We are ONE!

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Time does fly, especially when your having fun.

It felt only like yesterday that the wife and I did our very first blog posting – at about 11pm on December 7, 2009 - We were waiting at the airport lounge in KLIA for our flight to Shanghai, and frantically typing away at the computer to complete our review for Adria, which we had visited over that weekend. That was the official birth of our modest little blog that is SG PropTalk.

The whole idea of SG PropTalk originated from some “over the dinner table, after a few bottles of wine later” talks we had with certain close friends. They were aware of our favourite past-time (i.e. visiting new launches and the showflats) and the conversation went along the lines of “hey, why don’t you guys start a blog about your showflat visits? Consider it public service and you may even end up with fans!” And the wife and I thought to ourselves… why not?!

Fast forward to a year, 285 posts and over 66,000 page views later (we must admit that some of the page views were from the 2 of us), we are both delighted and amazed by the fact that SG PropTalk is still alive and kickin’. We are also pleasantly surprised (and humbled) by the fact that SG PropTalk actually have some - ok, probably just the odd few - regular followers.

While we strived to update our blogs regularly, there have been challenging times – when we were overseas (especially China, where access to Blogger is banned), when our regular day jobs got in the way of our blogging, or when we just could not afford the time off our schedules to visit new launches and write about them at certain period of the year (e.g. the last couple of weeks and probably the rest of the month). For this, we seek your continual patience and understanding.

We will continue to blog for as long as we can afford the time, have the energy and find it fun to do so. We will also try to be as impartial as we can on our reviews and comments (TRY being the operative word), and continue to welcome any suggestions/comments/constructive criticisms that our readers may have about SG PropTalk.

Last but not least… the wife and I thank you for supporting SG PropTalk during the past year. It is really heartening to see the daily ‘hit rate’ gone from about 20 when we first started to the current 400 on average – not quite the same league as Xia Xue or Dawn Yang (yet), but we hope that SG PropTalk will eventually become the first place you go to for information concerning the Singapore private residential market scene. Well, one can always dream…

And with any luck (* fingers crossed *), SG PropTalk may still be around this time next year! :-)



Yours Sincerely,
The Folks @SG PropTalk

P/S: Have HELP us be better! Drop us a note and tell us what you like about SG Proptalk and what needs improvement.



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Sales status: Robinson Suites & d'Leedon

According to a BT report today, several new residential projects sold well last week.

Robinson Suites
All but the 5 penthouses at the 167-unit freehold Robinson Suites are said to have been sold over a three day period last week beginning on Thursday. Three shop units on the ground floor of the 42-storey project have also found takers.

A total of 132 residential units and the three shops were released on Thursday. Of these, everything was sold by Saturday, except for the five penthouses.

The remaining 35 apartments on the lower floors are believed to have been sold to a fund.

All the apartments in the development are either one-bedroom-plus-study or two-bedders. Unit sizes start at 484sqft.

The apartments are said to have sold at prices ranging from $2,600psf to $3,300psf. In lumpsum quantum, prices began at $1.2 million for a one-bedroom-plus-study and $1.5 million for a two-bedder.

In addition to this relatively affordable lumpsum investment size, buyers were drawn to the pitch for the project as the first freehold apartments at Robinson Road. The units face the low-rise Lau Pa Sat and will enjoy a relatively unblocked view.

Robinson Suites will rise on the former VTB Building site; the project is being developed by a consortium whose shareholders include Cheong Sim Lam (whose family developed International Plaza), Fission Holdings, Tan Koo Chuan and Saw Pik Kee.


d’Leedon
CapitaLand and its partners sold a further 153 units last week at d’Leedon on the former Farrer Court site. This takes total sales to 205 apartments, inclusive of the 52 units sold the previous weekend (Nov 27-28) when sales were open to former owners of Farrer Court.

Singaporeans have picked up 80% of the units sold so far.

The developers have released 250 of the 1,703 apartments in the 36-storey, 99-year leasehold project. They have yet to release the six pairs of strata semi-detached houses in the development.

The 250 apartments released have been priced at $1,680psf on average. A typical one-bedroom-plus-study apartment of 635sqft costs about $1.1 million. A typical two-bedder of 1,055sqft is priced at about $1.5 million.

The condo also has three- and four-bedroom apartments as well as penthouses.

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En bloc news: Tulip Garden up for collective sale!

According to a Channel News Asia report today, Tulip Garden has been put up for collective sale. Credo Real Estate, which is handling the sale said the owners of the 164-unit development, are asking for a minimum of S$650 million.



That works out to about S$3.14 million to S$5.45 million for the apartment's owners.

This tender launch is the first large scale freehold en bloc sale offering, valued above S$500 million, in 3 years.

Credo said if sold, Tulip Garden stands to be the third largest successful en bloc sale by deal value in Singapore's history, after Farrer Court and Leedon Heights.

The other two developments were both sold in 2007 for S$1.3 billion and S$835 million.

Tulip Garden has a land area of some 317,000 square feet and is zoned for residential development under the 2008 Master Plan.

It has a gross plot ratio of up to 1.6 and can be built up to 12 storeys.

At the minimum price of S$650 million, Credo said the per square foot per plot ratio works out to S$1,250.

"We would not be surprised that the highest bidder crosses $700 million," said Karamjit Singh, MD of Credo Real Estate.

Tulip Garden is located at the corner of Holland Road and Farrer Road in the prime district 10 area

The tender will close at 2.30 pm on January 20, 2011.

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Private Residential Units Sold (Oct 2010)

The following data is courtesy of Urban Redevelopment Authorities (URA).

The list includes projects that the wife and I have reviewed to date.

URA (Oct 2010)

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En bloc news: Hawaii Tower

The BT today reported that one of the biggest collective sale sites in dollar terms so far this year is expected to be launched for sale next week.

Hawaii Tower, on Meyer Road, has a reserve price of $700 million. This works out to about $1,401psf ppr inclusive of a development charge (DC) of about $55 million. The all-in investment for the successful developer of the 192,340sqft freehold site is expected to be around $1 billion.


Based on the unit land price of $1,401psf ppr, the breakeven cost for a new luxury condo project on the site could be about $1,950 - $2,100psf. A 25th floor unit at the nearby Aalto was transacted at $2,373psf this month. Over at Seafront @Meyer, units on the 17-20th floors have traded at $1,875-$2,501psf in the past few months.

The Hawaii Tower site is zoned for residential use with a 2.8 plot ratio (ratio of maximum gross floor area to land area) and height of up to 36 storeys. The plot may potentially be developed into a new condo project with about 345 units of an average size of $1,500sqft or 430 units averaging 1,200sqft.

A new development on the site will boast unobstructed views towards the sea, Marina Bay Sands and the city skyline as well as the Mountbatten landed housing estate. The regular-shaped plot has frontage of 130 metres along both Meyer Road and the East Coast Parkway.

CB Richard Ellis is marketing Hawaii Tower’s collective sale through a tender which will close on Jan 26.

Owners controlling slightly over 80% of share values and strata floor area have signed the collective sale agreement. They stand to receive about $5 million-plus per apartment and $8.8 million-plus per penthouse. Hawaii Tower comprises three blocks holding 129 apartments of about 2,200sqft each and six penthouses of about $4,300sqft each.

For Hawaii Tower, this would be the third attempt at an en bloc sale. The two previous attempts were in 2007. The initial effort began in the first half of that year, starting at $700 million and rising to $800 million; about 70-odd % consent level from owners were secured before the deadline for obtaining the minimum consent passed.

Another attempt was launched in late 2007 at $800 million but this soon petered out as market sentiment began to weaken and developers lost their appetite for land.

 
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