Singapore Real Estate

This means that the IRAS will continue to evaluate the facts and circumstances of each property sale, to determine if the individual owner concerned should be subject to income tax on the profit made.

Under a proposal that was put up for public feedback from 22 June to 14 July, it was put forth that individuals who sold their properties would be certain that the profit made would not be subject to income tax if they had not sold any other properties in the last four years.

The proposal was in response to public feedback over the years that there should be certainty of non-taxation for individuals who did not transact frequently in properties and whose income did not depend on the sale.

However, a majority of comments received were not in favour of the proposed change.

The feedback brought up the possibility that more would be biased towards investing in one bigger property rather than numerous smaller ones, as the change does not take into account the value of the property.

Some also felt that there were many other possible factors, besides the frequency of property disposal, which could merit granting certainty of non-taxation.

The change could also create uncertainty for individuals who sell more than one property within any four years, even though they may not be taxable eventually.

The Ministry said it had considered possible alternatives for providing certainty of non-taxation to individuals who sell their properties, but they brought "drawbacks and complexities of their own".

As such, the Ministry has decided to retain the current framework, and the IRAS will continue to consider the facts and circumstances of each sale to determine if the individual owner should be subject to income tax.

HDB ANG MO KIO DBSS

SINGAPORE: The HDB has put up a new site for tender under the Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS).

Located at Ang Mo Kio St 52, it has an area of 16,789.1 square metres and an allowable gross floor area of 58,761.85 square metres.

Building height is restricted to 110 metres or about 30 storeys.

This is the third site offered for tender under the DBSS and the smallest so far.

The first site in Tampines Ave 6 was 21,000 sqm in size and sold in January last year.

The second site at Boon Keng Road covered 18,394 sqm and was successfully sold in June this year.

The latest site is close to the Ang Mo Kio Town Centre and the MRT station, bus interchange and the new AMK Hub.

It is also near popular schools like Presbysterian High, CHIJ St Nicholas School, Nanyang Polytechnic and Anderson Junior College.

Tender packets are available at the Procurement Office at the HDB Hub from 12 September.

Tender will close on 27 November at 12 noon.

DBSS was launched in 2005 as part of the government's move to gradually open up the public housing building programme to the private sector.

The objective is to make the Singapore public housing programme more responsive to the needs and aspirations of Singaporeans.

HDB says market competition will also result in greater innovation in building and design, greater choice of flats, and better value for money for flat buyers.

Under DBSS, the private sector will undertake the entire public housing development process, from the tendering of the land to the designing, building and selling of the flats.

The successful tenderer who is awarded the site has 48 months from the date of award to complete the project.

The tenderer will also have the flexibility to design and price the DBSS flats as well as decide on the terms of payment for the flats.

But the project will still be subject to the relevant legislation and rules to preserve the character of public housing and ensure building quality and safety.

Like flats developed by HDB, flats sold under DBSS come with a 99-year lease and will be offered to buyers under the same HDB eligibility conditions.

Upon the completion of the building of the flats, the successful tenderer will hand over the entire development site to HDB for lease administration, and to the Town Council for maintenance of the common areas and car parks

Town council- funds

Town councils' sinking funds not substantially affected by financial turmoil
By May Wong, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 28 October 2008 2029 hrs

Town councils' sinking funds not substantially affected by financial turmoil

SINGAPORE : The sinking funds under all 14 PAP-managed town councils are safe and not significantly affected by the failed Lehman Brothers products.

Town councils said only a small percentage of their total investments were spent on those affected products.

Town councils use their individual sinking funds to carry works such as repairing damages at HDB (Housing & Development Board) common areas or maintaining an HDB elevator.

Every PAP town council has between S$30 million and S$150 million in their sinking funds.

Under current guidelines, each town council can use 65 per cent of their sinking funds to invest in government bonds, while up to 35 per cent can be invested in other financial instruments like corporate bonds and equities.

Although some of the town councils have purchased Lehman Brothers-linked products, the investments are minimal.

"Maybe a couple of percentage out of the total investment portfolio (were used in those investments), so the exposure will not affect the overall investment portfolio or the sinking funds per se. There's definitely no fear that any of the PAP town councils' sinking funds will be wiped out. All the supporting PAP town councils' sinking funds are in safe hands," assured Dr Teo Ho Pin, Coordinating Chairman of the 14 PAP Town Councils. He is also the mayor of North West District.

For Jurong Town Council, it has not invested in any Lehman-linked products, but explains that it only spends about 18 per cent or S$15 million of its S$84 million sinking funds in slightly riskier products.

Even then, that investment guarantees the principal amount.

"The position that we've taken is really to be very cautious with our investments because we're very clear that these are public funds, and therefore we decided to err on the side of being conservative in our investment policy. The public do not have to worry... there will not be enough funds in order to take care of their needs," said Jurong MP Halimah Yacob.

Many agree the current financial turmoil has taught the town councils that they should further diversify their investments in the future.

Going forward, town councils are expected to exercise even greater prudence when investing their sinking funds. But it's hoped that they will still be able to get up to 4 per cent of returns on their investments annually. - CNA /ls

Condo/ Apts

Luxury apartments suffered biggest price drop

Mass-market home prices 'at 2007 peak'

17 August 09 The Strait Times
by Francis Chan

ANTI-SPECULATIVE measures, falling rental yields and ballooning supply may drive residential property prices down by about 20 per cent, says an analyst.

Sounding a contrarian view that runs against current sentiments, RBS Singapore analyst Fera Wirawan warned that prices of some segments of the market have risen to 2007 peaks amid a strong upswing in buying levels.

Based on her analysis, prices of mass-market homes, or low-end private properties, are now at peak October 2007 levels, while prices of mid-tier and high-end homes are just 8 per cent and 22 per cent off their peaks respectively.

With prices surging 16 per cent to 26 per cent in recent months, the residential property sector may have peaked, Ms Wirawan cautioned.

'The residential sector recovery was initially driven by pent-up demand and cheap capital values, but we now see speculation in all residential segments, particularly the mass segment,' she said.

Average selling prices (ASPs) at recent property launches are 30 per cent to 80 per cent above the ASPs of nearby projects. This is markedly higher than the historical average of 20 per cent.

'Capital values have been rising in the face of falling rents and a full supply pipeline, a phenomenon we attribute to low average mortgage rates of 2 per cent.'

She noted that the strong residential volumes were triggered by Frasers Centrepoint's launch of the mass market Caspian project at an affordable $580 per sq ft in February, which attracted a high take-up owing to pent-up demand in the mass residential segment.

The positive sentiment from the sale of Caspian units quickly filtered through to the mid-tier and high-end segments.

This frantic level of buying, in annualised terms, almost matched the record number of new homes sold by developers in 2007.

Property developers here sold more than 7,000 private homes in the first half of this year, double what they sold in the same period last year.

When annualised, sales are only 2 per cent short of the record 14,811 sold in the 2007 boom year.

The low-end segment performed the best in the first three months of this year, contributing 63 per cent of the 2,552 primary units sold.

The second quarter, however, saw a change, with 40 per cent of the 4,552 units sold represented by the mid-tier segment, followed by 31 per cent in the high-end segment.

The broad-based recovery has fuelled a sharp rally of property counters such as City Developments and SC Global Developments.

The Singapore FTSE ST Real Estate index, which tracks Singapore-listed property stocks, has doubled from its March lows.

With increasing speculation, worsening affordability, declining rental yields and plentiful supply in the property development pipeline, prices are likely to cool, said Ms Wirawan.

'The Government is watching the market and could implement anti-speculative policies if speculation in the market goes on unabated,' she said. 'We expect prices to fall 10 per cent to 20 per cent in the residential sector over the next 12 months.'

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said last month that signs of speculation are re-emerging in the property market and stressed that the Government is monitoring the the situation closely. His comments came after speculative pricing practices began to emerge late last month, especially in the mass-market segment.

Ms Wirawan pointed to the sale of Centro Residences, a mass-market 99-year leasehold project located at Ang Mo Kio, which was sold at between $1,100 and 1,200 psf.

That price, she said, was close to the price of a bulk purchase of Sui Generis, located at Balmoral Park, a prime area, which sold for $1,260 psf.

Industry players generally agree that it is not sustainable to price low-end properties at about $1,000 psf.

The Government recently made cautionary statements owing to concerns that such homes may become unaffordable to the mass-market home-buyer.

The warning, however, appeared to have fallen on deaf ears as property launches continued to attract throngs of buyers, including many Housing Board upgraders, over the first two weekends of this month.

DMG & Partners Securities analyst Brandon Lee said that he expects 'residential sales momentum to continue', while OCBC Investment Research analyst Foo Sze Ming said demand in the mass-market segment was more sustainable.

New condo to get walkway to MRT station

21 August 09 The Strait Times
by Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent

HOW'S this for a condominium's selling point: Near MRT station. Complete with all-weather walkway.

The new Concourse Skyline in Beach Road could be the first private housing project to have an overhead bridge linking it to Singapore's mass transit system.

Other condo projects are likely to follow, in what could be an emerging trend.

Once it is completed, residents of the 99-year lease Concourse Skyline, being built on a demolished wing of the Concourse complex, will need to walk only about 200m to the Circle Line's rebuilt (and relocated) Nicoll Highway station due to open next year.

The 360-unit condo, developed by listed property group Hong Fok at an estimated $200 million, is expected to be ready by 2013.

Concourse Skyline's unique addition arose from rather unusual circumstances. The original Nicoll Highway station, which was much nearer to the Concourse, would have had an underground link to the former Concourse wing. But when the uncompleted station collapsed, killing four workers in a 2004 construction accident, plans for the underground link were scrapped.

A dispute then ensued between the Land Transport Authority and Hong Fok. Neither party would comment on this, but The Straits Times understands it partly involved the condo developer wanting direct access to the new station. The issue was settled last year, resulting in the overhead residential link.

Why not an underground connection?

'The new Concourse development is no longer a commercial space, and the new MRT station is much farther away,' explained Hong Fok director S.E. Cheong.

The project will be carried out in three stages, the first being the overhead bridge spanning Nicoll Highway. It was completed recently.

Construction of the second stage that links the overhead bridge to the MRT station, complete with lifts and escalators, is under way.

Once the Concourse Skyway nears completion, the final segment joining the condo to the bridge will be built by Hong Fok. Access to this segment will be through a secured doorway, passable only to residents.

Hong Fok had already included the linkway in publicity materials for the condo. The project was launched last year just as the impact of the world financial crisis hit Singapore. Units were then priced at between $1,500 and $1,800 per sq ft. Mr Cheong said yesterday 140 units have been sold.

City Developments' massive $2.5 billion South Beach project - also in Beach Road and targeted to be up by 2016 - will also have mass transit links. A spokesman said the 3.5ha commercial-and-residential project will have underground links to both Circle Line and Downtown Line stations, as well as to CityLink Mall that connects to the City Hall station and Raffles City Shopping Centre

Offices

Houses

Industrial factories & warehouses

Shophouses

Land Sales

Only one bid for URA industrial site at Kallang Pudding

Sole bid for URA hotel site at Kallang/Jellicoe

URA office site unlikely to attract good bids

2007 land sale taking doubled