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A CONSORTIUM linked to contractor Straits Construction was yesterday picked to develop the second public housing project to be built and sold by the private sector.

Straits Construction subsidiary Hoi Hup Realty, Sunway Concrete Products and Oriental Worldwide Investments emerged as the front runner in the tender last month for a 1.8ha site in Boon Keng Road where the project will be located.

Its bid of $170.2 million was about 30 per cent more than the next highest bidder, Sim Lian Land, which is building the first such project under this scheme in Tampines.

Under the programme, which aims to create more variety in housing types, private developers get to design, build, price and sell flats.

These homes can be bought only by those eligible for public housing, which means that buyers’ monthly household income cannot exceed $8,000.

On the flip side, buyers can use government housing grants to offset the cost of these flats.

The consortium will have to set aside at least 30 per cent of the flats it builds for four-room or smaller units.

Hoi Hup said last week that the project, which could have about 600 to 700 homes, can be launched within six to nine months.

The first such development, The Premiere@Tampines, drew close to 6,000 applications for its 616 units.

The homes came with condominium-like features, such as generous balconies, floor-to-ceiling wardrobes and air-conditioning units. They are expected to be ready by 2009.

Source : Straits Times - 7 Jun 2007

They buy one for $135,000
They do so under HDB’s Joint Singles Scheme
One wants to sell, the other doesn’t
 
They were colleagues in 1998, both bachelors and past 35 years old.
 
Neither had a place of his own. So they decided to buy an HDB flat together under the Joint Singles Scheme.

They thought they could make a profit too after five years, when HDB rules would allow them to sell it.

Now, nine years after they bought the flat, what they have instead is one big mess.

Mr Chin Kim Fatt, now 49, said he has been waiting for three years for the flat to be sold so that he can buy a new flat and marry his 41-year-old girlfriend.

And Mr Teo G H, 45, who is already married and was evicted from the flat last year, said he and his family have nowhere to live.

The three-room flat in Ang Mo Kio, which cost the men $141,000, is finally in the process of being sold. But Mr Chin, now a foot reflexologist, regrets having bought it at all.

Things began to go wrong from the beginning. Both men were retrenched and found it difficult to repay the loan they had taken from HDB.

They couldn’t live together either and after just three months, Mr Chin moved out.

BROTHER MOVED IN

He claimed he had to sleep in the living room after Mr Teo’s brother joined them in the flat. Mr Teo would bring his girlfriend to the flat, and after they got married in 1999, she moved in too. They have two children.

Mr Chin, who has lived in rented rooms since leaving the flat, claimed he tried to move back in 2001 but was told there was no room for him. Mr Teo claimed Mr Chin had left without even telling him.

Things continued in this way till 2003, when the five-year minimum occupation period was up. They could then sell the flat, but Mr Teo refused to.

Mr Chin had a Malaysian girlfriend by then, and she had agreed to marry him.

His girlfriend is a divorcee with a 13-year-old son. They live with her parents in Malacca. He visits them once a month for four days each time.

He wanted to sell the flat as quickly as possible because, according to the rules, he would have to wait another 30 months before he would be eligible to buy or rent from HDB again.

And he said he couldn’t afford a flat on the open market. Nor did he want to ask his bride to join him in a rented room.

Mr Chin said: ‘I’ve had to spend $400 to $500 of my $1,300 monthly salary on rent all these years. Meanwhile, Mr Teo and his family had been living in the flat all this while.’

Finally, in 2004, Mr Chin hired a lawyer to take legal action. On 28 Jan 2005, Mr Teo’s lawyer informed the court that he had no objection to selling the flat.

REPOSSESS

Later that year, when no action had been taken to sell the flat, Mr Chin obtained a court order telling Mr Teo to vacate the flat by 15 May 2006.

The date came and went, and Mr Teo’s family stayed put.

They too had a problem with the 30-month rule and sought an exemption. And they claimed they had nowhere to move to.

Mr Teo’s wife said: ‘We didn’t mind selling the flat as we can’t pay the loan instalments. But if we sold it, where would we go?’

HDB has been helping Mr Teo out under its deferment of loan instalments and reduced repayment schemes.

Finally, Mr Chin got a court order to repossess the flat.

On 15 Aug last year, Mr Teo’s family was evicted and their property removed from the flat by a contractor Mr Chin had engaged.

Mr Chin said: ‘I’ve given him (Mr Teo) many chances. Even after getting the court order to evict him and his family, I gave them two weeks to move out before I went to the flat with the bailiff.’

It was not easy to sell the flat because it had been vandalised by loan sharks since 2003. Both men claim the loan sharks were after the other.

But now a buyer has been found and the deal is expected to be completed soon.

The sale price is $140,000, but the men still owe HDB $13,000 and, after returning to their CPF accounts what they had taken out to buy the flat, they may not have much left.

Mr Teo and his family are staying with his parents and two brothers for now.

When the sale is completed, he and his wife will be applying for a two-room rental flat from HDB.

Mrs Teo said: ‘HDB exempted us from the 30-month wait, but we can apply for the rental flat only when the flat is sold.

‘We want a place near the children’s school, which is in Hougang. But when I checked recently, only flats in Marine Parade and Woodlands were available.’

As for Mr Chin, he still doesn’t know when he’ll be able to get married.

He wants to buy or rent a two-room flat from HDB.

He too has approached HDB for an exemption from the 30-month wait, but is unsure of the outcome.

He said: ‘After this flat matter is settled, I’ll have to ask my girlfriend to marry me again.

‘I don’t know if she’ll still want to.’
 
From flat- mates to foes

1998

Mr Chin and Mr Teo, both single and older than 35 years, buy 3-room flat for $141,000 under the Joint Singles Scheme.

1999

Mr Chin moves out. Mr Teo stays on and gets married.

2003

Mr Chin wants to sell the flat but Mr Teo refuses. Mr Chin and his fiancee cannot apply for a new flat together.

2004

Mr Chin takes legal action.

2005

Court orders Mr Teo to vacate the flat.

2006

Mr Teo is evicted from the flat.

2007

The flat is being sold for $140,000. But Mr Chin may have to wait 30 months after the sale is completed before he can rent or buy a flat from HDB directly.
 
Choose your co-owner carefully

Think carefully before you buy a flat with another single person.

An HDB spokesman said singles aged 35 and above can buy resale flats on their own under the Single Singapore Citizen Scheme.

So it is not necessary for them to pair up to buy resale flats under the Joint Singles Scheme. Last year, only 214 of the 5,300 resale applications by singles were under this scheme.

HDB does not keep tabs on the number of joint flat owner who cannot get along. ‘We believe that they are a small minority,’ said the spokesman. ‘Those who pair up to jointly purchase a flat… should have been aware that home ownership is a long-term commitment, and should have considered carefully the choice of their joint owner before they made the purchase.’

Madam Ho Geok Choo, MP for West Coast GRC, said she has come across a few of these disputes in her constituency.

They are mostly issues arising from differing lifestyles and habits.

She suggested that HDB could present to singles who want to buy a flat jointly different scenarios that could arise later on.

Source : New Paper - 6 Jun 2007

SOILBUILD said yesterday it sold eight mid- and upper-floor apartments at its freehold 44-unit Leonie Parc View project in the past two weeks for $3,000-$3,400 per square foot.

This takes the total number of units sold to 26.

Soilbuild said the units were released in response to the ’strong overseas demand’ after it said last month that it would sell a ’sky villa’ and two penthouses at the project at auction through Christie’s and Colliers International.

The announcement sparked ’strong interest from high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors’, Soilbuild said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange.

In light of this, the company has decided to progressively release more units for sale and defer the auction of the sky villa and two penthouses, previously set for June 8.

Leonie Parc View is in Leonie Hill Road in District 9.

The project comprises one sky villa, three penthouses and 40 four-bedroom units.

It has been selling overseas since late April. After roadshows in Hong Kong and Indonesia, 18 of the 20 units released were sold to overseas buyers at prices ranging from $2,600 to $3,000 psf.

Soilbuild’s stock closed a cent higher at $1.34 yesterday.

Source : Business Times - 6 Jun 2007

Mass market prices picking up, say property agents

The Housing & Development Board (HDB) has received a top bid of $310 million or $375 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) from Sim Lian Land for a site at Bishan Street 22/25. The award of the site should be announced soon.

Not including two Design Build and Sell Scheme sites, this will be the first solely private residential site sold by HDB since 2002.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority has also received a minimum bid of $30 million or $257.18 psf ppr for a site at Woodsville Close near Potong Pasir MRT Station. It will now be put up for public tender and if sold, will be the first suburban residential site sold by URA this year.

Sim Lian’s bid was only 1.2 per cent higher than CapitaLand’s CRL Realty and US-based Wachovia Development Corporation’s bid of $306.3 million. The tender, which closed yesterday, attracted seven bids from developers including GuocoLand, Allgreen Properties and ChoiceHomes Investments.

Sim Lian managing director Kuik Sing Beng said it now expects to launch a 600-unit development on the site by Q2 2008 at an estimated price of between $700-$750 psf. ‘It will be aimed at HDB upgraders,’ he said.

Savills reckons mass market property prices could achieve double-digit growth this year. ‘Price increases in the mass market are beginning to gather pace and we may well see a 10-12 per cent increase for the full year,’ said the firm’s director of investment sales Steven Ming.

On the Woodsville Close site, Mr Ming said: ‘It is not unreasonable to expect bid prices to cross $300 psf ppr given the site’s close proximity to the Potong Pasir MRT station and the imminent rebound of the mass market.’

Based on recent transactions, ERA assistant vice-president Eugene Lim says mass market property prices are accurately reflected by the latest property price index (non-landed) in Q1 2007 for Outside Central Region which increased by 2 per cent quarter on quarter.

‘Some of the buyers are those displaced by collective sales,’ Mr Lim said. And the ‘herd instinct’ to buy was working on most of the other buyers.

On bids, CBRE Research executive director Li Hiaw Ho said: ‘It is evident that developers are generally confident that the mass market is strengthening.’

The Woodsville Close site could attract bullish bids. ‘Based on a possible average selling price of $750 psf, bids could range from around $40 million ($343 psf ppr) to $45 million ($385 psf ppr),’ Mr Li said. ‘As the site is within walking distance to Potong Pasir MRT station and has easy access to expressways, condominium units developed at this site will be sought-after by potential upgraders from the surrounding HDB estates.’

Source : Business Times - 6 Jun 2007

BOUTIQUE developer Sim Lian Land has beaten six other bidders to put in the highest offer for a condominium site in Bishan Street 22.

It offered $310 million for the 99-year leasehold site, which has an area of 235,897 sq ft. This works out to $375 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr), which means the break even cost would be $650 to $680 psf ppr, estimated CBRE Research executive director Li Hiaw Ho.

Meanwhile, an unnamed developer has committed to bid at least $30 million for a land plot in Woodsville Close in Potong Pasir.

The 40,903 sq ft, 99-year leasehold residential site will be put on the market by the Government in about two weeks’ time.

Property consultants estimated that bids for the site could come in at between $32.7 million and $45 million. This would work out to between $280 and $385 psf ppr.

A project with about 90 to 100 units can be built on the site, said Mr Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank.

Source : Straits Times - 6 Jun 2007