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He altered stamp duty payable by client and lied about address to get his child into top school.

HE WILL spend the next 11 months in jail but the immediate future of his 10-year-old daughter is less certain.

Lawyer Tan Sok Ling, 40, pleaded guilty last week to lying about his residential address in order to secure his daughter a place at a reputable school in Bukit Timah. He also admitted to altering the stamp duty payable for a property transaction from $8,100 to $13,500.

Yesterday he was sentenced to nine months’ jail for forgery and two months for giving false information. Two other forgery charges and another of giving false information were considered.

As for his daughter’s fate in the school, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said it will consider the court’s ruling in deciding the course of action for the child.

Tan, who was called to the Bar in 1993, is currently under a 12-month suspension for breaching the Solicitors Accounts Rules between 2002 and 2003.

The owner of the now-defunct firm of Tan S.L. & Partners was representing Mr Kwang Siang Jin, 46, a buyer of a Thomson Park house, when he forged the stamp duty certificate in March last year.

Mr Kwang paid $13,500 for stamp duties for the purchase of the property, not knowing that the actual figure was only $8,100.

When he found out three months later, he demanded a refund and Tan complied.

Earlier in 2003, Tan’s family was living in Bedok when he decided to rent a place within the 1km radius of the Bukit Timah school in order to enrol his daughter there.

He managed to find a unit at Maplewoods Condominium and paid a $1,600 monthly rent for 41/2 months from April 2003. He told the property agent that he was not going to live there but wanted to use the address.

After signing the licence agreement, he went to the Siglap Neighbourhood Police Post on July 6 that year to change his address to the Bukit Timah one when he knew that it was false.

His daughter, now 10, was admitted to the school. But he was found out after an MOE official lodged a police report on Dec 19 that year stating that two applicants at the 2003 Primary 1 registration exercise had used the same address.

Mr Peter Cuthbert Low of law firm Colin Ng & Partners said his client cooperated fully with the police, made restitution even before he was charged, and was genuinely remorseful.

Citing aggravating factors in the case, District Judge Liew Thiam Leng said the offence involved fraud and dishonesty as well as premeditation. Tan had abused his position of trust as a lawyer and his conduct undermined public confidence in the legal profession.

Tan could have been jailed for up to seven years for forgery. For giving false information to a public servant, the maximum penalty is six months’ jail or $1,000 fine or both.

Source : Straits Times - 30 Nov 2007

Rise - fuelled mainly by soaring open market rents - has doubled waiting time for those in queue.

SOARING rents in the open market are forcing more people to opt for subsidised HDB rental flats, but the extra numbers have doubled the waiting period.

Eligible low-income households now must wait five to 11 months to move into a rental HDB flat, compared with two to six months a year ago.

The pressure had been mounting for some time: In the financial year that ended in March, HDB’s stock of one- and two-room rental flats dropped slightly, but it had to deal with an 11 per cent increase in applications.

Most of the 3,000 or so applicants in the queue now are unlikely to get a home until the first quarter of next year, when the first batch of recently- refurbished flats comes on stream.

Members of Parliament, who have noticed the longer wait among their needy residents, have cited another factor: People who were unable to sell their flats during the property downturn are now offloading their flats to repay debts but find themselves priced out of the hot market.

An MP for Aljunied GRC, Madam Cynthia Phua, said: ‘The alternative is to rent a flat on the open market, but that is increasingly very expensive.’

Rents for HDB flats have shot up in the past year, in some cases by more than 30 per cent.

Families who have recently sold their flats are also caught by a longstanding HDB rule that requires them to wait 30 months after selling their flat before being eligible for subsidised rental homes.

Many turn to their relatives, but Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MP Charles Chong said: ‘In cases where they have no relatives, or have conflict with the rest of their families, some end up sleeping on Changi Beach, at void decks and so on.’

The HDB allocates subsidised rental flats to families earning no more than $1,500 a month. Depending on their income and whether they have had a previous housing subsidy, they pay $26 to $205 a month for a one-room flat, and $44 to $275 for two-room flats.

These rates are far lower than in the open market, where the median monthly rental for a two-room flat in Queenstown in the July to September period was $800.

The squeeze on rental flats is hitting applicants like Ms Jannath, 41, hard. The former cleaner, who has no savings, sold her four-room flat a few months ago to help pay for her unemployed husband’s medical bills.

The HDB helped her in June by waiving the 30-month waiting debarment period for a rental flat.

Her family must leave its four-room flat by Dec 5, but the waiting list for rental flats has meant that she has yet to get one.

Ms Jannath told The Straits Times: ‘They can give me (a flat) anywhere…I just want a shelter for the three of us.’

In March, the HDB was managing about 42,000 one- and two-room rental flats, with about 95 per cent occupied. More are coming on stream from next year.

The Board is converting three blocks in Boon Lay and Woodlands into 938 rental units expected to be ready early next year. Next year, it will also convert two blocks in Redhill to about 290 rental homes and build 976 units in Choa Chu Kang, Sembawang and Yishun.

The stock is more limited on the open market, with only about 16,000 rented out.

The HDB said: ‘HDB rental flats are…limited in stock. They are meant for poor and needy households…Those who can afford to buy or rent from the open market, as well as those with family support, should not turn to rental flats…and compete with more needy families.’

SHE JUST WANTS A ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS

‘They can give me (a flat) anywhere…I just want a shelter for the three of us.’ MS JANNATH, 41, a former cleaner who sold her four-room flat a few months ago to help pay for her unemployed husband’s medical bills. Her family must move out of its home by Dec 5, but the waiting list for rental flats has meant that she has yet to get one.

MEANT FOR THE NEEDY

‘Those who can afford to buy or rent from the open market, as well as those with family support, should not turn to rental flats…and compete with more needy families.’ HDB, saying that rental flats are limited in stock and are meant for poor and needy households.

Source : Straits Times - 30 Nov 2007

Cost competitiveness in S’pore unlikely to be hit, says panel in HK to promote sector.

THERE is little danger that Singapore’s high-end property prices will affect its cost competitiveness, said a panel promoting the country’s real estate prospects.

Mr Daryl Ng, the executive director of Sino Group, one of Hong Kong’s largest developers, said it was healthy that prices of top-end homes in Singapore have finally caught up with those in other global cities such as New York and London.

‘There is good value in Singapore…where prices were a laggard compared with those in other international cities,’ he said yesterday at Mipim Asia, a major property conference and exhibition being held in Hong Kong this year.

Mr Ng is the son of Sino Group chairman Robert Ng and the grandson of group founder Ng Teng Fong.

The panel was addressing a question from an audience member on whether Singapore’s costly homes would price the city out, especially as some Orchard Road flats now cost twice as much as apartments near New York’s Times Square.

The head of property firm Savills Singapore, Mr Michael Ng, noted that while Singapore homes might be getting pricey, they are still nowhere near the world’s costliest residences.

There is still some way to go before they hit prices such as $15,000 per sq ft (psf), fetched recently in London, he said.

Mr Richard Johnson, who heads the Istithmar Real Estate fund, added that high prices are simply part of a market cycle. ‘We’re at the top of the cycle in Singapore. It’s just tough luck.’

An official from Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) noted that while high-end homes have exceeded $5,000 psf, there are still ‘good quality, suburban homes available for $500 to $600 psf’.

‘What we are seeing now is market segmentation,’ said Mr Marc Boey, a deputy director at the Singapore agency.

‘Compared with the 1990s, we are now seeing demand not just from Indonesians and Malaysians but also from people in Monaco, London and the Middle East.’

Mr Boey also told The Straits Times that the URA and the Singapore Tourism Board were in Hong Kong to woo hotel developers that have little or no presence in Singapore, ahead of a revised Government Land Sales programme due out in two weeks.

The programme opens sites to developers for bidding.

Many companies have expressed keen interest in building hotels, ranging from smallish ones of about 300 rooms to those with about 500 rooms, said Mr Boey.

Source : Straits Times - 30 Nov 2007

Sites snapped up by individuals, firms at prices ranging from $1.3m to $12.1m

MORE than 120 eager buyers yesterday crowded into a room at M Hotel hoping for a bargain deal at a first-of-its kind auction of six small plots of land.

The buyers were mostly hoping to buy a plot on which to build their own dream home.

And after some brisk bidding, six of them each left with a 99-year leasehold plot - some with what they saw as bargains.

The plots sold at prices from $1.3 million to $12.1 million, for a total of $30.64 million.

It was the Singapore Land Authority’s (SLA) first auction of residential ‘infill’ sites.

‘Infill’ sites are pockets of state land, located in the midst of an established housing estate, that have been left untouched by nearby developments or were once used for public purposes.

The six sites were mostly hotly contested, reflecting strong interest in the attractively-priced sites.

The bidders included professionals, businessmen, construction firms and niche developers, said SLA in a statement.

Included in an SLA sale for the first time were two good- class bungalow (GCB) parcels, which were sold to individual buyers for up to $12.1 million.

Still, one of the two top-end plots - a 16,689 sq ft site - attracted just one bidder. Fund manager John Foo met with zero competition when he bought the smaller of the two plots at Eng Neo Avenue for $6 million or $359.50 per sq ft (psf).

He reckoned he got a good deal for the site, which is for his own use. ‘Sentosa leasehold plots can be over $1,000 psf while District 10 GCB plots are going for $800 to $1,000 psf.’

The other GCB plot, at 29,201 sq ft in size, attracted more bidders. Bids came in hefty $50,000 increments but bidders did not hesitate long as they fired in a total of 52 bids, driving the price up from $9.5 million to $12.1 million.

The interest is not surprising, given that GCB sites, particularly one as big as 29,201 sq ft, are quite rare, said Ms Mok Sze Sze, Jones Lang LaSalle’s director and head of auction and sales.

The successful buyer, Ms Hu Nan Lee, is a Singaporean who is overseas. Her representative said it is meant for her own use.

Of the six plots, the most popular was one at Somme Road. It attracted a whopping 64 bids before local firm Sarda clinched it at $3.76 million.

Sarda’s price was 52 per cent above the $2.48 million opening bid for the 3,547 sq ft residential site, which comes with commercial use on the first floor.

A 6,971 sq ft site in Jalan Insaf, suitable for a pair of two-storey semi-detached houses or a bungalow, was sold to Lye Holdings for $3.54 million, up from the starting bid of $2.9 million.

Avadh, another firm, paid $1.3 million for a 4,228 sq ft site in Bedok Close, suitable for a two-storey bungalow. The opening bid was $880,000.

Both Sarda and Avadh have a shareholder in common: Mr Shriniwas Rai, the veteran lawyer and former Nominated Member of Parliament.

Another firm, Liverland Investments, bought a 6,293 sq ft Moonbeam Walk site for $3.94 million. Bids for the site, which can be used to build a pair of two-storey semi-detached houses, opened at $3.32 million.

Ms Mok said the strong response shows people are open to buying leasehold plots to build their dream homes.

SLA’s chief executive, Mr Lam Joon Khoi, said: ‘We will consider releasing more infill sites to help meet the current market demand for high quality residential properties.’

Source : Straits Times - 30 Nov 2007

SINGAPORE-BASED investment firm Pacific Star has shrugged off concerns about global share markets to launch a fund that banks on Asia’s property prospects.

The company has set up the Asia Real Estate Prime Development Fund and aims to make $400US million ($578S.2 million) worth of real estate investments.

The fund will invest in prime residential apartments, serviced residences and mixed development projects in Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and Japan.

Its first deal is under way - the purchase of a 49 per cent stake in two Bangkok freehold residential projects. The developer is Asian Property Development, one of Thailand’s largest listed residential property developers.

Both projects will target local buyers in the upper-middle-income group.

Pacific Star, although one of the newer property fund houses in Asia, is growing fast. It has launched three other funds, including the $580US million Eureka Office Fund, which owns commercial properties such as Temasek Tower, One George Street and The Adelphi.

It was also behind the Macquarie Meag Prime Real Estate Investment Trust, which is listed in Singapore and owns stakes in shopping malls Wisma Atria and Ngee Ann City.

Source : Straits Times - 30 Nov 2007