part of Singapore, has met with healthy demand. Marketing agent CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) said 80 per cent, or 160 out of 200 units released were sold during the preview. Developer MCC Land (Singapore) will launch public sales for the residential units this Saturday, February 12. CBRE and ERA have been appointed the joint...
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Thursday launched the tender for a residential site at Bartley Road and Lorong How Sun. The land parcel was made available for sale through the Reserve List system in November 2009. The tender was triggered because URA had received an application from a developer for the site. The developer has committed to bid at a price of not less than S$191.7 million for...
Singapore-listed property counters fell yesterday on concerns about more cooling measures in China to rein in stubbornly high housing prices. At the close of market, shares of Keppel Land were down 3.1 per cent at $4.32, CapitaLand fell 0.8 per cent to $3.58 and Yanlord Land dipped 1.9 per cent to $1.54. "In general, most people would not want to put their money into property counters in the short term,...