Despite weaknesses in areas such as cost of living and immigration laws pertaining to employment of foreign labour, Singapore maintained its third position in an annual world competitiveness ranking by Swiss business school IMD. The Republic was leapfrogged by Hong Kong, who ranked second after coming in fourth last year. Switzerland went the opposite direction, falling two places from second. The...

JTC Corporation has launched two Confirmed List sites and one Reserve List site under the Industrial Government Land Sales programme. Under the Confirmed List, the 0.6 ha site at Tuas South Link 2 and 0.5 ha site at Tampines Industrial Drive have a 20-year tenure and a maximum permissible gross plot ratio of 1.4. The tenders will close on Jul 21 at 11:00am, said JTC in a news release on Tuesday (May...

The first batch of smart HDB homes at Punggol Northshore will be launched for sale on Wednesday (May 27) in the upcoming May 2015 Build-to-Order (BTO) exercise, with prices for a 2-room flat starting from S$28,000 for first-time buyers. Punggol Northshore is one of Punggol Eco Town’s seven signature waterfront housing district and will be the first new public housing estate to test-bed smart...

Singapore already has an extensive rail network underground to transport people, but now it hopes to dig deep into its subterranean spaces to move goods. JTC Corporation has called a tender for feasibility studies. It is asking for at least three tunnel alignments to link the future mega-container port in Tuas to the industrial estates at Tanjong Kling, Jurong West and Gali Batu. This includes looking...

Living in a house with a panoramic view is often the dreams of many, as anyone loves being able to wake up with a breath-taking view while breathing in the cold and the fresh morning air. Sophia Hills offer a living space for future residents to be able to experience this luxurious lifestyle every day. ​ Sophia Hills is located in the outskirts of the town area, which is at the top of Mount Sophia hill....

Digital models of the Republic's heritage sites and city areas created using aerial images by drones could be here to stay, if trials conducted by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) are successful. The URA said the technique is called photogrammetry, which is the science of making measurements from photographs. It had already partnered with local drone set-up Avetics to create a 3D digital model of...

The Republic has been ranked the top city in Asia in the Business of Cities study by global real estate firm JLL and The Business of Cities Group, a London-based intelligence and strategy firm. It analyses more than 200 globally-recognised studies of city performance worldwide, looking at data such as business and finance, economic growth, quality of life, and a city’s brand, reputation and influence...

Real estate development firm Mapletree Investments has reported a 7.5 per cent increase in revenue to S$1.6 billion for the year ended Mar 31 (FY14/15), it announced on Wednesday (May 20). Part of the increase was due to new income streams including its acquisitions during the year, higher contributions from its flagship development in Singapore - Mapletree Business City - and positive contributions...

Property developers may incur up to S$90 million in extension charges for unsold units in their condo projects from April to December 2015, followed by S$238 million in 2016 if the health of Singapore's real estate market does not improve. This adds up to a staggering S$328 million that developers are expected to fork out in the worst-case scenario should they fail to sell any units by end-2016,...

Property developers may incur up to S$90 million in extension charges for unsold units in their condo projects from April to December 2015, followed by S$238 million in 2016 if the health of Singapore's real estate market does not improve. This adds up to a staggering S$328 million that developers are expected to fork out in the worst-case scenario should they fail to sell any units by end-2016,...