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Besides huge space, they also boast great views, private lifts and branded fittings

IF YOU have the odd $10 million or so lying around in ready cash, you might want to consider indulging in the luxury lifestyle that comes with a super luxurious penthouse.

Your own pool in the sky, private lift and roof-top terrace - these are the things that may come with a super penthouse.

SC Global’s 46-unit BLVD made the news recently when a super penthouse there was sold for $16 million to the fallen Japanese tycoon Yoshiaki Murakami.

That is enough for four to five high-end apartments of about 2,000 sq ft right in the heart of Orchard Road.

BLVD’s second super penthouse, said the developer, will be customised to the buyer’s preferences, and depending on his requirements, will be priced at a staggering $18 million to $20 million.

So what qualifies as a super penthouse? For one, they are huge at 7,029 sq ft each. Spread over three floors, they come with their own pool and roof-top terrace. Also, they are part of a sophisticated project that pays attention to the details that define luxury living.

There is no strict industry definition of a penthouse or super penthouse. Typically, it refers to an apartment located on the top floor of a building offering a luxury lifestyle and splendid views. Usually, it comes with exclusive features like a private lift and a roof-top terrace.

Hong Leong Holdings’ upcoming 85-unit Tate Residences will have two penthouses. One is spread over three floors and boasts an internal lift, apart from the expected private lift access. At 6,500 sq ft, it has six bedrooms and a 360 sq ft, 10m lap pool.

The other 6,000 sq ft two-storey penthouse has a similar-sized pool and five bedrooms.

‘What I would call a true penthouse should be about 5,000 sq ft or at the very least more than 3,000 sq ft and spread over two floors. And the living room has to come with a high ceiling,’ said property consultancy Chesterton International’s head of research and consultancy, Mr Colin Tan.

Indeed, the seven penthouses at the super-luxurious St Regis Residences - where all units come with private lift access - range from 5,000 to 7,200 sq ft.

Termed ’sky villas’, they have an upper roof deck with a 7.5m to 12m pool and a timber deck, as well as an entertainment area or extra bedrooms.

At SC Global’s 55-unit, four-storey The Ladyhill, which has 10 units left for sale, the thoughtful attention to many details is what gives it the super-luxury edge. Its agent said the developer spent around $60,000 to fit out each kitchen, which features a direct extraction system that sucks out cooking fumes.

The 4,000 sq ft penthouses may not be huge but the luxury lifestyle they offer is unmistakable - they come with a roof terrace, build-in Miele coffee maker, koi pond and a ceiling of up to 6m at the highest point. A typical condo unit has a ceiling height of 2.8m.

‘Usually, the really good super penthouses are for owner-occupiers while the rest may be for rent,’ said Mr Tan. The penthouses for rent may not be in the super luxurious category, but they do fetch much more than a typical unit.

Within a condo, penthouses can fetch rents of $10,000 to $15,000 a month, or almost double that of standard units, said Landseer Property Services director Marina Mendez.

Source : Sunday Times - 25 Jun 2006

CLSA tipped as strong contender, other bidders include Goldman and DB Real Estate

THE race for SIA Building at Robinson Road is hotting up with the price said to have crossed $1,100 per square foot (psf) of net lettable area (NLA), or $325 million, sources say.

At these levels, the net yield is understood to be under 4 per cent based on the property’s current rental stream.

But with the recovery in the office sector, bidders are clearly looking at the growth story. What the final price for 35-storey SIA Building will be remains to be seen, depending in part on how terms are negotiated, say industry observers.

Property market watchers tipped a CLSA fund as a strong contender for SIA Building. Others contesting for the property include the real-estate arm of Deutsche Bank, DB Real Estate, and a Goldman Sachs fund.

CLSA Merchant Bankers recently completed its purchase of the freehold HB Robinson on Robinson Road from Ho Bee for $80 million or about $870 psf of NLA, reflecting a gross yield of 2-plus per cent. A Goldman Sachs fund last year bought DBS Towers 1 and 2 in Shenton Way for $690 million.

CB Richard Ellis, which is handling the sale of SIA Building, declined to confirm the identity of the frontrunner or the price when contacted by BT yesterday.

An initial expressions of interest for the property - which stands on a site with a remaining lease of 87 years - closed in late April with 13 offers from local and foreign institutional investors.

Of these, seven were shortlisted and invited to take part in a private tender that closed on June 15.

The parties that have looked at the building at various stages of the bidding process are said to have included international names like GE Capital, Lehman Brothers and ING Real Estate Investment Management representing Germany’s Difa Deutsche Immobilien Fonds, which specialises in managing open-ended real estate funds.

Others include a property fund managed by Keppel Land’s Alpha Investment Partners as well as Real Estate Investment Trusts listed on Singapore Exchange, including CapitaCommercial Trust, Suntec Reit and Macquarie MEAG Prime Reit.

However, with the stock market rout that has sent up yields on Reits, the local Reits may have had to drop out of the race, property market watchers suggest.

SIA Building, completed nine years ago, has a total NLA of 295,640 sq ft. It is almost fully let.

Tenants include Rabobank, Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance and tyre maker Michelin.

Ground-floor tenants include OCBC and Stanchart. SIA itself occupies a couple of floors for the sales offices of Singapore Airlines and Silk Air.

The building has 31 floors of office space, some retail space and about 180 carparking spaces.

Source : Business Times - 24 Jun 2006

THE prices of lavish apartments here just keep heading skywards. This time, the hikes are being driven by foreign homebuyers, not speculators.

A report by property consultancy CB Richard Ellis showed that average prices for luxury condominium units here rose 7.7 per cent in the second quarter of this year, compared to the first quarter.

Contributing to the rise was the launch of the exclusive St Regis Residences in the Tanglin area. About 60 of its 173 units have been sold.

Billed as the last word in opulence, St Regis units sold so far have fetched more than $2,000 per sq ft (psf), with one buyer paying a never-seen-before $3,000 plus psf for an apartment.

This project helped lift the average price of freehold luxury properties to $1,670 psf in the second quarter, up from $1,550 in the first.

This is not the steepest spike in flash apartment prices, however.

CB Richard Ellis’ director of residential services, Mr Joseph Tan, said: ‘This quarter-on-quarter increase is still lower than the 11.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase in the third quarter of 2005.’ The Sail @ Marina Bay condominium was the catalyst back then.

Compared with the residential property boom from 1996 to 1997 that was fuelled by local and foreign speculators, foreign homebuyers are the key drivers of demand this time around, he said.

Demand for resale private apartments stayed strong in the second quarter with about 2,100 to 2,300 units sold.

At the same time, 1,800 to 2,000 new units were sold, of the 2,200 launched.

‘On the back of healthy gross domestic product growth, demand for new private homes is sustainable with the launch of several projects, and prices may continue to see an upside,’ the consultancy predicted.

Source : Straits Times - 22 Jun 2006

Such a trust could be S’pore’s third after those set up by Ascott and CDL

SINGAPORE could get its third real estate investment trust (Reit) with a hospitality theme after Far East Organization (FEO) expressed interest in floating its service apartments and possibly its hotels in a Reit.

FEO is Singapore’s largest owner-operator of service residences. Its chief operating officer of property sales, Mr Chia Boon Kuah, disclosed its proposal yesterday, though he said FEO has yet to finalise any such plan.

If it goes ahead, the Reit could be Singapore’s third hospitality Reit after Ascott Residence Trust and CDL Hospitality Trusts.

City Developments’ (CDL’s) hotel trust is expected to list next month, while Ascott Reit hit the local market in March.

Reits earn income from the rents of tenants at properties they own, while investors get regular payments similar to dividends.

FEO’s Reit could include its service apartments such as its top-grade 225-unit Orchard Parksuites behind Wisma Atria mall, 90-unit Regency House in Penang Road, 141-unit Far East Plaza and 78-unit Central Place in Hougang.

It could also include its hotels such as the landmark Fullerton Hotel, Orchard Parade Hotel, Albert Court Hotel and Golden Landmark Hotel.

With a portfolio of 900 service residence units in nine properties, FEO has a 25 per cent share of the growing market here.

Explaining the Reit possibility, Mr Chia said the service apartment and hotel markets are doing well. There is a ‘global vibrancy” here, given the upcoming integrated casino resorts, rising tourist arrivals and the rejuvenation of Orchard Road, he said.

‘The market is not only asking for more of the same product, but also those of higher standards,” said Mr Chia. ‘It’s whether operators will be doing more of their own or using Reit as an acquisition vehicle to grow the business.’

He said FEO’s latest service apartment project - the 205-unit Orchard Scotts Residences - will set new standards for the industry.

Targeted at ‘top-end expatriates”, it will welcome guests from July next year, he said.

As it is part of the Orchard Scotts residential development, it has access to all the facilities on the sprawling 263,000 sq ft grounds.

The service apartment block has two opulent dining rooms and fully fitted kitchens, where guests can hold private dinner parties, with food prepared by their personal chefs. The 205 units there range from 538 sq ft to 4,000 sq ft.

Singapore’s attractive investment policies, strong political climate, stable social environment and cosmopolitan feel contribute to making it a good place to invest, do business and live in, which augers well for the service residence sector, said Mr Chia.

In the past 18 months, there has been interest from global funds to buy its service apartment properties such as the entire Orchard Parksuites, he added. ‘But we see growth in the market.”

He said FEO is also eyeing Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. It already has a 150-unit service residence, Sri Tiara, in Kuala Lumpur. But its Reit’s initial portfolio would have local assets, which would not present currency risks, he said.

‘If FEO does the Reit in the near future, it will have to offer higher returns because the current market sentiment is poor,” said an industry source.

Some of FEO’s hotels are not as attractive as those in the CDL trust, which also means it may have to offer a yield above CDL’s 6.2 per cent to 6.4 per cent if it injects these into the Reit, he noted.

joyceteo@sph.com.sg

Property portfolio FAR East’s Reit could include its service apartments such as its 225-unit Orchard Parksuites behind Wisma Atria mall, 90-unit Regency House in Penang Road, 141-unit Far East Plaza and 78-unit Central Place in Hougang.

It could also include its hotels such as the landmark Fullerton Hotel, Orchard Parade Hotel, Albert Court Hotel and Golden Landmark Hotel.

With a portfolio of 900 service residence units in nine properties, FEO has a 25 per cent share of the growing market here.

Source : Straits Times - 22 Jun 2006

HOME buyers who want public transport close at hand should think about making tracks to new developments going up near the Lavender and Newton MRT stations.

Developer UOL Group is replacing Eng Cheong Tower at the junction of Crawford Street and North Bridge Road with a project that includes residential units and small office home office (Soho) spaces.

Called Southbank, the 99-year leasehold project near Lavender MRT station comprises a 40-storey tower with 197 residential units and a 20-storey block of 60 Soho units. There are also three penthouses of up to 4,155 sq ft.

It is being launched for sale on Saturday at an average price of $600 per sq ft (psf) for residential units and $750 psf for Soho units.

UOL sold 20 residential units during a preview for staff and business associates on Monday.

The target market is single, young professionals and working couples, as well as retirees as the units - one or three bedrooms - are relatively small at between 592 sq ft and 1,313 sq ft.

The target market is quite different for the high-end Orchard Scotts project near Newton MRT station, which Far East Organization will start selling next month.

But unlike a typical condo, buyers at the 99-year leasehold project will be able to enjoy the sort of luxurious hotel-style services Far East provides at its service apartments in the same project.

And like the service apartment residents, buyers will have access to a butler, a concierge and housekeeping services, for example.

They can also use the two dining rooms with kitchens for private parties.

Orchard Scotts, designed by the architectural firm Arguitectonica, has 180 residential units for sale from $1,400 psf.

They range in size from 1,500 sq ft to 4,000 sq ft and are in two blocks - one of 76 units and one of 104. The first 50 units go on sale on July 8. A third block offers 205 service apartments for lease.

About 75 per cent of the project’s 263,000 sq ft grounds is devoted to landscape and recreational facilities, including four swimming pools and a basketball court, said Far East’s chief operating officer of property sales, Mr Chia Boon Kuah.

Orchard Scotts was reportedly to have been launched as early as 1998 and then in late 2002 or early 2003.

Some units have been sold to foreign buyers, including those from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India and Russia.

Orchard Scotts was marketed in Hong Kong and Jakarta several months ago and is likely to be promoted overseas again, including in China, India and Malaysia.

Source : Business Times - 22 Jun 2006