In a cooling en bloc market, Minbu Villa, a freehold residential development in Novena, is going up for tender at S$145.8 million again, but could see the reserve price lowered if 80 per cent of the owners agree. Its earlier attempt this year was launched in March and closed on April 17 without a winning bidder. This time, more than 60 per cent of the owners by share value and strata area have...

The Government has put in place new anti-money laundering and terrorism financing requirements for property developers that will require them to perform due diligence checks on their buyers and flag suspicious activity. The new rules come after Parliament passed the Developers (Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing) Bill on Tuesday (Nov 20). The Bill amends both the Housing Developers...

The details of the Lease Buyback Scheme's (LBS) extension to all flats should be ready by early 2019, Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong said on Friday (Nov 16). The announcement that the LBS would be extended to cover five-room and larger flats was made in August this year. Under the LBS, flat owners aged 65 and above who meet several other criteria can sell part of their flat's lease...

Fragrance Group, controlled by James Koh Wee Meng, is planning to develop hotels along Waterloo Street and in the Tanjong Pagar area. It plans to redevelop the 999-year leasehold Waterloo Apartments, which it has just been awarded through a S$131.1 million collective sale, into a hotel. The price it is paying works out to S$2,172 per square foot per plot ratio. In addition, Fragrance has applied to the...

THE latest move by the government to revise a guideline that caps residential units in projects outside the Central Area (CA) is laudable in its intent to curb excessive building of shoebox units and prevent new projects from posing a strain on local infrastructure. The updated rules come at a time when the proportion of shoebox units in residential projects have already come off their 2011-2012 highs...

If the Government had not stepped in with measures in July to cool the property market such that there are now signs of moderation, property prices would have surged ahead, possibly going up by 10 to 15 per cent, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said. Explaining the rationale behind the cooling measures on Thursday (Nov 15) at an industry anniversary dinner organised by the Real Estate...

Sales of new private homes in Singapore fell 36 per cent in October from a year earlier, as there were barely any new launches in the month. Developers sold 487 units last month - excluding executive condominiums (ECs) - compared with 761 units in October 2017, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Thursday (Nov 15). On a month-on-month basis, sales fell by about...

Mandarin Gardens, a 99-year leasehold condominium, recently raised its asking price by nearly 12.5 per cent from S$2.479 billion to S$2.788 billion, after it was discovered that the land that the residential development is situated on had been undervalued by over S$300 million. This came after the Collective Sales Committee (CSC) carried out a check of the property's development baseline record. The...

Condominiums and private apartments rentals dropped for a second straight month, slipping 0.7 per cent in October from the previous month, according to SRX on Wednesday. This came after rents dipped 0.5 per cent in September, with the figure revised by SRX from a 0.4 per cent decline. After barely budging in 2018, private market rents are now down 0.1 per cent from a year ago - but are a hefty 20...

Waterloo Apartments has been sold through a collective sale for S$131.1 million to a wholly owned subsidiary of Fragrance Group. It intends to redevelop the 999-year leasehold property, which has a land area of about 14,369 sq ft, into a hotel. The property is at 64 Waterloo Street in the Bras Basah/Bugis area. Outline planning permission (OPP) has been obtained for a change in the property's...