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Agents ask buyers for blank cheques to get choice units

Apartments in City Developments’ newest condominium, One Shenton, are likely to go for between $1,500-$2,500 per square foot (psf) during its expected soft launch today, according to agents marketing the project.

One Shenton

Agents from Knight Frank and ERA are also asking interested parties for blank cheques and authorisation letters to help buyers secure choice units in the much-anticipated 99-year leasehold development on Shenton Way, in the heart of the financial district.

The cheques are to be made out to a United Overseas Bank account, which the agents say is under CityDev’s name.

Apartment prices in the 341-unit development are expected to be in the $1,500-$2,500 psf range, at least for starters. Prices could go up as the days pass as with the nearby Marina Bay Residences (MBR), where prices were raised each subsequent day during the soft launch, one agent says.

While it is widely expected that CityDev will start selling the project today, some agents believe that the soft launch could start tomorrow instead, with today reserved for investors looking to pick up whole floors.

It is also not clear if CityDev will be releasing all units in the project over this coming weekend, although it might do so if buyer interest is strong, an agent from ERA says.

For now, agents are collecting cheques and authorisation letters so that they can stand in line - with some promising to do so overnight if need be - in lieu of potential buyers. Once apartments are offered to them, the agents will then call their clients, who can then make a decision on whether to go ahead with the purchase, allowing the agents to seal the deal on the spot.

One Shenton consists of two towers - one 50-storey and the other 42. There will be a mix of studio, and two, three and four-bedroom apartments, as well as ’sky suites’ and ’sky villas’. Sizes range from 520 to 9,600 square feet. The car park is on the first seven storeys; residential units begin from the eight floor.

CityDev is expected to benefit from high prices seen in the recent launch of MBR, where a unit fetched a record $3,400 psf. However, units at One Shenton are expected to be priced below those at MBR, agents say.

Source : Business Times - 5 Jan 2007

SINGAPORE - The head of City Developments, South-east Asia’s second-largest developer, said on Friday that foreign investment would help drive up Singapore’s property prices by as much as 20 per cent this year.

‘There is a lot of liquidity in the world chasing too few good assets. What do these foreign funds do? They have to find different assets and Singapore is a top investment city,’ Kwek Leng Beng, executive chairman of City Developments (CityDev), told reporters at a residential property launch.

Mr Kwek said prices for luxury private homes could rise between 10 per cent and 20 per cent this year, while mid-priced private properties could see an increase of 6 per cent to 10 per cent.

The property tycoon, who was ranked Singapore’s second-richest person by Forbes magazine in 2005, said his latest residential project, a twin-tower development in Singapore’s commercial district, had drawn strong interest from investors. He said he had turned down two foreign investment funds which had wanted to buy the entire residential development even before its Friday launch.

The funds offered CityDev an average $1,692 per square foot for the 40- and 50-storey project, which has a total area of 420,000 square feet, but he said he preferred to sell the apartments to individuals at $1,500-$2,000 per square foot.

Singapore’s property sector recovery gained momentum after the government introduced measures in July 2005 to ease real estate financing rules and foreign investment. Private home prices rose 10 per cent last year, with a few luxury properties in prime districts selling at prices last seen before the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. But resale prices for public housing flats, where 83 per cent of Singaporeans live, have remained flat. — REUTERS

Source : Business Times - 5 Jan 2007

THE owners of The Albany in Thomson Road have put their estate back on the market after a failed collective sale attempt last year - and they are now asking a higher price.

They are hoping to fetch between $62 million and $68 million for the freehold development, up from its $60 million to $65 million price tag when it was launched for sale last April.

Located near Thomson Medical Centre, The Albany has 47 units and sits on a 41,688 sq ft site with a plot ratio of 2.8.

Its owners appear to be riding on the launch later this year of Singapore Press Holdings’ 43-storey upmarket condominium, sited just across the Pan-Island Expressway.

A new development of up to 36 storeys can be built on the Albany site, with about 135 units of 1,100 sq ft each, said Ms Yong Choon Fah, director of Credo Real Estate, which is marketing the estate.

The site’s buyer can also add to the Albany site a plot of adjoining state land of 12,000 to 13,000 sq ft.

Including the estimated development charge and state land premium of about $6 million, the indicative price of The Albany works out to between $436 and $475 per sq ft (psf) of total gross floor area.

This translates into a break-even cost of about $730 to $775 psf of saleable floor area, said Ms Yong.

Source : Straits Times - 4 Jan 2007

PRIVATE home prices surged nearly 10 per cent last year, in their fastest annual rate of increase in seven years.

HDB resale flats, which have generally been underperforming private homes, also staged a modest price rebound in the same period.

The latest figures, from the Urban Redevelopment Authority, show that for the October to December period last year, the prices of private homes rose an estimated 3.7 per cent.

That was the biggest quarterly rise since the last property market peak in 1999.

HDB resale prices paint a more modest picture. Prices inched up 0.9 per cent in the last quarter, reversing a slight decline the previous quarter. The overall 2006 rise for HDB resale prices was 1.6 per cent, the HDB said.

Market watchers say that while the HDB market will remain stable, private home prices are expected to accelerate further.

In fact, property consultants say the final yearly price figures for private homes - which will be released towards the end of this month - will be even higher.

This is because the latest quarterly estimate is unlikely to have included recent hot projects such as Grand Duchess, The Ford @ Holland and Marina Bay Residences, they said.

All three condos were sold out within days at the end of last year, with Marina Bay Residences in particular setting new all-time price highs.

When these projects are taken into account, the price increase in private homes is expected to be 4 per cent for the last quarter, said Ms Tay Huey Ying, director of research and consultancy at Colliers International.

She added that the price jump in the last quarter is ‘hardly surprising in view of the buoyant high-end market’.

Luxury homes clearly led the private residential market last year. Average prices were up 9.8 per cent in the last quarter and 35 per cent for the year, said Ms Tay.

For this year, she expects luxury home prices to climb by a further 12 to 18 per cent.

As for private homes as a whole, most property consultants expect the rise in prices this year to at least keep pace with last year’s.

Ms Tay expects ’slightly higher growth in the region of 12 per cent’, while Mr Ku Swee Yong, director of director of marketing and business development at Savills Singapore, says prices could rise as much as 20 per cent.

He said that the expected rise of mass market homes and the continued influx of expats will support price and rental gains this year.

But Mr Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank, noted that the performance of the mass market - traditionally the backbone of the Singapore private home market - will depend on the strength of HDB resale prices.

He expects ‘another year of modest price growth of about 3 to 6 per cent’ in the HDB market, due to expected slower economic growth.

HDB resale prices will ’stay relatively flat’ also because there is an abundant supply of resale flats, added Mr Eugene Lim, assistant vice-president of ERA Real Estate.

But he noted that transactions of larger five-room and executive HDB flats went up last quarter, indicating the re-emergence of the upgrading trend.

This in turn should boost demand for the entry-level condos that make up the mass market and support the price rise, said Mr Chris Koh, director of Dennis Wee Properties.

Source : Straits Times - 4 Jan 2007

KEPPEL Group hopes to launch Reflections at Keppel Bay, its new waterfront project, soon at prices at least 25 per cent above those achieved at the next-door Caribbean at Keppel Bay.

The director of Keppel Land’s Singapore residential arm, Mr Augustine Tan, said yesterday that the 1,160-unit development could cost between $1,500 and $2,000 per sq ft (psf). About 200 units will be launched in March or April, he said.

The 969-unit Caribbean was launched at about $800 psf in 2000, with prices reaching a high of $1,200 psf last year.

‘There are now more amenities in the area, clear plans for Sentosa and VivoCity is nearby so prices there would be higher, at possibly up to $1,500 psf,’ said a market source.

Reflections at Keppel Bay is designed by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind and features six undulating glass towers of 41 storeys and 24 storeys, as well as 11 blocks of six- to eight-storey villa apartments.

These ‘beacons of light’ and the ‘necklace of pearl-like buildings’ will act as the residential gateway to the bay, said Mr Libeskind.

The development - his first residential one in Asia - boasts a 100,000 sq ft pool, a 12,900 sq ft, three-storey penthouse on the 41st floor and 34 smaller penthouses. The 99-year leasehold condo, to be completed in 2011, offers mostly two- to three-bedroom units.

Mr Libeskind is in Singapore to unveil the project and attend the opening of a Singapore Art Museum exhibition of some of his most celebrated works.

Other developers are also hoping to push out their projects in a rising market.

Developer TG has released its SkyPark @ Somerset, which has 29 duplex units - or what it calls bungalows in the sky - in St Thomas Walk near the Orchard area. The units are large - starting from slightly over 3,000 sq ft for a three-bedroom unit - with prices heard to be about $1,600 psf. Nearly half have apparently already been sold to Indonesian and Hong Kong buyers.

Next up for sale is another city-living project - One Shenton by City Developments. A mass-market project Blossoms @ Woodleigh by Allgreen Properties will also be launched this weekend at $650 psf.

Source : Business Times - 4 Jan 2007