The government is reviewing ways to strengthen the regulatory framework for housing agents. Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport, Lim Hwee Hua, said government bodies - including the Housing and Development Board and the Finance Ministry - are carrying out a review on how to raise the overall professional standards of housing agents here. Mrs Lim said:...

ION Orchard, one of Singapore's largest shopping malls, is set to open this July amid the dismal economic outlook and falling consumer confidence. In a filing to the Singapore Exchange, CapitaLand said tenants have already committed to lease 80 per cent of space in the mall. 60 per cent of the retail space will be devoted to flagship stores and new-to-market brands including Boucheron, Dsquared and Diane...

Bukit Panjang will be among the first few places to kick off the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme aimed at upgrading older HDB estates. S$6 million has been set aside to rejuvenate the Cashew division in the area. Nearly 1,700 homes in the Cashew division will benefit from the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme. In the pipeline are more cycling and jogging tracks, covered linkways and residents'...

Designed with a Mediterranean theme, Mi Casa is a perfect getaway for those who love to come home to resort style living everyday. With the Choa Chu Kang MRT and LRT station, bus interchange and Lot One shopping mall mere minutes away, this new condominium is truly one to look forward to, making it the only private residential development in the vicinity. Located at Choa Chu Kang Drive, other recreational...

Four industry bodies in Singapore have banded together to battle the current downturn. The Singapore Retailers Association, the Restaurant Association of Singapore, the Singapore Jewellers Association, and the Textile and Fashion Federation have pledged to share information and create a unified stance on matters common to their industries. In a joint statement, the four industry bodies say they have tied...

CapitaLand said its S$1.84 billion rights issue was 1.22 times oversubscribed. Southeast Asia's largest property developer first announced the fundraising exercise last month. It offered one rights share for every two existing shares at S$1.30 each. CapitaLand said its major shareholder Temasek Holdings took up its entire 40 per cent allotment of the rights shares. The rights shares are expected to be...

SINGAPORE Land Authority (SLA) deputy chief executive Vincent Hoong will become chief executive on May 1, the government said yesterday. Mr Hoong, 51, takes over from Lam Joon Khoi, who has been SLA's chief executive since May 1, 2005. Mr Lam, 50, will move to the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources as deputy secretary. An SLA statement yesterday said the statutory board initiated several...

The sale of private residential properties shot up more than tenfold in February to 1,323 units, compared to just 108 in January. Homebuyers thronged the showflats of mass-market projects like The Caspian in Boon Lay and The Alexis in Alexandra, and they propped up the property sales figures in February, accounting for more than 70 per cent of the units sold for the month. Property-watchers said those...

The manager of Singapore-listed Mapletree Logistics Trust said it currently has no plans for any equity fundraising exercise. In a filing to the Singapore Exchange, MapletreeLog sought to differentiate itself from its sister entity Mapletree Industrial Trust, or MIT. MIT said on Friday that it is deferring cash distributions to investors for at least two years because of stricter covenants by the...

Owner-occupiers of older condominiums and HDB properties are capitalising on affordable pricing to upgrade to new and larger apartments THE BEST TIME to buy property, says K S Quek, a 45-year-old businessman who runs an electronic equipment servicing company with his wife, “is during a downturn”. The Queks did just that in the last property slump when they bought their current home, a fourth-floor...