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WHAT IT IS

The Government releases flash estimates today on the increase in prices of private homes and HDB resale flats during the April to June period.

The private home data covers three broad zones. These are the core central region, comprising Districts 9 to 11, the Marina area and Sentosa; the rest of the central region, up to Queenstown and Marine Parade; and all other suburbs outside those central designations.

The flash estimates are based on caveats lodged during the first 10 weeks of the last three months. They will be updated a month later when more data is captured. The actual figures are due on July 27.

WHY IT MATTERS

The private property market has been sizzling in recent months, with record prices being set in almost every category. Indications are that the boom is finally filtering down to the lower end of the market and the estimates will throw more light on how this segment is faring.

In the first three months of this year, private home prices and rents posted their biggest jump in seven years.

The estimates will indicate if the market rally is truly becoming more broad-based and will give home owners and buyers an inkling of where values are headed.

Source : Straits Times - 2 Jul 2007

Q I WAS married in 1983 and got divorced in 1997.

I have two teenage children. I quit my job to take care of our children as the maid was always causing problems. I was a housewife at the time of my divorce.

My former husband was unfaithful and wanted to have a new life.

He is paying maintenance for the two children but there is nothing for me. I agreed to the arrangement at that time as I had no time to think and argue. I was upset and in shock that he had left me for another woman.

It was agreed that 40 per cent of the proceeds of the sale of the matrimonial home would be a lump sum payment for me.

But the private apartment is still unsold as the price it would fetch is too low. Still, I may get nothing much if it were sold because I was not working then and my former husband was the one paying the mortgage. As such, I expect the bulk of the proceeds will be returned to his Central Provident Fund account.

When our children reach 21 years of age, he might stop paying maintenance so I am wondering whether I can get some money from him now.

I am still single.

My former husband has since remarried and has a six-year-old daughter. I believe he is doing well in his export business.

A I ASSUME that the court order pursuant to which your former husband is making the monthly maintenance payments for your children was a consent order, because you say you had to agree to an arrangement where there was no maintenance for yourself.

It could also be that you may have thought because you had a monthly income, you did not need monthly maintenance.

Alternatively, your maintenance may be in the form of a lump sum from the sale proceeds of your home.

It would have been prudent for you to have insisted on a nominal monthly sum of even $1 to be ordered at that time as this would have left the door open for you to go back to court to seek a variation due to a material change in circumstances.

The fact of your having to stop working to look after the children may well be a material change of circumstances allowing the court to increase the maintenance payable to you.

It appears that in your case, you would not be able to seek a variation of a monthly maintenance order as there is strictly no such periodic maintenance order before the court to vary.

You may, however, apply to vary your children’s monthly maintenance if there has been an increase in their expenses - as that is to be expected as they grow up.

The purpose of a lump sum maintenance order is to achieve a clean break and your former husband may also have altered his financial position on the basis that he does not have any periodic financial obligations to you.

Hence, it may well be inequitable and unjust to expect him to provide you with monthly maintenance.

Another problem you have is that your lump sum maintenance is not represented by a fixed sum to be carved out of the sale proceeds. You agreed to a fixed percentage only of the sale proceeds and so it would also not be possible for you to argue that your fixed lump sum is not realisable as the price of the flat is too low.

You will still get your 40 per cent whatever the sale price.

There have been cases where the courts have made the necessary variations in which the agreed lump sum could not be realised as the price of the home had dropped after the parties had entered into such an agreement.

Finally, if yours is a consent order, the only way such an order can be set aside is for you to show that there was fraud or a mistake because such an order is really like a contract you entered into with your former husband.

Your ray of hope may be that prices of private apartments have picked up and you may eventually be able to sell your home at a higher price.

Amolat SinghLawyerAmolat & Partners

Advice provided in this column is not meant as a substitute for comprehensive professional advice.

Source : Sunday Times - 1 July 2007

Tanglin Village is becoming the next lifestyle hotspot, with 16 new businesses sprouting on Dempsey Hill

WATCH out Holland Village, Tanglin Village is gaining ground as the new lifestyle hotspot.

Dempsey Hill, a cluster comprising 14 food and beverage outlets, a spa and an Australian gourmet shop has been opening in stages there.

Even more dining options are on the cards, when the old Civil Service Club, which houses the popular Samy’s Curry Restaurant, gets a spruce-up.

The company behind these two developments is Country City Investment, a property investment firm formed last year to handle the two projects.

By the middle of this month, all the outlets in Dempsey Hill will be open. New restaurants and retail outlets will also be opening up at the former Civil Service Club.

Just six years ago, the 40ha area, which used to house British army barracks in the colonial days, was a sleepy place, with a few furniture shops and Samy’s Curry Restaurant.

Things started picking up in 2003 when two wine bars, Wine Network and The Wine Company, opened and attracted a following. Then came organic food store L’Organic and the trendy PS Cafe in 2005.

Last year, some former barracks there were used as exhibition space for the Singapore Biennale. Coupled with the opening of alfresco bar Hacienda, and restaurant Oosh, the Village quickly became a new hip spot in town, offering a laid-back place to unwind.

But the area comes alive mainly at night, and Country City is looking to bring more daytime traffic into the area.

Madam Florence Tan, 49, director of the company, says: ‘With businesses in the area focusing more on nightlife, we saw the potential for Dempsey Hill to be active throughout the day.’

So early birds can have breakfast at Australian gourmet store Jones The Grocer (see other story), then indulge in a little mid-morning pampering at the 35,000 sq ft Spa Esprit.

Lunch choices include fine Indian dining at Vintage India or Japanese restaurant Rakuichi, with dessert at the Ben & Jerry’s cafe. Nightbirds can have a meal and some wine at Angel’s Share bar and restaurant, or chill out at Mexican restaurant Margarita’s.

There is also Go-Go Bambini, a children’s entertainment centre, which features a custom designed playscape.

Parents who take their children there can read the centre’s collection of international newspapers or get a manicure at the in-house nail spa.

The 16 tenants in the cluster are housed in the seven buildings that once made up the Central Manpower Base, where scores of young men enlisted in national service between 1972 and 1989.

The land area adds up to 23,838 sq m and Country City’s three-year lease is renewable up to 2015.

Madam Tan declines to say how much the company spent on the project, but adds that it is looking into adding more lighting in the parking spaces, which some customers have said are too dimly lit.

The company is in the process of selecting tenants for the former Civil Service Club, which comprises four blocks, with a total site area of about 16,300 sq m. Samy’s will remain as a sub-tenant.

Restaurateurs said that the area’s attractive location made opening there viable.

Mr Dennis Kwah, 45, director of hotpot restaurant Rain, opening in Dempsey Hill on Tuesday, says: ‘The thrill of going into Holland Village is every businessman’s dream. But that place is too small and the rental, too high.

‘Orchard Road, on the other hand, is much too busy. Dempsey Hill is the perfect median.’

Daytime businesses seem to be thriving too.

Go-Go Bambini, the only shop offering child-oriented services in Dempsey Road, opened on April 23, and had more than 7,000 customers come through its doors in May.

It also organised 94 children’s birthday parties last month. Spa Esprit, with three outlets, is opening its fourth and largest spa at Dempsey Hill. Called House, the area’s ‘gorgeous’ views and closeness to nature were definite draws, says Cynthia Chua, 35, its managing director.

The spa occupies three of the seven blocks in Dempsey Hill, and includes a restaurant and a bar.

It is sprawling enough to be a venue for social functions, corporate retreats, dinners and cocktail parties.

Existing businesses say they are unfazed by the competition.

Mr T. Nagarajan, 34, manager of Samy’s, says the new businesses have brought in more customers, some of whom are first-timers who happen to be checking out the area.

Over at Oosh, Mr Lee Kin Seng, 29, its marketing manager, says that new businesses in the area can only boost the restaurant’s takings, which have been on the ‘upward trend’ since it opened.

Consumers, however, are looking beyond the hype.

Undergraduate Ow Wei Quan, 25, who has been to Chang Korean Charcoal BBQ Restaurant in the village, says: ‘The big-name establishments, free parking and rustic feel of the area are clear draws. But the businesses must deliver on quality and service to win me back.’

He thinks it is worth going back.

However, administrative manager Cheong Lynn, 30, who was last at Dempsey Road’s alfresco bars some six months ago, says that food and service standards in the area were only ‘average’ and that the outlets would have to do better if they wanted to win her back.

What is true, however, is that everyone is anticipating the new developments.

‘I’m excited about new businesses opening in Dempsey Road. It’ll give me more reasons to frequent the place,’ says Mr Andy Ow, 37, regional manager of a distributing firm and regular customer at Oosh.

‘Holland Village is too small and the rental, too high. Orchard Road is much too busy. Dempsey Hill is the perfect median’ Mr Dennis Kwah, director of hotpot restaurant Rain

Source : Sunday Times - 1 July 2007