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My Neighbours have succumbed to the en-bloc fever that seems to be sweeping Singapore at the moment. Having formed a sales committee and obtained the 80 per cent acceptance needed, they put our estate of 34 homes up for sale.

An offer has been received from a developer that exceeds the reserve price and it looks like a sale will go ahead. While my wife and I had no desire to move and hence did not sign the collective sale agreement (CSA), we can understand the logic of the Government facilitating property rules to allow en-bloc sales in land-scarce Singapore. We can also see why our neighbours are tempted by the generous premium that selling by this route will net.

However, as part of the sales process we must now pay the sales agent a commission of more than $13,000 for forcibly selling our home against our wishes. While I have no doubt the agent has been diligent in his duties and done his best to achieve the highest selling price possible, it was not something we asked him to do. In fact, it was contrary to our wishes.

It is adding insult to injury that, not only will we be homeless by the end of the year and need to find a new place to call home, but we must pay for the privilege of being booted from our own home!

While it will be too late to resolve our predicament, perhaps when the Strata Titles Board next reviews the rules of en-bloc sales, agents fees’ payable by minority owners is an area that needs to be addressed.

Source : Straits Times - 2 Apr 2007

WANT TO BUY? BID FOR IT

11,000sq ft penthouse packs in space, prestige, facilities and an astounding view in bid to woo super-rich

Imagine a posh bungalow that is perched high in the sky.

That would be an apt description for what may become Singapore’s most expensive penthouse.

Boasting built-up space of 11,000 sq ft, it is bigger than many landed homes here.

It takes up three levels - from the 39th to 41st storeys - at Reflections, a waterside residence at Keppel Bay.

The master bedroom alone - which has its own landscaped terrace - occupies one floor and is larger than a typical five-room flat.

There are five other sprawling rooms that may be used as bedrooms, a gym, cigar bar, wine cellar… the sky is truly the limit.

And if the luxurious interiors are not enough to floor you, the view definitely will.

The city’s picturesque skyline - including the bright lights of the Genting’s upcoming Resorts World at Sentosa - make for a stunning backdrop.

Developer Keppel Land will not quote a fixed price for this super-penthouse. A spokesman said: ‘For the Marina Bay Residences, $27m was the starting point of the sale price of a three-storey super-penthouse last December. There was more than one potential buyer, with competing bids.

‘For Reflections, if there is more than one interested party, it would go into a tender process.’

The spokesman said that there has been strong interest from potential buyers, but declined to release exact figures ahead of the launch next week.

Keppel Land is confident that Reflections’ penthouses will be a hit, judging from the overwhelming response to Marina Bay.

Reflections also offers 34 double-storey penthouses, ranging between 3,600 sq ft and 8,200 sq ft in area.

Each could cost at least $5m, based on the market rate of between $1,500 and $2,000psf.

And that would be considered ‘cheap’ amid the ongoing rush for high-end properties.

Reflections joins the ranks of uber-penthouses, like CapitaLand and Sun Hung Kai Properties’ The Orchard Residences and CapitaLand’s The Seafront @ Meyer, that are priced at more than $4,000 psf and $2,200 psf respectively.

At The Orchard Residences, one local buyer reportedly paid $17m for a 53rd-storey penthouse.

And, last May, SC Global sold the 7,000 sq ft penthouse at the swish The Boulevard Residence for $16m.

On average, foreigners make up between 20 and 40 per cent of buyers, property observers said.

The strong demand for penthouses is driven by the recovery of the luxury housing market, Associate Professor Sing Tien Foo said.

Assoc Prof Sing, from the National University of Singapore’s Department of Real Estate, told The New Paper on Sunday: ‘The supply of penthouses in Singapore is limited, creating scarcity value of those in prime locations.

‘The demand also comes from foreign investors who see super-penthouses as a status symbol.’

Property experts said that attracting high-networth buyers also adds to the perceived value of a property.

Sentosa Cove, for instance, is seen as a playground for the rich, just as London’s Kensington Palace Gardens - home to celebrities and dignitaries - is dubbed Billionaires’ Row.

The rich care who their neighbours are, observed Mr Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a New York-based real estate firm.

New York is world’s penthouse capital, while other swank addresses include London. (See report at right.)

So how do Singapore’s super-penthouses stack up?

Mr Joseph Tan, director of residential housing at CB Richard Ellis, said: ‘Singapore is still in its infancy if you compare the penthouses in London, New York and Hong Kong.

‘The market in Singapore has not reached the ultimate luxe status - yet.

‘But we are already attracting a growing number of affluent foreigners because the penthouses are cheaper here than those in the US and UK. For what we offer, our penthouses are seen as good value and a good investment.’

According to the 2006 International Residential Review by Knight Frank, the world’s prime residential markets - including London, Paris, Sydney and Phuket - saw strong growth in 2005. The company also believes that buyers from the growing economies, like China and the US, will increasingly look for real estate abroad.

Apart from a panoramic view, location is still key. Mr Vincent Chong, associate director of Colliers International, noted that other factors include architecture and facilities.

Besides designer fittings, Keppel has upped the luxe quotient at Reflections by offering homeowners a 10-year free membership at the Marina at Keppel Bay on Keppel Island.

Its facilities include a clubhouse, gourmet restaurants, a spa and charter services to the neighbouring islands.

And who knows? Developers may throw in VIP access to the IRs in the future.

Source : The New Paper - 02 Apr 2007

Buyers from Indonesia, Malaysia remain the largest groups

More foreigners than ever are forking out millions to buy a residential property in Singapore.

Last year, they snapped up nearly 5,000 units, which represented a 23 per cent market share, property consultants said.

And as the luxury property boom gained pace in the final quarter of last year, their buying spree hit an all-time high. For the first time, their market share hit 26 per cent, beating the previous all-time high of 24 per cent in 1995.

Before the market started to bounce back in 2005, foreign homebuyers made up less than 20 per cent of all buyers in Singapore.

Indonesians bought the most private residential properties here last year, accounting for about 23.7 per cent of foreign buyers, based on statistics compiled by Knight Frank. Malaysians took second place with 22.7 per cent.

Indians came third, with 8.4 per cent, followed by Britons, with 8 per cent. Buyers from China took up 7.7 per cent. Next came Australians, with 5 per cent.

Other significant foreign buyer groups came from the United States, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

More foreigners are also buying landed homes, particularly in the prime districts, even though they need approval to buy.

Some of them have benefited from recent collective sales and are looking for a landed home with their proceeds, said an agent covering the landed market.

He has worked with British and Indian clients who have no problems with paying a 1 per cent deposit for a house costing up to $10 million, even before obtaining approval to buy.

The home-buying budgets of many foreigners run to several millions of dollars.

Fourth-quarter caveats lodged showed that nearly half of the foreign buyers bought homes for between $1 million and $5 million, said Knight Frank.

About 38 per cent bought homes costing $500,000 to $1 million. An elite group of 5 per cent bought posh homes costing $5 million or more, it said.

Source : Sunday Times - 1 Apr 2007

Lawyers trying to track down the next of kin of a dead woman who has left behind a sizeable estate still have no clues about who they are but say they have some leads.

If the next of kin cannot be found, the estate of Miss Lim Chhui Ngor will go into the Government’s Consolidated Fund.

Mr William Wong, a partner of law firm Francis Khoo & Lim and the lawyer in charge of the case, said Estate and Trust Agencies is now ‘doing a verification exercise’, which will take a few weeks.

‘There are all sorts of leads and they’re going through all the information with a fine-tooth comb,’ he said.

Two weeks ago, The Sunday Times reported that the trust firm was looking for Miss Lim’s two aunts (inset, standing and right), who are pictured with her (centre). They are the younger sisters of her mother, Madam Koh Tek Leh (left).

They stand to inherit a fortune which, while Estate and Trust Agencies declined to reveal its worth, is understood to be substantial.

But in Madam Koh’s obituary in The Straits Times in 1978, it is mentioned that she is survived by one sister, Madam Koh Tek Heng, and ‘numerous brothers and sisters-in-law’.

Miss Lim, who died last June, was the major beneficiary of her great-grandfather Lim Yew Teok’s will. Mr Lim, who died in 1925, left behind an estate worth more than $100 million now.

His assets have not been distributed, according to certain conditions in his will. But his beneficiaries, said to number more than 20, have been receiving monthly incomes from his estate.

Miss Lim received the largest amount.

Under the Intestate Succession Act, unclaimed estates of any value will go into the Government’s Consolidated Fund. Those who leave behind estates not exceeding $50,000 and no will, will have their estates administered by the Insolvency and Public Trustee’s Office under the Ministry of Law.

According to the Public Trustee’s Office, there were about 220 such cases in the past year.

Source : Sunday Times - 1 Apr 2007

Retirees Maimonah Mohamed and her husband Ahmad Ahsan among 95 S’porean homeowners left in the lurch after JB court okays auction by bank

Retired teacher Maimonah Mohamed is at her wits’ end. After a six-year legal battle, she is now in danger of losing the dream home she bought in Johor Baru nine years ago.

The JB high court has ruled that her terrace house, along with 94 other Singaporean-owned units in the Taman Permata residential estate, must be auctioned off by the bank.

If they cannot persuade the Court of Appeal and Federal Court to overturn the decision, some of the owners may be homeless.

Many of the owners are retirees and, like Madam Maimonah, paid for their houses in cash, often with their pension money.

Said Madam Maimonah: ‘I’ve exhausted two-thirds of my Central Provident Fund money on this house. I can’t believe I’m going to lose it just like that. That’s 40 years of savings down the drain.’

Madam Maimonah paid RM333,000 ($146,000) for her house. Others paid as much as RM750,000.

Fortunately, she still has a four-room flat in Telok Blangah. Others are not so lucky.

Retiree Miss R. Jaafar, 50, sold off her four-room flat in Tampines to stay in JB. ‘I don’t have any other house apart from this one. If the bank takes it away, I’ll be homeless,’ she said.

The homeowners’ woes started when the developer, Focus Development Sdn Bhd, went bust around 2000.

Although the 136 houses were already built by then, there was no electricity supply, street lights or main roads leading to the estate.

The swimming pool, tennis courts and exercise stations promised to the buyers were also not built.

When the bank, AmBank Berhad, took over the unfinished project in 2001, the owners found out that because their payments went to the developer and not the bank, they did not have the title deeds. Hence, they were not the recognised owners.

Focus Development had used the estate as collateral to secure a loan.

The houses, unoccupied for four years, started falling apart. Some of the owners spent RM50,000 to RM100,000 each on repairs, on top of the collective RM350,000 cost of getting utilities hooked up and the main access road built.

The biggest blow came in 2005, when they thought they could finally move in.

Residents’ committee head Mrs S. Marican said: ‘Commissioned photographers suddenly turned up and took pictures of our houses. They told us a date had already been set for our houses to be auctioned off.’

Today, what was once planned to be a posh estate is now forlorn and dilapidated. The gardens of the abandoned houses are overrun with weeds - and the only ‘facilities’ in sight are a security post and children’s playground.

With the help of a lawyer, the owners halted the auction temporarily, but now the court has decided the estate belongs to the bank.

The bank and its lawyers have declined comment.

The owners’ lawyer, Mr Rosli Kamaruddin, said the case is not over yet. He is taking the case to the Court of Appeal at Putrajaya. If they lose again, he can take it to the Federal Court.

Some owners have had enough. One Singaporean, who wanted to be known only as Mr Wong, has posted an Urgent Sale sign outside his house and cannot wait to get rid of it, even if at a loss.

‘The place looks like a ghost town now. My wife and I don’t want to stay there,’ he said.

Source : Sunday Times - 1 Apr 2007