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PROPERTY owners continue to ride on the buoyant market by offering their sites for development. The latest attempts at collective sales are at Meng Garden Apartments off Killiney Road and Villa delle Rose just off Holland Road.

Meng Garden

SuperBowl Holdings’ vacant site at the corner of Balestier Road and Jalan Datoh is also up for grabs; the site has approval for development into a hotel. All three sites are freehold.

Villa delle Rose, with 297,132 sq ft land area, is just off Holland Road, overlooking the Botanic Gardens. The site is zoned for residential use with a 1.4 plot ratio (ratio of potential maximum gross floor area to land area). A $12.6 million development charge (DC) is payable.

CB Richard Ellis, which is marketing Villa delle Rose through an expression of interest exercise due to close on Aug 8, said there is no official price indication.

However, market watchers note that the much smaller Aura Park nearby was recently sold to Lippo Realty for $1,280 psf per plot ratio inclusive of DC.

Sources believe Villa delle Rose’s owners may be looking at a higher price, in the region of the $1,544 psf ppr achieved this year for Bishopswalk.

Villa delle Rose was jointly developed by Keck Seng and Pontiac Land in 1982. The existing development comprises 104 units ranging from 2,800 sq ft to 3,200 sq ft.

CBRE is seeking expressions of interest in Meng Garden Apartments at Lloyd Road with a 35,639 sq ft land area. The site is zoned for residential use with a 2.8 plot ratio. An estimated $440,000 DC is payable. Submissions should be made by Aug 7.

The development of 26 apartments and a penthouse was built in the mid-1980s. Prior to its development, the site was the original residence of the Alkaff family, CBRE said in its news release.

Over in the Balestier area, Colliers is marketing a 22,965 sq ft vacant site approved for hotel development. Searches show the site’s owner is Superbowl Sentosa Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Superbowl Holdings.

Colliers said the site’s indicative land value is about $40 million, or about $580 psf per plot ratio. No DC is payable.

‘With a proposed gross floor area of 68,896 sq ft and a gross plot ratio of approximately 2.99, the subject site could be redeveloped into an 11-storey tower block comprising 168 hotel rooms above a two-storey podium block - plus a basement car park and a swimming pool,’ Colliers said.

The tender for the Balestier site closes on July 25.

Source - Business Times - 4 Jul 2007

It plans to build 270-room business hotel on 99-year leasehold plot

BUSINESSMAN Chng Gim Huat of CGH Group has emerged as the top bidder for a hotel site near Amara Hotel, with an offer worth $97.07 million.

The group plans to invest a further $70 million-plus developing the 99-year leasehold plot into a 270-room, three-to-four-star business hotel. That brings the all-in investment to about $620,000 per room.

‘Assuming an average room rate of about $168 per night currently, the hotel’s occupancy will have to be above 70 per cent before we can break even. But we expect room rates to be at least 20 per cent higher when the hotel is completed, most likely within three years,’ said CGH Group director Benjamin Chng.

The state tender drew only one other bidder - from Hiap Hoe Superbowl JV Pte Ltd, which offered $78.8 million for the site.

The reserve-list site was triggered for release with an undertaking by a developer to bid at least $60.888 million. Mr Chng’s bid at yesterday’s state tender reflects a unit land price of $562 psf of potential gross floor area, which is $11 psf per plot ratio lower than the $573 psf ppr fetched for another nearby hotel plot, awarded to Carlton Properties earlier this year.

The lower bid in yesterday’s tender could be due to the fact that the latest site has a lower plot ratio, and hence smaller maximum gross floor area compared with the earlier plot, CB Richard Ellis executive director Li Hiaw Ho reckons.

Mr Chng told BT yesterday that besides developing the plot into a 270-room hotel, CGH Group also plans to include about 30,000 sq ft net lettable area of commercial space.

‘Some of this will be for the hotel’s use while the rest will be strata titled for possible sale, or we may just keep it for investment,’ Mr Chng said.

CGH Group also owns Orchard Grand Court at Killiney Road, comprising more than 200 ‘hotel-style’ service apartments. It still owns about 600,000 sq ft of ramp-up factory space at Paya Ubi Industrial Park which it developed. This comprises about 40 per cent of the original development. The other 60 per cent has been sold. Of the 600,000 sq ft CGH Group still owns, 80 per cent has been let.

In the residential sector, the group recently completed the 44-unit condo Dengfu Ville in Kampong Eunos, which was fully sold earlier this year.

In August/September, it is planning to launch Esta Ruby, which has 72 apartments housed in a 19-storey twin tower development, with a rooftop pool. The project also includes ground floor shop units and a basement carpark.

Mr Chng controls 51 per cent of Compact Metal Industries.

Source - Business Times - 4 Jul 2007

HDB owners hope to hit jackpot but few estates can command such high prices

The owner of a five-room HDB flat in Tiong Bahru is asking $780,000 for her five-room home - just weeks after an owner in the same block sold his unit for $720,000.

And within two days of putting the Kim Tian Place flat on the market, chemist Louisa Yu received two offers, including one for $690,000.

Ms Yu, who is moving to Hong Kong with her permanent resident husband, has yet to have the flat with its skyline views valued but paid $500,000 for it a year ago.

Other HDB owners are also hoping to hit the property jackpot, prompted by the much publicised sales of two Tiong Bahru flats for huge profits last month.

Select areas near the city - such as Tiong Bahru and Queenstown - stand the best chance but others look more to be pie in the sky, with some hopeful owners demanding prices as much as $200,000 above valuation.

‘The current frenzy is limited to just a few estates,’ said the senior division director of property agency PropNex, Mr Eric Cheng.

Among the recent winners was a five-room flat, also in Kim Tian, that fetched $606,000, while a five-room unit in Jalan Membina went for $690,000. Both had yet to be valued.

This is not unusual in the area where a few cash-rich buyers have inked deals before valuations are done.

The Bukit Merah area is ano- ther high-price hotspot. A five- room flat in Bukit Merah View valued at $518,000 recently sold for $618,000, said PropNex.

Marine Drive has had its moments with a five-room unit selling recently for $695,000 before valuation. Not out of the ordinary, say agents, as Marine Parade flats with sea views traditionally attract keen buyers.

But owners in other areas may fall well short of their asking prices.

Housewife Esther Yeo wants more than $700,000 for her high- floor 1,700 sq ft flat in Toa Payoh Central. She told The Straits Times: ‘I’m not a desperate case. I’m just riding the wave.’

Three other owners are also asking for more than $700,000 for their executive flats behind the Yellow Pages building in Toa Payoh.

But the highest price done in Toa Payoh, according to Prop- Nex, was a $565,000 deal for a five-room flat in May.

Hopes are even higher for an owner of a three-room flat in Tanjong Pagar. He is asking for about $400,000, almost $200,000 above valuation, said the managing director of C&H Realty, Mr Albert Lu.

And an optimistic owner of an executive flat in Jurong West wants $600,000 - $250,000 above valuation, added Mr Lu.

‘My agent had to refuse to sell for him,’ he said.

In fact, some Jurong West flats are selling for below valuation. A five-room unit valued at $290,000 recently went for $280,000, said PropNex.

In Woodlands, a five-room flat just sold for $275,000, below its $278,000 valuation.

Source - Straits Times - 4 Jul 2007

Developers raising $522m through the conversion of future homebuyers’ payments

DEVELOPERS CapitaLand and Lippo Group are selling US$342 million (S$522.2 million) worth of bonds backed by two residential projects.

They are securitising the future payments homebuyers will make for the Metropolitan and Scotts HighPark condominiums, which the developers said have both been sold out.

The deal was announced yesterday by South Africa’s Standard Bank, which is handling the bond sale.

The Metropolitan in Alexandra Road is being jointly developed by CapitaLand and Lippo Group in a 50:50 venture, while Scotts HighPark in Scotts Road is a CapitaLand project.

Most of the units in these two projects are believed to have been offloaded under deferred payment schemes.

What the securitisation does is to bring forward the cash flows due to the developers from these deferred sale payments, thereby freeing up capital for them to redeploy.

In return, CapitaLand and Lippo will assign the receivables to Vesta Investment Corporation, a special purpose vehicle set up for this deal.

Vesta will then issue bonds backed by these receivables to investors.

The floating-rate bonds mature in October 2011, by which time both condos will have been completed and all the payments made in full by the homebuyers.

Although the rates have yet to be finalised, both Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have provisionally assigned top ratings to the bonds.

In giving its rating, Moody’s said it considered the track record of CapitaLand and Lippo in ‘developing similar residential projects in Singapore on time and within budget’ as well as ‘the market dynamics for Singapore’s residential properties’.

Private home prices in Singapore jumped 7.9 per cent in the second quarter on the back of good economic growth and strong market sentiment.

Standard Bank, Africa’s largest lender by assets, said the deal will be launched after an investor roadshow in Asia and Europe, which is expected to take place early this month.

This deal ‘is part of CapitaLand’s ongoing strategy to make its capital more efficient and productive’, the developer said in a statement yesterday.

This is the fifth time CapitaLand has advanced cash flows by securitising condos.

In March last year, CapitaLand raised US$332.7 million from the securitisation of Citylights in Jellicoe Road and Varsity Park Condominium in West Coast Road.

Earlier deals were done in 2001, 2002 and 2004. These four alone add up to more than $1 billion of issuance.

Other developers, such as Keppel Land and Centrepoint Properties (now Frasers Centrepoint), have also previously securitised payments from their condos under development.

Source - Straits Times - 4 Jul 2007

In a departure from tradition in recent years, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday commented on the state of the private residential market when it released the latest price indices.

It also seemed to have some advice for potential home buyers who may be carried away by the current market frenzy.

The departure is seen in industry circles as reflecting official concern about the run-up in private residential prices which, as yesterday’s flash estimates show, is no longer confined to just the luxury segment but has spread to other segments as well.

‘The government will continue to monitor the market very closely,’ URA said yesterday. Its subsequent elaboration dwelt on measures to ensure there is sufficient supply of homes, without even a hint of any possible measures to tackle demand, or subsales, market watchers noted.

URA said: ‘The government will ensure that there will be sufficient supply of residential space to meet demand. The GLS (Government Land Sales) Programme for the 2nd half of 2007, which was just announced recently, comprises 20 residential sites and five other commercial and residential, and white sites which have a potential supply of about 8,000 units of private housing and executive condominium (EC) housing.’

The government has also re-introduced an EC site to give an additional housing option to Singaporeans. ‘If necessary, the government will make available even more sites for private residential development through the GLS Programme next year,’ URA said.

The authority reiterated that besides new GLS sites, there are some 42,200 new private homes slated for completion from H2 2007 to 2010. About 22,700 of these units have not been sold by developers yet.

‘Prospective home-buyers should take into consideration the sufficient pipeline supply of private housing, as well as the potential supply from GLS sites, when deciding to make a property purchase,’ URA said.

In its release, URA also gave its take on the rise in private home prices in recent quarters, which it said is ‘in line with greater economic growth and rising confidence’.

‘Private housing prices are now increasing at a faster pace because of good economic prospects going forward and the increasing attractiveness of Singapore as a global city,’ it added.

Source : Business Times - 3 Jul 2007