Before the Strata Titles Board (STB) can decide the fate of the S$548-million Gillman Heights en bloc deal, two minority owners have questioned the Board’s jurisdiction to hear the application. They applied this week to the STB to vacate the hearing due to start in two weeks’ time, when objections from minority owners were supposed to be heard. But lawyer Eddee Ng of Tan Kok Quan Partnership said his...
IT was the “goblin” that wreaked havoc on markets the world over but come Oct 31, investors may be celebrating Halloween for more reasons than one. The goblin that is the impact of the United States sub-prime mortgage problems could go away as early as then, and growth would return by year-end in time for Christmas, said Mr Ken Fisher, CEO of Fisher Investment. Saying the sub-prime spook had been...
IT HAD seemed like a walk in the park for Phoenix Court residents en route to a windfall, when the owners of all but one of the units agreed to sell off their apartments collectively for $88.1 million. But just 11 days to go before the owners were due to pocket $1.8 million each, the sale has been stalled indefinitely — in a complicated legal saga that demonstrates why impending sweeping changes to the...
WITH just four months to go before 2007 draws to a close, private-sector economists have given the economy the thumbs up, predicting that the Republic will power ahead with 7.5-per-cent growth this year. This is up from an estimate of 6 per cent in the last Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) survey in June. And next year, Singapore could enjoy economic growth of 6.5 per cent, up from a previous...
Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang has urged developers and contractors not to price in expectations of increases in costs into their tenders for projects. Speaking to reporters on the sideline of a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, he said that the government would continue to manage the increase in cost of steel and other materials and try to mitigate the impact of higher costs. He said: “The...
The government is raising property development charges with effect from Saturday. This follows the regular six-monthly review on development charge rates. For non-landed residential use, the charge was raised by an average of 58 percent with prime areas like Cantonment Road seeing the biggest jump of 112 percent. For commercial use, the hike is an average of 42 percent. Market watchers say an increase...
CapitaLand has sold its entire 50 percent stake in Chevron House for over S$366 million. When the deal is done, the property developer will book a gain of S$151 million on the investment. Chevron House is an office building in the banking and financial district of Raffles Place. It was formerly known as Caltex House. CapitaLand has been taking advantage of the buoyant office property market to divest...
Home owners could scramble to secure the required number of signatures to seal their en bloc deals in the weeks ahead, according to industry watchers. This is due to the impending changes to the collective sales legislation aimed at adding more transparency to the process. Owners at Pacific Mansions are still working out a deal with some four to five potential buyers. Pacific Mansions has 288 apartment...
THE law on en bloc sales looks set to be beefed up, on the back of lessons learnt from the many tussles of the past year. When the Bill to amend the Land Titles (Strata) Act was introduced yesterday in Parliament, it contained far more rules than the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) had proposed five months ago. This, on the back of over 400 suggestions it received during public consultation in April and May....
DIVORCED couples will soon find it easier to divide their matrimonial assets in a “smooth and equitable” manner, thanks to changes to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) scheme. From Oct 1, an ex-spouse no longer has to wait for her husband to turn 55 and be eligible to withdraw his CPF. These rules, passed under the CPF (Amendment) Bill in Parliament yesterday, now allow the immediate transfer of CPF...