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The bid by minority owners of Waterfront View to stop the Bedok estate from being sold en bloc failed in the High Court yesterday.

The owners Yeo Loo Keng and his wife opposed the sale saying they will suffer financial losses to their CPF accounts, because the net proceeds are insufficient to fully repay the outstanding bank loan and fully return CPF monies with drawn to buy the property.

The couple bought their apartment 12 years ago for $515,000 and will be paid about $660,400 from the sale but argued that that was not enough. They said they have to pay off a bank loan of $342,844 plus CPF principal amount and interest of $407,599, which makes a total of $750,443.

However, the Strata Titles Board (STB) ruled in a landmark decision in February that the principal amount withdrawn from CPF accounts and the accrued interest cannot be taken into account when determining whether a financial loss has been suffered by owners involved in such a sale.

Justice Belinda Ang yesterday dismissed the minority owners’ appeal with costs and upheld the STB’s decision, noting the CPF Board had said the couple will not need to make up for the shortfall if the net proceeds of the sale, after repaying the bank loan, are less than the amount they owe the CPF. The former HUDC estate was sold for $385 million last May.

On whether the Yeos will lodge an appeal, their lawyer Leong Yung Chang from Veritas Law Corp told BT they are ’still looking’ at whether they have ‘further avenue for appeal’.

Source : Business Times - 28 Apr 2007

GUOCOLAND yesterday said it has bought Leedon Heights for $835 million in what is thought to be the largest ever lump sum paid for a collective sale site here.

The price works out to about $1,062 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), including a development charge of about $40.2 million. Leedon Heights, in District 10, is located off Holland Road and Farrer Road.

The purchase will be the fourth major land acquisition in the last 12 months for GuocoLand, a Singapore-based developer controlled by Malaysian billionaire Quek Leng Chan. Leedon Heights will add about 825,000 sq ft to the group’s existing land bank of one million sq ft of gross floor area.

The developer said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange that the purchase, which will close in mid-2008, will be funded by debt and internal resources.

Tang Wei Leng, director of investment advisory services at property firm DTZ which brokered the deal, said that the site drew strong interest. There were five bids and one expression of interest in all - including from major Singaporean developers such as CapitaLand, City Developments, SC Global and Ho Bee Investment, she said.

The price paid by GuocoLand is slightly higher than that previously indicated by DTZ when it was first put up for sale. In March, when the site was first launched, DTZ estimated that could fetch its owners $780 million.

Including an estimated development charge (DC) of $40.2 million, the suggested price works out to $981 psf ppr.

The site has a land area of about 522,000 sq ft and a 1.6 plot ratio. When launching the tender, DTZ said that provisional permission has been granted for a 12-storey condominium with 384 residential units.

Said GuocoLand yesterday: ‘Given the locale - it is well-established with Singaporeans and foreigners alike - GuocoLand is confident of drawing strong interest from premium buyers from Singapore, the region and internationally.’

Data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority released yesterday showed that home prices grew a robust 4.8 per cent in the first quarter of the year, higher than the 3.8 per cent increase seen in the previous quarter. The hike was led by uncompleted projects in the Core Central Region (which includes Districts 10), where prices rose 7.3 per cent.

Right now, Leedon Heights consists of four blocks with a total of 314 units. Owners will walk away from the collective sale with upwards of $2.4 million each, Ms Tang said.

GuocoLand’s shares climbed 20 cents to close at a one-year high of $5.40 yesterday. The stock has climbed 108.5 per cent since the start of the year, compared with a 13.8 per cent rise in the benchmark Straits Times Index.

Source : Business Times - 28 Apr 2007

The couple opposing the collective sale of the Bedok condominium Waterfront View yesterday lost their appeal in the High Court.

Mr Yeo Loo Keng and his wife Cheryl Lim, the only owners in the 583-unit former HUDC estate still holding out against the sale, had argued that they stood to make a loss of about $90,000 in their Central Provident Fund accounts if the sale went through.

This argument was rejected by the Strata Titles Board (STB) in February, in a landmark ruling. It was the first time the STB had to decide if CPF money can be considered a financial loss in the sale of homes.

High Court judge Belinda Ang yesterday upheld that decision, noting that Mr Yeo, a 43-year-old businessman, and Madam Lim, 40, would still be able to redeem their existing mortgage with the money from the collective sale.

The shortfall in their CPF accounts cannot be considered a deductible expense.

The couple, who bought their 14th-floor, 1,711 sq ft apartment about 12 years ago for $515,000, stand to be paid about $660,000 from the sale.

But they say they will make a loss of $88,340.37 - a part of their CPF principal amounts and the interest accrued to their CPF accounts - after redeeming their outstanding mortgage.

The CPF Board has said they need not make good on that shortfall.

Waterfront View’s sales committee member Kevin Tan said the High Court ruling made it clear what can or cannot be accounted for in a collective sale.

‘You prevent a situation where you end up compensating someone because you don’t know what the situation is,’ he said.

Dr Tan estimated that about 300 Waterfront View owners had already bought new homes, while at least 150 have moved out of the estate.

Waterfront View was sold for $385 million last May to FCL Peak, a joint venture between Frasers Centrepoint and Far East Organization.

A disappointed Mr Yeo told The Straits Times yesterday that he was now going to start looking for a new home.

‘Who is to say that the next place that we buy may not be sold en bloc and we may be hit again? I would have to think hard about buying another place in Singapore,’ he said.

Source : Straits Times - 28 Apr 2007

An Ageing condominium in the prime Holland Road area has just smashed the record for the largest collective sale in Singapore.

Leedon Heights fetched a whopping $835 million from developer GuocoLand, making it the most expensive estate to be successfully sold en bloc.

The price far surpasses the previous mark of $548 million, achieved by Gillman Heights in Alexandra Road in February.

Most owners of Leedon Heights’ 314 units will reap about $2.35 million each, according to DTZ Debenham Tie Leung, which brokered the sale. That is more than double the last transacted price.

Penthouse owners in the 23-year-old estate are likely to reap almost double that, which is also more than twice the last open market price.

Ms Tang Wei Leng, director for investment advisory services at DTZ, said the tender for the estate was strongly contested. Five bids and one expression of interest, all from major players, were received by the time the tender closed yesterday.

GuocoLand’s winning offer was higher than the estate’s initial indicative price of $780 million.

Ms Tang also said the sale sets a benchmark unit price for the area. Including a development charge of $40.2 million, the Leedon Heights price works out to $1,062 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr).

Nearby Holland Crest was sold last month for about $837 psf ppr, while Tulip Garden next door is now asking about $900 psf ppr, said Ms Tang.

She said the strong interest for Leedon Heights was not surprising as it is ‘a very sought-after address’.

‘When you think Leedon, you think good-class bungalows,’ she said. ‘This may be the only condo parcel with a Leedon address.’

Leedon Heights sits on a 522,322 sq ft plot off Holland Road and Farrer Road.

GuocoLand said yesterday that it plans to build a 12-storey block of 384 super-luxurious apartments on the site.

‘We are very excited with the development potential of the sprawling site, which will allow us to be creative in our design and planning of the property,’ said Mrs Trina Loh, managing director of GuocoLand Singapore.

The new units are expected to fetch about $1,800 to $2,000 psf, said Ms Tang of DTZ.

She added that the nearby Waterfall Gardens in Farrer Road is fetching an average of $1,500 to $1,600 psf.

‘I would think that Leedon’s location is better, and given the strength of the current market, it shouldn’t be a problem to price the end products at $1,800 to $2,000 psf, or maybe even higher,’ she said.

Leedon Heights, which was developed in the 1980s by Filipino-Chinese tycoon John Gokongwei, will be GuocoLand’s fourth major freehold land acquisition in Singapore in the last 12 months.

It comes after Casa Rosita in Bukit Timah, Sophia Court in Dhoby Ghaut and Palm Beach Garden in the East Coast area.

GuocoLand also made headlines earlier this month by sinking $2 billion in a property project in central Beijing.

Source : Straits Times - 28 Apr 2007

Big demand for space and boom in high-end sales fuel first quarter

Official figures confirmed yesterday what many tenants and buyers have known for months - rents and real estate prices are going through the roof.

Soaring demand for residential and commercial space and a boom in high-end home sales have given the property sector its best quarter for years.

Landlords, in particular, are now calling the shots after several tough years.

Residential rents across the board rose 7.6 per cent in the first quarter after having jumped 5.3 per cent in the last three months of 2006.

Flats led the way, with rents rising 8.1 per cent, up from the 5.8 per cent in the previous quarter, said an Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) quarterly report.

It is all down to a classic supply-demand squeeze. The rash of collective sales is taking thousands of rental flats off the market, yet the number of tenants - local and foreign - chasing quality property has increased with the robust economy.

While rents are about 29 per cent below the 1996 peak, overall rental growth in the first quarter has exceeded price growth.

And landlords will have the whip hand for a while yet, with some experts projecting that residential rents will rise as much as 25 per cent this year.

CB Richard Ellis sees ongoing collective sales keeping supply tight. CBRE Research executive director Li Hiaw Ho agreed, saying the en bloc frenzy has swung the rental market in favour of landlords.

The en bloc activity is having another flow-on effect - displaced owners of estates sold collectively are chasing new homes in outer areas and helping push up prices.

‘The collective sales in the central region are raising the number of homeowners looking for replacement units,’ said Colliers International’s Ms Tay Huey Ying.

Many are forced by the runaway prices in the central areas to look elsewhere, which partly explains the robust price rises in the URA figures, including those in once lacklustre areas, she said.

Led by prime, high-end launches, private residential property prices surged 4.8 per cent across the board, following a 3.8 per cent rise in the previous quarter, and are now near their 2000 peak.

Favourable gains were seen even in non-central areas, but overall, prices across the board remain about 25 per cent below the 1996 peak.

HDB resale prices rose 1.25 per cent, but sales volume was down to 6,258 units, the lowest since early 2004.

ERA Singapore said the dip is temporary, and resale prices should rise about 2 to 4 per cent this year.

Private residential prices in the first quarter were led by new apartment launches in the core central region, including hotspots such as Orchard Road, where records were smashed by eager buyers.

Prices in this region - districts 9, 10 and 11, the downtown core and Sentosa - rose 7.3 per cent, exceeding the 7 per cent rise in the whole of 2005. Prices rose 25.4 per cent in 2006.

In the quarter, 2,259 units of uncompleted private homes in the central region were launched - an ‘unprecedented’ number, said Chesterton International’s head of research and consultancy, Mr Colin Tan.

Demand was equally strong, with 2,055 units snapped up in the quarter.

‘Whether it is misplaced or not, the demand reflects buyers’ tremendous confidence in the market,’ said Mr Tan.

Yesterday’s figures also confirmed the boom in commercial space, with office rents rocketing 10.4 per cent.

Source : Straits Times - 28 Apr 2007