Developer Frasers Centrepoint said Tuesday 91 per cent of its 8@Woodleigh residential project has been sold following a weekend preview. The mass market development comprises 330 units, out of which 302 have been snapped up during the past four days. Frasers said it will now release the remaining units for sale and there will be no public launch. The 99-year leasehold property comprises a mix of two to...

344 Singaporeans have signed up for the Housing and Development Board's Lease Buyback Scheme since its launch in March. HDB gave out its first batch of upfront payment of S$5,000 to flat owners on Tuesday. Residents in the 30-year-old Queenstown estate were the first to receive the initial payouts from the HDB Lease Buyback Scheme. Under the scheme, senior citizens aged 62 years and above from...

Cities worldwide will soon have an opportunity to exchange urban city solutions with one another. That's what organisers of the newly-established Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize hope the award will achieve. The international award will be given out once every two years. By 2030, more than half of the world's population will be living in cities. But rapid urbanisation brings with it many challenges such...

Starhill Global Real Estate Investment Trust has proposed a rights issue to raise some S$337 million. It plans to use the proceeds to reduce debt and fund possible acquisitions. The Singapore-listed property trust is controlled by Malaysia's YTL Corp. Under the plan, it will offer unit-holders one new unit for every existing one held, at an issue price of 35 cents per rights unit. YTL, which owns 26.6...

IT APPEARS that there is an urgent need to review the role of the Strata Titles Boards (STB), especially regarding collective or en bloc property sales in the light of recent court judgments that saw the board come under criticism. The most recent involved the decision by the Court of Appeal to call off the sale of Horizon Towers after a tussle between various owners over the condominium’s sale to a...

THE last time the estate he lived in was upgraded, Mr Winston Lim’s street just missed the cut-off boundary for inclusion in the works. In the ten years since, there have not been enough funds for the public areas of Hwan Gardens in Serangoon to be given a facelift. “Our drains are not covered; there is always the threat of mosquito breeding,” said Mr Lim, 45, who works in sales. But with a...

PART-TIME crane operator Lee Kim Seng and his family of seven are now living in a newly-renovated three-room flat in Kim Keat Avenue without having paid a single cent for the makeover. Thanks to a community project by the Renovation and Decoration Advisory Council (Radac), the Lees were one of two needy families selected to receive a free home makeover in March. Mr Lee and his wife, who is a part-time...

Private housing estates can now improve their physical environment under a new Interim Estate Upgrading Programme. The S$25 million scheme allows for small scale improvements such as construction of footpaths, ramps and rain shelters. It will complement the existing Estate Upgrading Programme (EUP), meant for upgrading older estates that are at least 30 years old. Private estates like Tai Hwan Terrace...

Hundreds of people turned up at the soft launch of a new condominium project in Woodleigh on Saturday morning. Before noon, 140 of the 180 units at the 8@Woodleigh project were snapped up. The developer - Frasers Centrepoint Homes - said prices were transacting at an average of S$890,000 for a 3-bedroom unit, or about S$770 per square foot. One-bedroom units were sold at an average price of S$400,000,...

DUBAI-based Emaar Properties is buying all the shares in sporting products retailer RSH Corporation that it does not already own, in a deal that values RSH at $271.5 million. In a stock exchange filing, RSH, which runs the Royal Sporting House chain, said Emaar has taken over a debt of US$160 million that comes with 216.17 million charged shares in RSH, or 61.3 per cent of the company. RSH's majority...