SGHOUSING.COM 新加坡房地产网

But number is down for mortgagee properties put on the block

THE value of properties sold at auctions in the first quarter of this year hit $70.12 million, up more than 80 per cent from the preceding quarter and from the same period last year, the latest figures from Colliers International show.

The Q1 figure was buoyed by investment sales like a serviced apartment block in Tiong Bahru, sold for $10.2 million, and an industrial site at 8 Tagore Drive, which changed hands for $14.88 million.

There was also strong interest in landed property and apartments in prime districts.

Probably the best examples were bungalows at 49A Binjai Park and 97 Paya Lebar Crescent, once owned by former Citiraya CEO Ng Teck Lee and sold at auctions for $12.55 million and $3.08 million.

While these high-profile properties were put up for auction after they were repossessed by banks that had extended loans to Mr Ng, there was an overall decline in the number of mortgagee properties put up for auction in Q1.

The figure was 391, representing a decrease of 15 per cent from the preceding quarter and 39 per cent from the year-ago period.

Colliers International auctioneer and executive director Grace Ng attributes the sharp drop in the number of mortgagee properties going under the hammer to the current positive climate in the property market. ‘Nowadays, banks and financial institutions will advise property owners who have difficulty servicing their loans to try and dispose of the properties of their own accord instead of repossessing them quickly,’ she said.

In fact, the number of repossessed properties put up for auction by banks and financial institutions has been declining steadily since the start of last year - for the first time since the Asian Financial Crisis.

The figure for the whole of last year was 2,316, down 6 per cent from 2004.

This ties in with the common industry view that Singapore is now probably experiencing its first sustained recovery since the market peaked in 1996. In contrast to mortgagee sales, the number of properties offered by owners at auctions rose 63 per cent in Q1 this year from Q1 2005.

Source : Business Times - 31 Mar 2006

Last year, he snapped up 22 units at The Sail

Singapore businessman Sudhir Gupta, of Russian tyre maker Amtel, continues to invest in luxury homes. Yesterday, he snapped up a Good Class Bungalow at 49A Binjai Park for $12.55 million at a Colliers International auction.

The freehold property was previously owned by the former CEO of troubled electronic waste recycler Citiraya, Ng Teck Lee, who never got to live in it. Mr Ng’s present whereabouts are unknown.

Dr Gupta bid for the property yesterday through his brother Sumeer, who later told BT that Dr Gupta and his family intend to move in after renovating it. They now live in Belmont Road, but in a smaller property on about 21,000 sq ft of land, versus the Binjai Park bungalow’s 34,600 sq ft plot.

Late last year, Dr Gupta snapped up 22 apartments, including the 63rd-storey penthouse, in the second tower of The Sail @ Marina Bay condo for a total $31 million.

He owns a unit at Ardmore Park and a unit at The Ladyhill - both of which are being rented out. He has also bought a ’sky villa’ at Ho Bee’s The Berth by The Cove on Sentosa. And he owns an apartment at Meyer Park, which is also rented out.

He is on the lookout for more luxury residential properties in Singapore - if there are good projects. ‘He is buying for long-term investment,’ his brother said.

The Binjai Park bungalow is a two-storey house with basement, boasting eight bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, an entertainment room, a games room, two maids’ rooms, a garage and a swimming pool.

The property was sold by a mortgagee bank, said to be HSBC. It is about 10 years old. Mr Ng bought it in July 2004 for $9 million but never lived in it. He fled Singapore as Citiraya was hit by a scandal involving millions of dollars in bribes and a scam to re-sell obsolete electronics equipment that was meant to be destroyed. Dr Gupta, a Singapore citizen who was born in New Delhi and educated in Moscow, has been boosting his Singapore property portfolio after his wife and daughter moved to Singapore in 2002 - following a failed assassination attempt on him in Moscow.

He was celebrating his 44th birthday in a restaurant when contract killers opened fire at his car and killed his driver.

Source : Business Times - 30 Mar 2006

The winners are SCDA’s The Ladyhill and WOHA’s The Met condominiums

SINGAPORE architectural firms are gaining international recognition, with SCDA Architects and WOHA leading the way.

SCDA’s The Ladyhill, a high-end condominium developed by SC Global and GuocoLand, has won the Gold Medal in the multi-family residential category of the Miami + Beach Biennal 2005 International Competition.

Typical of SCDA’s work, The Ladyhill is characterised by lush gardens, watercourts and airwells which engage nature.

SC Global’s chairman and CEO Simon Cheong says: ‘We believe this is a significant achievement in the global contest for recognition, with local talent being acclaimed alongside some of the world’s luminaries.’

Another SC Global residential project - The Lincoln Modern, also designed by SCDA - won the Royal Institute of British Architects Worldwide Award last year.

WOHA’s The Met, developed by Hotel Properties in Thailand, has won the Architectural Review MIPIM future project awards. MIPIM is an international real estate event. The Met, a high-rise condominium in Bangkok, explores how aspects of low-rise tropical housing can be applied to create indoor-outdoor spaces in the sky. WOHA has received accolades in the past, including ARCAsia awards, Fiabci Prix d’Excellence and the Architectural Review Awards 2005.

On its latest win, WOHA director Wong Mun Summ says: ‘International recognition has brought us international and enlightened clients . . . ones that look for good architecture. We are currently doing work in Australia, Japan and Bali.’

He added: ‘Most of our ideas are applicable to Singapore’s context but will require a more daring developer who will not necessarily always want to maximise efficiency and gross floor area.’

Mr Wong says that it currently has 50 projects in the region worth over $500 million. In Singapore, WOHA is working on NOMU, a mixed development next to Cathay Building for the Sin Heng Chan Group.

Source : Business Times - 30 Mar 2006

ANOTHER collective sale has hit the market, but this time with a twist: the owners are happy to forgo the cash in exchange for units in the posh project that will go up.

But developers can also opt to pay cash for the freehold Pinetree Condominium, which is asking close to $59 million or about $888 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr).

The 50 owners of the condominium along Balmoral Park are offering the unit exchange following a similar deal at Paterson Lodge, where 20 owners ‘traded in’ their units for apartments in the new project.

If a developer acquires Pinetree under the exchange scheme, it will have to pay only for the new condominium’s construction costs. It will not incur land costs and the site does not require a development charge.

The developer makes his profit by building more - and pricier - units than on the existing site.

But the exchange trend is unlikely to become popular given the logistical difficulties, said Mr Foo Suan Peng, executive director at property consultancy Knight Frank.

‘First, this requires consent from all the owners, and not just the 80 per cent minimum in normal en bloc sales. So the chances of it being replicated in other estates would be higher if the number of owners is small. A manageable size would be about 20 to 30 units,’ he said.

Although Pinetree has more than double the units of Paterson Lodge, most owners have backed a sale or exchange, said Mr Lui Seng Fatt, regional director and head of investments at Jones Lang LaSalle, which is marketing the site.

A developer can build about 60 units with an average area of 1,100 sq ft each on the 41,361 sq ft plot, which has a 12-storey height restriction. It can also expand the site by acquiring four adjacent houses, which can be demolished to build 10 units.

If the collective exchange goes through, Pinetree owners stand to double the value of their apartments on a psf basis. Each unit is worth about $700 psf on the market, while the new units will fetch about $1,400 psf, said Mr Lui.

But these new units will mostly be smaller than the current Pinetree apartments, which range from 1,163 sq ft to 1,873 sq ft.

Source : Straits Times - 30 Mar 2006

DEVELOPERS or even large families and groups of friends are being offered a rare chance to buy into an area touted as Singapore’s most prestigious.

The Nassim Road apartment block, currently being redeveloped, is expected to sell for more than $30 million. It is being sold in one go, not as separate units.

Nassim Gardens, a three-storey block comprising 10 apartments with a swimming pool, is being put up for tender by a private investor.

Property consultant Credo Real Estate has been appointed to market the site. ‘Nassim Road is easily the most coveted residential address in Singapore,’ said Mr Karamjit Singh, executive director of Credo Real Estate.

‘Anyone in the society’s super league would know it, which is why in our press advertisements, we do not bother showing its location map!’ he quipped.

The block is made up of two- and three-bedroom apartments with sizes ranging from 125 sq m to 182 sq m.

The property along Nassim Road has a total land area of about 45,000 sq ft, and is expected to sell for over $30 million, which works out to $666 to $711 per sq ft (psf).

In August 2003, a bungalow plot at Nassim Road was sold for as high as $647 psf.

The current owner left the refurbishment work on the apartments incomplete about a year ago, but has now decided to sell it as market sentiment is picking up, said Mr Singh.

As the apartment block is located in a Good Class Bungalow (GCB) neighbourhood, the buyer can either refurbish the block or redevelop the site by building GCBs.

If the buyer chooses to complete the refurbishment work, the cost would be $2 million to $3 million and the total strata area would be about 19,000 sq ft, said Mr Singh.

‘On this basis, even a developer would find this project a very lucrative proposition, given that the high-end residential market is expected to surpass past record levels,’ he said.

After the apartments are refurbished, the new owners may be able to sell them for between $2,100 and $2,200 psf, he added.

Indeed, the sale is expected to better the performance of recent successful tenders for prime redevelopment sites at Eng Lok Mansion at Napier Road and Angullia Mansion at Angullia Park. Angullia Mansion, for instance, was sold last month to Far East Organization, for about $1,060 psf per plot ratio including the development charge.

Mr Singh expects interested buyers to be foreigners or large families and individuals who may team up to bid for the whole block.

The tender for Nassim Gardens closes at 3pm on April 28.

Source : Straits Times - 20 Mar 2006