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Lawyers representing the en bloc buyers and sellers of Horizon Towers were in court on Friday.

The sellers were supposed to appeal against a decision by the Strata Titles Board, which rejected their application to sell.

The Board had rejected their en bloc sale due to a technical error but this latest appeal was not even heard.

Instead, things got quite complicated when more parties appeared, all demanding to be involved in the case.

And they brought documents enough to form a mini-library.

These were filed by lawyers from six different firms.

One of them was Mr K Shanmugam, who wanted the court to allow HPL Properties, the buyers of Horizon Towers, to take part in the hearing.

He argued that HPL has a say since the outcome of the appeal will affect the buyers both economically and legally.

And then there was Mr Andre Yeap, who represents 13 homeowners.

He said this clients have their ‘necks on the line’ since they were the ones who initiated the property sale in the first place.

Four other lawyers then took turns in court to object these interventions.

The turn of events certainly disappointed some homeowners who were hoping that the case will be resolved soon.

Victor Ow, Majority Owner, Horizon Towers, said: “We’re quite prepared to abide by the contract. But at the same time, do not push us around. And do not cast fear into our lives. And do disband us. If we need to sell our units and agree on whatever we have to agree by law, we’re prepared to accept it.”

And it was a three-hour long battle of words and arguments amongst six lawyers over who has the right to take part in the case.

What made matters more complicated was that the courtroom was too small to accommodate everyone.

Over 30 lawyers and their assistants turned up for the session, on top of 40 owners from Horizon Towers.

Extra chairs had to be brought in and the judge even requested for a bigger courtroom for the next hearing.

The case will be heard in the high court next Monday and the judge is expected to decide who can intervene in the case. - CNA/ch

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 29 Sept 2007

Non-landed projects in non-prime areas turn in strong sales volume

MASS-MARKET property sales actually staged a recovery last year, earlier than widely believed, said property consultant CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) yesterday.

In a study of the take-up rates of new non-landed projects in non-prime areas, CBRE found that the mid-tier and mass-market projects turned in strong sales volume in 2006, although prices for these segments only began rising this year.

‘Until now, the market had perceived that these segments trailed the luxury segment in their recovery, and had begun to recover only in early-2007, in terms of volume and price,’ it said.

An analysis of the new units launched last year and the corresponding take-up volumes ’shows otherwise’, it said.

It found that 68 per cent of the new projects launched last year in the West Coast, in districts 5 and 21, were taken up. Similarly, take-up rates for projects in districts 15 and 16 were about 90 per cent - ‘not far’ from the take-up rates of 74 per cent for projects in the prime districts 9 and 10 and 96 per cent for those in the downtown and Sentosa Cove areas.

‘Of course, in terms of pricing, the mass market and mid-tier projects have only begun to inch up in the previous two quarters of 2007,’ said Joseph Tan, executive director for residential property at CBRE.

‘But the strong sales of non-prime projects since a year ago show the return of buying power for upgraders and private homeowners, who, at that time, saw good investment value in the projects, while anticipating the upside in prices later on.’

Since then, the number of projects on the market has increased dramatically.

The number of new units launched in the west has tripled from a year ago, with the launch of One-north Residences, One Rochester, Botannia and The Parc Condominium, it said.

Meanwhile, the number of new units launched in the Newton/Novena area has doubled from 578 units in 2006 to 1,351 units so far this year. Take-up rates have been ‘very healthy’ at 90 per cent, said CBRE.

In districts 15 and 16 in the east, the take-up rate so far this year has been ‘equally strong’ at 85 per cent.

Residential rents have also risen sharply ‘due to the shortage of apartments for lease following the slew of collective sales of existing developments in the past two years’, said CBRE.

After rising 18.7 per cent on average in the first half, rents are expected to increase by another 8-10 per cent in the third quarter.

Rents in the popular areas of Tanjong Rhu, Meyer Road, East Coast, Dunman, Joo Chiat and Siglap have gone up 40.9 per cent since the fourth quarter of 2006, with median rents now at $2.62 per square foot per month.

The next biggest increase in rents were for apartments in the Orchard Road, Grange Road, Tanglin and Bukit Timah areas, where rents have gone up by 37.5 per cent to $3.74 per square foot per month on average.

The residential market is likely to remain active in the final quarter of this year, amid strong growth in the economy, CBRE said.

Source : Business Times - 29 Sept 2007

Temporary supply shrinkage adds to space crunch: DTZ

Office rents across Singapore have all breached historic highs, says real estate consultant DTZ Debenham Tie Leung, with Raffles Place now commanding average monthly rents of $14.50 per square foot (psf).

Historic Highs

This represents an increase of 11 per cent over the previous quarter.

And despite the completion of the 81,460 square feet of new office space at 135 Cecil Street during the quarter, the office market still suffered a net loss of 455,390 sq ft of stock due to the demolition of Asia Chambers Building and the addition and alteration works going on at two existing office blocks - OUB Building and Ocean Building.

The authorities have been trying, among other measures, to address the crunch by making short-term lease office space available.

DTZ executive director (consulting and research) Ong Choon Fah said: ‘The rapid rise of office rents is likely to impel prospective tenants to source for lower-cost alternatives outside the CBD.’

In its report, DTZ highlights that CBD fringe and decentralised areas like Alexandra and Novena have been attracting much of this spill-over demand.

In particular, the Alexandra zone now enjoys full occupancy with average monthly gross rents at $6.80, an increase of 13 per cent quarter on quarter.

In the Orchard Road zone, monthly rental increases are significantly higher at 25 per cent quarter on quarter and now the rents stand at $10.60 psf per month.

Future supply can be expected from government land sales sites.

In the third quarter, three sites were sold.

Two were at Anson Road/Enggor Street, going to Mapletree Investments and LaSalle Investment Management, while one site was at Beach Road, which went to a consortium consisting of City Developments, Istithmar and El-Ad Group.

DTZ believes the sites could generate an estimated 1.03 million sq ft of gross floor area of office space.

It also noted that there is another 5.7 million sq ft of commercial space from various government sources available in H2 2007.

But with demand from the financial sector for office space not expected to decline anytime soon - DTZ cites a Bank for International Settlements report which ranks Singapore as its fifth-largest centre for foreign exchange trading - interim government initiatives have had to be introduced to alleviate some pressure.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority launched two transitional office sites at Scotts Road and Tampines Concourse with 15-year leases in the quarter, with the site at Scotts Road drawing 11 bidders.

And DTZ also estimates that at the end of the third quarter, 663,766 sq ft of short-term lease office space has been made available through the Singapore Land Authority.

Source : Business Times - 29 Sept 2007

THE average monthly rent for high-tech industrial space has increased by 15 per cent in this quarter to $3.45 per square foot per month, real estate consultant DTZ Debenham Tie Leung reported.

High-tech industrial space includes business park and science park space such as Changi Business Park and International Business Park, and rents there now range from $3 to $4.50 psf per month. The monthly asking rent for the newly completed Eightrium @ Changi Business Park is also in the vicinity of $4 psf.

DTZ executive director (consultancy and research) Ong Choon Fah attributed the increasing rents to the continuing spillover demand for conventional office space.

The latest figures showed that business parks experienced a 5 per cent drop in occupancy in the second quarter of this year due to the completion of Eightrium @ Changi Business Park and Xinlinx Asia Pacific’s business park development at Changi Business Park Vista.

Mrs Ong added: ‘Notwithstanding the dip in occupancy rate, demand for business parks remains strong.’

HSBC will take up 10,000 square feet of space at the Comtech, she noted.

Islandwide, private industrial stock, which includes factory and warehouse space, rose one per cent to 295 million sq ft in the second quarter. The average occupancy rate of private factory space rose marginally by 0.1 of a percentage point quarter-on-quarter to 90.7 per cent in the second quarter while islandwide occupancy rate of warehouse space stood at 89 per cent.

Separately, JTC Corporation launched a 20,867 square metre land parcel at Jalan Tepong for sale yesterday. Industry executives expect this site, which is the second of the two industrial sites for the year to be launched under the Government Land Sales Confirmed List, to go for between $380 and $400 per sq m per plot ratio. The site has a plot ratio of 1.4 and can be used for light industry, general industry, warehousing, utilities or telecommunications.

Demand for high-tech space could see new entrants into the market building their own facilities.

Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) associate director (industrial markets) Tahlil Khan said that his firm is working with a number of organisations and is looking at public tenders and direct allocation of sites ‘depending on the preferences, accommodation needs and objectives of the occupier’.

David Wilton, JLL regional director and head of industrial (Asia) said that users were unlikely to find space at what he called ‘the existing business park or high-tech inventory’.

He said that these users were left with three options: purchase land to occupy; commission a leased facility; or negotiate with owners/developers on facilities under development or construction.

Source : Business Times - 29 Sept 2007

Gallery boos buyers’ application to intervene

It was an animated session - to say the least - in the High Court yesterday as the owners of Horizon Towers gathered to appeal against the Strata Titles Board’s (STB) dismissal of their collective sale application.

Court 6C was packed to the hilt with at least 35 lawyers from no less than five law firms representing the buyers and different groups of owners. It made for a charged atmosphere.

The appeal had been filed by the former sales committee of Horizon Towers, which had filed the application for a collective sale order, and was to be attended by themselves and the minority sellers who had objected to the sale.

But numerous other parties turned up yesterday, on the grounds that they also had a stake in the outcome. One such group comprised the buyers of Horizon Towers: Hotel Properties Ltd (HPL), Morgan Stanley Real Estate-managed funds and Qatar Investment Authority. Represented by Allen & Gledhill, they applied before the High Court to intervene at the appeal.

Their application was greeted by boos from the gallery. Senior Counsel K Shanmugam was interrupted so often that Justice Choo Han Teck, who presided over the hearing, had to ask the crowd for restrain.

The buyers’ unpopularity with the majority sellers stemmed from the fact that HPL and its partners have sued the sellers for breach of the collective sale agreement.

The majority sellers’ application to the STB was rejected by the board in August, on the grounds that it was defective: specifically, because certain key pages were missing from the application.

STB’s decision, coming just days before the sale completion deadline, effectively scuppered the en bloc sale. The buyers then sued the majority sellers, claiming damages arising from a loss of profit of up to $1 billion.

That suit was stayed on Thursday, after the majority sellers agreed last week to extend the sale completion deadline to Dec 11.

Yesterday also saw another group of 13 Horizon Towers owners - who form part of the majority that agreed to the collective sale - applying to intervene in the appeal. This group, which includes local singer Ho Yeow Sun and her husband Kong Hee, are represented by Rajah & Tann.

Both these applications to intervene were met with strong objections. The minority owners - represented by several law firms, including Harry Elias and Tan Kok Quan Partnership - said, among other things, that allowing these two parties in would unnecessarily increase the time and costs involved.

Such proceedings yesterday meant that there was not even time for the STB appeal to be heard. The session will resume on Monday, when Judge Choo will rule on whether to allow HPL and its partners and the group of 13 owners to intervene in the appeal. He will then hear the appeal and decide whether to set aside STB’s decision.

Source : Business Times - 29 Sept 2007