Sales process will be tweaked
HDB is studying refinements to weed out non-serious applicants
Wednesday • April 9, 2008
Letter from Kee Lay Cheng
Deputy Director (Marketing and Projects) for Director (Estate Administration and Property)
Housing and Development Board
I refer to the letters from Samuel Lee, "Oh, that elusive HDB flat" (March 28), and from Kalista Nisha, "Different families, different needs" (March 31).
We would like to clarify that the $10 fee payable for HDB sales exercises is to cover part of the Housing and Development Board's (HDB) administrative cost in processing the applications. We agree with Kalista Nisha that the fee should be kept affordable.
While HDB has no intention of raising the fee, it is currently studying refinements to the sales process to weed out non-serious applicants or what Samuel Lee described as "people who apply just for fun".
Samuel Lee suggested that HDB implement pricing guidelines for future Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) and Executive Condominium (EC) projects to ensure that the units are affordable. We would like to point out that in pricing DBSS and EC flats, the private developers would have taken the income ceiling criteria into account.
Only households earning up to $8,000 and $10,000 respectively are eligible to purchase new DBSS and EC units. Therefore, if private developers were to price their DBSS and EC units beyond the affordability of the target buyers, they risk not being able to sell these units.
HDB remains committed to keep public housing affordable to the vast majority of Singaporeans. Build-To-Order (BTO) flats sold by HDB will continue to be the mainstay of new flat supply. The DBSS was introduced as a niche scheme to cater to flat buyers who are prepared to pay more for a wider choice of flat features.
We would also like to clarify that DBSS flats are part of the overall public housing programme. Unlike ECs, DBSS developments will not be privatised after 10 years.
With regard to the Simei site for DBSS development, we are pleased to inform Samuel Lee that it has been released for tender on April 8. The tender launch was slightly delayed as more time than anticipated was needed to complete the necessary preparations.
Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd.
Singapore Real Estate and Property updates
EastLiving.com.sg
Contact Stuart Chng: (65) 9691 9907
Email: stuart.chng@eastliving.com.sg
EastLiving - Singapore Property and Real Estate DB
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Amber Glades on the block again, at $18m discount
Amber Glades on the block again, at $18m discount
Wednesday • April 9, 2008
A day after the Royalville site off Sixth Avenue was relaunched at a much lower price, another en bloc site has been put back on the market at a significant discount from the heady prices its sellers were asking for less than six months ago.
The Amber Glades site on the East Coast is being relaunched today at an indicative price of $127 million, more than 12 per cent lower than the asking price of $145 million when it was first launched last October, according to its marketing agent Colliers International.
"Including an estimated development charge of $3.5 million, the price will work out to some $1,140 per sq ft per plot ratio," said Mr Ho Eng Joo, executive director of investment sales at Colliers.
The 40,917 sq ft freehold residential site has a plot ratio of 2.8. Amber Glades, comprising two 10-storey residential blocks with a total of 63 units, currently stands on the land.
The site can be re-developed to accommodate a residential development comprising 88 units of 1,300 sq ft each, Colliers said.
Amenities can be found at the nearby Parkway Parade, Katong Shopping Centre and East Coast Park, while access to other parts of the island is available via East Coast Parkway and the new Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway.
Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd. All rights reserved.
Singapore Real Estate and Property updates
EastLiving.com.sg
Contact Stuart Chng: (65) 9691 9907
Email: stuart.chng@eastliving.com.sg
EastLiving - Singapore Property and Real Estate DB
Wednesday • April 9, 2008
A day after the Royalville site off Sixth Avenue was relaunched at a much lower price, another en bloc site has been put back on the market at a significant discount from the heady prices its sellers were asking for less than six months ago.
The Amber Glades site on the East Coast is being relaunched today at an indicative price of $127 million, more than 12 per cent lower than the asking price of $145 million when it was first launched last October, according to its marketing agent Colliers International.
"Including an estimated development charge of $3.5 million, the price will work out to some $1,140 per sq ft per plot ratio," said Mr Ho Eng Joo, executive director of investment sales at Colliers.
The 40,917 sq ft freehold residential site has a plot ratio of 2.8. Amber Glades, comprising two 10-storey residential blocks with a total of 63 units, currently stands on the land.
The site can be re-developed to accommodate a residential development comprising 88 units of 1,300 sq ft each, Colliers said.
Amenities can be found at the nearby Parkway Parade, Katong Shopping Centre and East Coast Park, while access to other parts of the island is available via East Coast Parkway and the new Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway.
Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd. All rights reserved.
Singapore Real Estate and Property updates
EastLiving.com.sg
Contact Stuart Chng: (65) 9691 9907
Email: stuart.chng@eastliving.com.sg
EastLiving - Singapore Property and Real Estate DB
Greenspan: US home prices may stabilise this year
Greenspan: US home prices may stabilise this year
Wednesday • April 9, 2008
— Bloomberg
Former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the drop in American home prices will probably end "well before" early next year as the number of houses on the market diminishes, aiding an economic rebound.
"It will not be until early 2009 that we will be close to having eliminated most of this home inventory," Mr Greenspan said yesterday. "But it is very likely that home prices will stabilise well before that."
Mr Greenspan said the health of the United States housing market is tied to broader financial markets that rely on bundling mortgages to sell as securities.
His successor, Mr Ben Bernanke, and other Fed officials highlighted declining home prices as a major economic risk that may hurt household wealth and consumer spending.
"Once the markets start to stabilise, especially if the real economies don't go into a severe recession we can expect a recovery to begin to take place," Mr Greenspan, 82, said.
Mr Greenspan described the current credit crisis as the worst in at least 50 years, adding that the extent of damage stemming from the collapse of the sub-prime market would not be known for months.
"Have we reached a point where prices are stable? We cannot know that for a couple of months," he said. "It looks as though we're going to get a very large rate of liquidation, but not until the second half of this year."
Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd.
Singapore Real Estate and Property updates
EastLiving.com.sg
Contact Stuart Chng: (65) 9691 9907
Email: stuart.chng@eastliving.com.sg
EastLiving - Singapore Property and Real Estate DB
Wednesday • April 9, 2008
— Bloomberg
Former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the drop in American home prices will probably end "well before" early next year as the number of houses on the market diminishes, aiding an economic rebound.
"It will not be until early 2009 that we will be close to having eliminated most of this home inventory," Mr Greenspan said yesterday. "But it is very likely that home prices will stabilise well before that."
Mr Greenspan said the health of the United States housing market is tied to broader financial markets that rely on bundling mortgages to sell as securities.
His successor, Mr Ben Bernanke, and other Fed officials highlighted declining home prices as a major economic risk that may hurt household wealth and consumer spending.
"Once the markets start to stabilise, especially if the real economies don't go into a severe recession we can expect a recovery to begin to take place," Mr Greenspan, 82, said.
Mr Greenspan described the current credit crisis as the worst in at least 50 years, adding that the extent of damage stemming from the collapse of the sub-prime market would not be known for months.
"Have we reached a point where prices are stable? We cannot know that for a couple of months," he said. "It looks as though we're going to get a very large rate of liquidation, but not until the second half of this year."
Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd.
Singapore Real Estate and Property updates
EastLiving.com.sg
Contact Stuart Chng: (65) 9691 9907
Email: stuart.chng@eastliving.com.sg
EastLiving - Singapore Property and Real Estate DB
Villas at this farm resort
Villas at this farm resort
Wednesday • April 9, 2008
Cheryl Lim
cheryllim@mediacorp.com.sg
— Channel NewsAsia
LIM Chu Kang looks all set for a change if the Singapore Land Authority's plans work out for its first "agri-tainment" resort.
Developers of the farm resort hope to offer visitors a more unconventional experience when it opens its doors this August. Visitors will be able to find out how crops such as corn and coffee are grown and may even get to harvest their own vegetables.
In addition, the 5-hectare site — the equivalent of six football fields — will have 21 villas and a nearby spa, which each villa commanding up to $200 a night.
HLH Agri International is paying $880,000 for a 20-year lease, which it admits is "cheap". It plans to sub-lease 21 plots to entrepreneurs and charge 10 per cent of their total earnings in management fees.
Dr Tan Siang Hee, chief executive officer of HLH Agri International, said: "We're going to create the opportunity for people to have a storefront. They can be planting somewhere else and bringing in the product. Or, in another sense, they could be planting within the 700 square metres that we give them as a demonstration port."
Each operator will be given a two-year permit that will be renewable subject to his or her overall performance. They will also have to submit a business plan specifying the crop type they will be planting.
Nearby farm owners said they did not feel threatened by the new venture and expect it to help renew interest in the industry.
Developers are aiming to draw 500,000 local and foreign visitors a year, with plans to increase that number to 650,000 by 2012.
Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd.
Singapore Real Estate and Property updates
EastLiving.com.sg
Contact Stuart Chng: (65) 9691 9907
Email: stuart.chng@eastliving.com.sg
EastLiving - Singapore Property and Real Estate DB
Wednesday • April 9, 2008
Cheryl Lim
cheryllim@mediacorp.com.sg
— Channel NewsAsia
LIM Chu Kang looks all set for a change if the Singapore Land Authority's plans work out for its first "agri-tainment" resort.
Developers of the farm resort hope to offer visitors a more unconventional experience when it opens its doors this August. Visitors will be able to find out how crops such as corn and coffee are grown and may even get to harvest their own vegetables.
In addition, the 5-hectare site — the equivalent of six football fields — will have 21 villas and a nearby spa, which each villa commanding up to $200 a night.
HLH Agri International is paying $880,000 for a 20-year lease, which it admits is "cheap". It plans to sub-lease 21 plots to entrepreneurs and charge 10 per cent of their total earnings in management fees.
Dr Tan Siang Hee, chief executive officer of HLH Agri International, said: "We're going to create the opportunity for people to have a storefront. They can be planting somewhere else and bringing in the product. Or, in another sense, they could be planting within the 700 square metres that we give them as a demonstration port."
Each operator will be given a two-year permit that will be renewable subject to his or her overall performance. They will also have to submit a business plan specifying the crop type they will be planting.
Nearby farm owners said they did not feel threatened by the new venture and expect it to help renew interest in the industry.
Developers are aiming to draw 500,000 local and foreign visitors a year, with plans to increase that number to 650,000 by 2012.
Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd.
Singapore Real Estate and Property updates
EastLiving.com.sg
Contact Stuart Chng: (65) 9691 9907
Email: stuart.chng@eastliving.com.sg
EastLiving - Singapore Property and Real Estate DB
Confirmed: Tulip Garden's en bloc sale to Bravo rescinded
Business Times - 09 Apr 2008
Confirmed: Tulip Garden's en bloc sale to Bravo rescinded
IT'S official. Tulip Garden's owners have rescinded the $516 million en bloc sale of the estate to a unit of Bravo Building Construction.
Lee & Lee partner Ow Yong Thian Soo, representing Tulip Garden owners, confirmed that the firm yesterday sent a notice of rescission of the sale- and-purchase agreement for Tulip Garden to Bravo's lawyers. 'We also informed them that the sellers will be forfeiting the 5 per cent of the transaction price paid to them so far. And our clients reserve all rights,' he said.
The notice of rescission was sent to Bravo after it failed to pay the second 5 per cent instalment by the deadline on April 7. Bravo had requested another extension of this deadline to June 7, as well as to extend the completion date of the transaction (which is when it would have had to pay up the remaining 90 per cent of the purchase price) from May 28 to Aug 7. Tulip Garden owners met over the weekend and most indicated they wanted to cancel the sale if Bravo missed the payment deadline on April 7.
Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.
Singapore Real Estate and Property updates
EastLiving.com.sg
Contact Stuart Chng: (65) 9691 9907
Email: stuart.chng@eastliving.com.sg
EastLiving - Singapore Property and Real Estate DB
Confirmed: Tulip Garden's en bloc sale to Bravo rescinded
IT'S official. Tulip Garden's owners have rescinded the $516 million en bloc sale of the estate to a unit of Bravo Building Construction.
Lee & Lee partner Ow Yong Thian Soo, representing Tulip Garden owners, confirmed that the firm yesterday sent a notice of rescission of the sale- and-purchase agreement for Tulip Garden to Bravo's lawyers. 'We also informed them that the sellers will be forfeiting the 5 per cent of the transaction price paid to them so far. And our clients reserve all rights,' he said.
The notice of rescission was sent to Bravo after it failed to pay the second 5 per cent instalment by the deadline on April 7. Bravo had requested another extension of this deadline to June 7, as well as to extend the completion date of the transaction (which is when it would have had to pay up the remaining 90 per cent of the purchase price) from May 28 to Aug 7. Tulip Garden owners met over the weekend and most indicated they wanted to cancel the sale if Bravo missed the payment deadline on April 7.
Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.
Singapore Real Estate and Property updates
EastLiving.com.sg
Contact Stuart Chng: (65) 9691 9907
Email: stuart.chng@eastliving.com.sg
EastLiving - Singapore Property and Real Estate DB
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