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HONG Kong-based developer Cheung Kong Holdings is resuming sales of its Cairnhill Crest project, with a launch planned next month.

Property consultants say a three-bedroom unit that went for $2,045 per square foot in January was a recent high. A Chinese national who purchased it paid around $3.5 million.

Last October, a record was set at $2,200 psf for a three-bedroom unit at The Boulevard Residence at Cuscaden Walk in the Orchard Road area.

Sixty-eight units, or 27.4 per cent, of Cairnhill Crest’s total of 248 remain unsold. They are one to four-bedroom units, ranging from 818 sq ft to 2,016 sq ft. A penthouse of over 2,500 sq ft is available; the other penthouses are off the market.

Cheung Kong is releasing the remaining units in batches of 20 or so over three phases from mid-March, with the aim of selling everything by the third quarter of this year.

While Cheung Kong’s management is still finalising pricing, deputy chief sales manager Francis Wong said that prices are likely to be increased by 5 per cent with each release. In the past few months, apartments were sold at between $1,248 psf and $2,045 psf.

For the batch in March, Mr Wong is expecting the average price to hit $1,800 psf. On average, the project’s prices have reached $1,705 psf, according to Mr Wong. He added that over 70 per cent of the units are sold at about $1,400 psf.

Over 70 per cent of the buyers are foreigners, led by the Indonesians. One customer - an Indian national - bought four units of the development, while another 10, from various countries, bought two units each, Mr Wong told BT.

Cairnhill Crest has an ‘investment plan’, where it pays the monthly mortgage for three years if the buyer agrees to delegate full authority on all leasing issues within that period. The scheme was taken up by 52 per cent of its buyers.

Property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle, which is handling the leasing, said that the lease price is between $4.80 psf and $7 psf, depending on whether the units are furnished or not. JLL national director (residential) Jacqueline Wong said that a typical three-bedroom unit would cost about $7,000 to $9,000 monthly. The yield for owners is an average of 4.2 per cent annually.

Mr Wong said that Cheung Kong is constantly looking out for new land to purchase for residential development. ‘Our group is very optimistic about the future of Singapore,’ he said. ‘The recovery of the property market can last for three to five years.’

Source : Business Times - 24 Feb 2006

CDL may sell premium project at prices topping those of the last property boom

CITY Developments’ (CDL’s) super luxury St Regis Residences being built in the exclusive Cuscaden/Tomlinson area could be offered for sale at record-busting prices of $2,600 per sq ft (psf) - well above the top prices at the height of the property boom in 1996-1997.

That is according to Credit Suisse analysts, quoting sources in the know.

‘According to our sources, pricing could be as high as $2,600 psf, as the list of interested buyers continues to grow,’ said a Credit Suisse report yesterday. ‘We remain conservative and have only imputed an average price of $2,100 psf in our forecasts.’

St Regis Residences have been described by CDL as a premium product, with many large units of 400 sq m (4,310 sq ft) in size. It will have three- to four-bedroom units and penthouses.

Assuming the 400 sq m units are priced at $2,100 psf, each one will cost at least $9 million.

St Regis Residences will have all the perks of the St Regis Hotel, including access to St Regis’ much-touted 24-hour butler service, hotel-style room service and cleaning, but residents must pay ongoing fees for these.

Property watchers expect the property to set a new price benchmark in the market. If it is sold at $2,600 psf, it would be a new record for Singapore. Ardmore Park, long seen as having Singapore’s most expensive homes, achieved a high of $2,400 psf in the 1996-1997 peak.

‘St Regis is in a class of its own. If you have a very different product, you will set a new benchmark,’ said DTZ Debenham Tie Leung’s executive director, Mrs Ong Choon Fah.

An industry source said more foreign buyers were expected to buy for prestige reasons.

Prices in the luxury homes market climbed by about 20 per cent last year and could rise by 10 to 15 per cent this year, though the recovery has yet to filter down to the mass market, said property consultancy Savills.

St Regis Residences, which is on a 999-year leasehold site and next to the new six-star St Regis Hotel, could be launched next month. Both developments are jointly owned by CDL, Hong Leong Holdings and TID.

It will be the first of at least five projects that CDL has lined up for launch this year, as it looks to replicate its residential sales success last year, said the Credit Suisse report. Last year, CDL, together with Hong Leong Group, sold 2,300 residential units, taking the top spot with a 30 per cent market share.

The other projects lined up include its 264-unit Sentosa Cove condominium, which could be priced at $1,200 psf on average and launched in the middle of the year, said Credit Suisse.

A 214-unit condominium at the freehold King’s Centre site could be launched in the first half at $930 psf on average, followed by a 360-unit block at the 99-year leasehold 1, Shenton Way site in the third quarter and possibly priced at $1,100 psf on average.

By year-end, CDL may launch its 999-year leasehold Pasir Ris site, which could have 600 units priced at $580 psf on average.

Credit Suisse is forecasting that CDL, which will report its full-year results next Tuesday, will achieve a net profit of $207 million.

Source : Straits Times - 23 Feb 2006

Luxury home buyers will have their pick of 6,000 units in choice locales in the next few months

IF YOU missed out on last year’s rush to snag a luxury condominium, fret not, a slew of upmarket property launches is coming your way.

Home buyers can look forward to as many as 30 potential condo launches in the next few months offering a total of about 6,000 apartment units.

This is according to property consultancy Colliers International. It says the list is ‘dominated by small to mid-scale luxury and prime projects’.

Almost half the potential launches are in prime locations such as Sentosa Cove and Districts 9 to 11, and mid-range areas such as District 15. This continues a trend skewed towards the mid- and high-end markets that started last year.

One of the most anticipated launches this year is City Developments’ (CDL) super-luxurious St Regis Residences, widely tipped to fetch benchmark prices of over $2,000 per square foot. The 999-year leasehold condo at Tomlinson Road is due to be launched next month, CDL told The Straits Times on Friday.

The more upbeat sentiment overall has led developers to expect a bullish property market this year, said Ms Tay Huey Ying, the associate director of research and consultancy at Colliers International.

‘We would expect developers to capitalise on this sentiment by being more aggressive in their launches,’ she said.

This seems borne out by the success of the year’s first launches in the past few weeks.

MCL Land’s freehold project, The Esta in Katong, has sold more than 60 per cent of its 400 units, ahead of its official launch this weekend. The nits sold since the January preview have averaged more than $700 psf, the firm said.

GuocoLand - which will officially launch its 162-unit West Coast Road condo, The Stellar, this weekend - has sold some of the 60 units offered at a preview last month, at $550 psf on average.

But not all developers are in a hurry to launch, said Knight Frank director of research and consultancy Nicholas Mak.

‘Some developers will carefully gauge market sentiment before launching major prime projects, to try to push the price envelope in the high-end market even further,’ he said.

He added that, despite the bullish sentiment, there will probably be fewer launches in the first half than in the same period last year as the potential supply of residential properties available for launch has fallen.

At end-2004, about 11,200 units had not been launched for sale despite having a sales licence; at the end of last year, the figure was 7,300, he noted. However, he added, the situation could change later this year, as many developers snapped up en bloc sites last year that they have yet to put up for sale.

Also, some are biding their time to launch projects aimed at the mass market in the hope that optimism in this segment will pick up later in the year.

‘In the second half of 2006, sales activities in the mass-market segment are likely to pick up with the launches of a few major suburban 99-year leasehold projects targeted at HDB upgraders,’ Mr Mak said.

Source : Sunday Times - 12 Feb 2006

The former is going for $550 psf on average and the latter, $462 psf

AFTER the Chinese New Year break, two projects will be launched officially this weekend - GuocoLand’s The Stellar condo at Pasir Panjang, on the former Greenacres site, and Novelty Group’s Amanusa cluster terrace housing development in the Upper Thomson area. Both projects are freehold.

The five-storey Stellar condo is priced at $550 psf on average and GuocoLand is offering buyers a deferred payment scheme. The group sold about 30 units at the project during a preview before the CNY break - half of the 60 units it had released then.

Marketing agent Knight Frank will release more units at this weekend’s official launch, marked by the start of an advertisement campaign. In total, the condo, at the corner of Clementi and West Coast roads, comprises 162 apartments ranging from 614 sq ft to 2,271 sq ft. Some units come with private pools.

BT understands that over in the Paterson Road area, GuocoLand has sold about 70 of the 104 apartments in Paterson Residence freehold condo. The average price has gone up to around $1,470 psf from about $1,400 psf in October, sources say.

The apartments are in a 24-storey tower. The project includes six strata townhouses which GuocoLand has yet to begin selling. The three-storey houses are expected to be priced at $5.3 million to $6 million each and range in strata area from about 3,800 sq ft to 4,100 sq ft.

Buyers looking for landed homes outside the city might want to check out Novelty’s Amanusa strata cluster homes along Upper Thomson Road, a short distance from Peirce Reservoir. Marketing agent DTZ Debenham Tie Leung has sold seven of the 36 homes in the development since a soft launch on Jan 5.

The houses comprise five levels - three storeys, a basement for two car park lots, and a roof terrace. Each house will have a private lift. Strata areas range from 2,874 sq ft to 3,875 sq ft and the homes are priced between $1.3 million and $1.8 million. The average price works out to $448 psf of strata area for buyers who opt for normal progressive payment and $462 psf for those who prefer deferred payment.

While market watchers will certainly track the response to the two developments this weekend, what they are more keenly waiting for is the release of more price-defining projects, like Hong Leong Group’s St Regis Residences at Cuscaden-Tomlinson roads in the luxury segment and GuocoLand’s 625-unit condo next to Buangkok MRT Station in the 99-year leasehold mass-market suburban category.

While luxury residential values in Singapore escalated last year on the back of strong foreign interest, growth has been more sluggish in the entry-level private housing market, which relies more heavily on local buyers. This has further accentuated the two-tier property market that has emerged in Singapore, and market watchers say the gap is set to widen further.

CB Richard Ellis has forecast that luxury home prices will rise 20 per cent this year after appreciating 15 per cent last year. It also predicts a 5 per cent increase in the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s overall private home price index this year after a 3.9 per cent gain last year.

Source : Business Times - 9 Feb 2006

They also account for 22.5% of all private-home purchases last year, the highest in at least 10 years

Foreign nationals including permanent residents accounted for a solid 44.1 per cent of private-home buyers in the high-end segment last year.

The percentage, which is for homes costing between $1 million and $5 million, is up on a 36 per cent foreign share in 2004 and 29 per cent in 2003, according to a research paper by Savills.

Overall, foreigners accounted for 22.5 per cent of all private-home purchases in both the primary and secondary markets in Singapore last year. This is up on an 18.4 per cent share in 2004 and is the highest figure in at least 10 years.

Looking only at the prime districts of 9, 10 and 11, this figure was as high as 40 per cent.

‘Districts 4, 8, 15 and 16 (HarbourFront, Little India and the East Coast) were also popular and recorded a sizeable amount of foreign buying interest due to several launches (Caribbean at Keppel Bay, The Azure, The Berth By The Cove, City Square Residences, The Sea View),’ says Savills.

Indonesians and Malaysians combined accounted for almost half of all foreign buyers last year. Indonesians had a 26 per cent share, followed by Malaysians with 25 per cent. UK nationals and mainland Chinese tied for third place, with a 10 per cent share each, followed by Indians with 9 per cent.

Savills’ full-year figures reiterate a trend of strong foreign buying of private homes that has emerged over the past 12 months or so. Foreign buying has been leading the recovery in the island’s luxury residential sector, while local buyers in the mass market continue to be cautious because of interest rate hikes and job stability concerns.

This has led to the much-discussed phenomenon of a ‘two-tier market’.

Singapore’s decision to go ahead with two integrated resorts with casinos in April last year also boosted the island’s profile among international investors, leading them to re-visit its property market, say property consultants.

Residential property prices here had been appreciating at a far slower pace than elsewhere in the region, making the Singapore market undervalued.

In terms of per square foot price, Savills says the average transaction price for the 15 most expensive deals in the luxury segment rose 9.2 per cent last year to about $1,700 psf. However, this is still about 13 per cent lower than the 1996 peak of $1,950 psf.

‘With continued positive sentiments over the future economy, we believe that Singapore’s residential prices will continue to rise, even surpassing the 1996 peak - over the next one-and-a-half years,’ it says.

Savills’ research head Wallace Chu reckons there’s still plenty of room for luxury home prices to recover. For one, the country now has a more modernised infrastructure than 10 years ago. ‘Moreover, as Singapore’s image as a global city becomes more acknowledged by foreign investors, proven by strong foreign buyer activities in the residential sector, this ‘international appeal’ will in turn support the luxury residential market’s recovery,’ he says.

On the growing foreign investor interest in the Singapore residential sector, Savills points to the competitiveness of the local market compared with other regional and international markets like Hong Kong, the UK and Australia.

‘Singapore property values are relatively cheap, but more importantly, investors now perceive that the Singapore market has turned the corner and offers excellent capital gains potential,’ Savills says.

‘Liberal investment policies such as the absence of a capital gains tax and currency controls, easy payment and banking financing schemes for foreign investors are some of the major attractions of the Singapore property market to overseas buyers,’ it adds.

Savills expects overall private home prices - as measured by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore’s price index for private homes - to rise by 5 to 10 per cent this year, following a 3.8 per cent increase in 2005 based on official flash estimates. The luxury residential segment will continue to lead the price recovery, rising a further 20 per cent this year after a 10 per cent rise last year, it says.

Source : Business Times - 23 Jan 2006