By 2012, Singapore will have an additional 1.4 million sq m of office space. Some 150,000 sq m of additional space will also be added near term. But that is small consolation to businesses facing a rapid rise in rentals on a surge in the growth in business and financial sectors. To ease the squeeze in office space further, the government will move some government agencies out of the central area. “We...
Latest housing and retail sales data both show increased cautiousness led to a pullback in buying. But while sales of cars and other big-ticket items are likely to pick up in the coming months on the back of rising incomes, the slow take-up rates in property sales will likely continue to bleed into the next two to three months. According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the number of new private...
There are more signs that Singapore's property market is slowing down. Latest numbers from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) show that developers launched just 410 new housing units in January – that is 16 percent less than the number of units launched in December, which was also a quieter month. Industry watchers said market sentiments have cooled due to the sub-prime crisis and global economic...
OCBC says it intends to reject an improved takeover offer for one of its listed subsidiaries, Straits Trading. This could effectively end a tussle for the listed commodities and property company between two of the Singapore's prominent banking families. On one side is the Lee family, who are OCBC's main shareholders. They have offered to pay S$6.55 a share for Straits Trading, valuing it at S$2.1...
Parkway Holdings has put in a top bid to buy land to develop a new hospital at the junction of Novena Terrace and Irrawaddy Road. It has offered S$1.25 billion for the site, which is double its nearest rival and five times more than the third-placed bidder. Parkway's bid works out at around $185,000 per square foot of gross floor area. This is the first private hospital site made available by the...
Shares of investment holding company Straits Trading Co resumed trading on the Singapore Exchange at 2pm on Friday after a temporary suspension. The shares were suspended from trading after the Lee family, the main shareholder of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, improved its offer for Straits Trading to S$6.55 a share from S$5.76, bettering the S$6.50 offered by investment firm Tecity. Tecity had raised its...
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) is reviewing the eligibility criteria for the Public Rental Scheme. National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said this is to ensure that the heavily subsidised rental flats are targeted at those who are genuinely poor and without other housing options. More details on the review will be announced when ready. Mr Mah disclosed this in a written answer to a question...
DBS Group, Southeast Asia's biggest bank, said on Friday its fourth quarter net profit fell 18 percent from the previous year as it set aside heavy provisions to cover its exposure to risky US mortgages. Net profit for the three months to December 2007 came in at S$491 million (US$347.15 million), down from S$596 million in the same period in 2006, the bank said in a statement. DBS set aside an...
The pace of cost increases has been rapid and unsettling for businesses so the government is implementing key measures to address office space constraints and spike in construction costs. Construction demand will continue to build up this year, with projected value of contracts to hit up to S$27 billion. At the same time, construction costs are climbing as well. Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam...
The tender for an industrial site at Playfair Road has attracted strong bids. There were 12 bids for the 8,600 square metre site. The highest bid of S$33 million was submitted by Trio Link Development. It works out to about S$142 per square foot per plot ratio. According to property consultants CB Richard Ellis, this was the highest bid ever for a 60-year leasehold industrial site. The Playfair Road...