The best time to buy your dream home is...

The wife came across this rather informative article in the Today papers today.

Despite the fact that we get this newspaper for free everyday, I always had the impression that there is nothing in there that is not already reported by the ST or BT. Guess we learn something everyday...




So the best time to buy is during 2013 - 2014 then? I mean... how can our URA and HDB projections be wrong, right...??  ;-)


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The "shoebox" price euphoria - Representative or skewed?

Below is a rather interesting article published in the ST today.


The answer will most certainly depend on whether you ask a potential buyer or seller, but the wife and I have seen enough "real-life" examples of how a single transaction can skewed opinions/expectations about the price of units within a development.

If you have been following our blog, you will know what our stand on these "shoebox flats" is. The rental may be up 11% in the first nine-months of 2010 while the absolute value of such units may be easier on the pocket, but the rental market looks set to soften with the number of new flats TOP-ing next year. And once all these "mickey mouse" units come onto the market in the next 2 - 3 years, one has better pray that there be enough takers (middle-income singles, DINKs, rich parents who want to kick their child out of the house...etc etc) for such tiny units. One might argue that the "expats market" will still exist as Singapore continues to import foreign talents. However, will many of these foreigners be interested in renting/buying a flat that is less than 500sqft in size? THAT is the million-dollar question... okay, make that slightly less than a million (given that most of the shoebox flats are supposedly priced below the psychological $1 million mark).

It may already be too late when you realized that you cannot get sufficient rental to cover your monthly loan repayment after paying sky-high psf price for that shoebox unit, or worse... cannot rent, cannot sell.

Let's just hope that we are wrong, else there'll be an absolute blood-bath come 2012 -2013...

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Overall price growth for private homes in Q4 2010, particularly luxury homes

As reported in the BT today, a surge of interest in high-end and luxury homes pushed prices in the segment, which has underperformed the rest of the market over the last two years, to a fresh all time high in Q4 2010.


But in the rest of the market, prices of private homes as well as HDB resale flats grew more slowly in the fourth quarter compared to the first three quarters of last year.

Flash estimates released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday show that overall private housing prices edged up 2.7% in Q4 to a fresh record high.

Private home prices in Singapore first surpassed the former all-time peak achieved in 1996 in Q2 2010, and then continued to inch upwards in Q3 and Q4. For the whole of 2010, prices climbed 17.6%.

But the gain in fourth-quarter prices was the smallest in six quarters, URA’s data shows.

The high-end market was a notable exception. Non-landed home prices in the Core Central Region (CCR) micro-market, which includes the prime districts Marina Bay and Sentosa Cove, rose 2.3% in Q4, faster than the 1.6% growth seen in Q3.

This pushed luxury home prices to a new all-time high, outstripping the previous peak in Q1 2008.

By contrast, the price index for Rest of Central Region (RCR) rose by 1.7% in Q4, down from 2.3% in Q3. And in the Outside Central Region or OCR (where suburban condos are located), prices climbed 1.6% in Q4 after increasing 2.2% in Q3.

Analysts attributed the slowdown in price growth in the RCR and OCR areas to resistance from buyers from increasingly expensive projects.

Price growth in the CCR region, by contrast, rose on the back of the prevailing strong economy and low interest rates, which once again enticed foreign investors to pick up luxury homes in Singapore.

“In 2010, much of the activity was focused on the mass and mid-market segments,” said Joseph Tan, CBRE’s executive director for residential. “Foreigners stayed away, thinking that the lack of transaction activity in the high-end segment would lead to a fall in prices and allow them to buy the properties for less.”

But since most high-end home owners proved to have “holding power”, the anticipated fall in luxury home prices did not occur and foreign buyers are slowly returning to the luxury market, Mr Tan said.

The number of foreign home buyers rose by 14% in 2010 compared to 2009, said Knight Frank’s head of consultancy & research Png Poh Soon.

“The tightened regulations in Hong Kong and aggressive anti-speculation rules in China caused some investors to shy away from those markets and directed them to Singapore,” Mr Png said. “High net worth foreign buyers would definitely consider the Singapore property market to park their money.”

Analysts also noted that while the latest round of cooling measures introduced by the government on Aug 30 have not dampened transaction volumes, they appear to have at least moderated price growth. A record 15,500 – 16,500 new private homes are estimated to have been sold in 2010, despite demand-side and supply-side measures introduced periodically throughout the year.

CBRE’s Mr Tan said that transaction volumes were still high in 2010 as many potential buyers are still out looking for units.

But the price growth has slowed as these buyers – especially those house-hunting in the mass-market segment – are sticking to a budget.

Looking ahead, growth in private home prices may slow to anywhere between 3% and 10% in 2011, analysts predicted.

But most are more bullish on luxury home prices, which some said could climb by up to 15% this year.

In the mass-market segment, the ample supply of new homes coming on-stream from the beefed-up 2010 Government Land sales programme should help to keep price growth to less than 5%, analysts said.

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DUNSFOLD RESIDENCES (Review)

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After a month-long hiatus (slightly longer actually), the wife and I decided to check out Dunsfold Residences yesterday.

Dunsfold Residences is a cluster bungalow project along Dunsfold Drive (off Bradell Road). It is located within the Bradell Heights landed housing enclave, which according to the wife, is a prime landed estate outside the Core Central Region.


Dunsfold Residences consist of 6 freehold strata bungalows built on a site area of about 11,200sqft. The bungalows come in different sizes of between 5737 to 6329sqft (strata area). It is developed by Dunsfold Residences Pte Ltd, which actually tells us nothing about the developer. Our web search drew a blank too.

Each bungalow has 5 levels (2 Basements, 2 Storey and an Attic) and 5 bedrooms (6, if you count the bomb shelter in basement 2 as well). Each house also gets 2 parking lots and a private pool.


Although the "on paper" TOP date of Dunsfold Residences is 31st Dec 2011, the bungalows looked to be ready for occupation anytime now. We were told that 4 of the 6 bungalows were already sold - only House# 3B and 3C are still available.


As per most cluster housing projects, your "main door" is actually located in the basement carpark, i.e. next to your parking lots.


As you enter the "main door", you find a huge bedroom with attached bath - this is ideal as a "granny room",  entertainment room, guest room or even a study. You also find two sets of staircases - one leading down to basement 2 (yes, 2 basements!) and the other up to the living/dining room.


Basement 2 is where the maid's room - your domestic helper will be overjoyed as this is one HUUUGE room with attached bath - and bomb shelter are located. There is also ample open space with natural lighting for doing the laundry and ironing... and maybe even play ping-pong! The only issue we have with this area is the air-well - this is uncovered (probably deliberate as it provides better ventilation) , which means it can get rather wet during rainy days.


The living/dining/kitchen area is on the ground level. The wife and I like the spacious living/dining room, which is rectangular-shaped with no odd corners (easy on the furniture placement). A guest bathroom is available next to the door that leads you to the pool area.



The kitchen is spacious and functional. However, the cooking hob/hood and kitchen fittings/cabinets that are provided looked rather nondescript, which is somewhat of a disappointment.

"The "pool" resembled a rectangular bath-tub - not particularly impressive in our opinion.


Two bedrooms are located on the second floor - both very good-sized and regular-shaped. Both are "en-suite" but they share the same bathroom, i.e. the bathroom has 2 separate doors that lead into each of the bedroom.



The master bedroom is located on the top (attic) level. Space will be the last thing you need to worry in here - the real challenge is how to furnish the room adequately so that it does not look bare.


The attached bathroom comes with "His" and "Her" sinks but no bath-tub - this is perfectly fine by us but those of you that enjoy a good soak in the long tub after a hard day will be disappointed. Then again, there is always the "bath tub" (aka pool) outside.


The master bedroom also comes with ample wardrobe space, but the final finishing can certainly be better (okay, we are probably being picky but then again, you are paying good money for this!).
  

As the master bedroom is located in the attic level of the house, you find a somewhat odd-looking storage space next to the wardrobe. The space is probably good for storing your luggages, golf bags (although it's a looong way to lug them down to the basement everytime you head out to the golf course), and definitely an excellent hiding place when playing hide-and-seek!


The wife and I were told that Dunsfold Residences is within a 10-minutes walk to Lorong Chuan MRT (just don't ask us how to get there), with easy access to CTE/PIE/KPE. The "easy CTE access" bit we can certainly appreciate, as the two remaining unsold houses (3B & 3C) are situated right beside the Lorong Chuan/CTE intersection. So yes, they are a tad noisy if you open the windows - which probably explains why they are still unsold.

But if you don't mind the noise (or do not open the windows of your house much), and have a budget of around $3 million, Dunsfold Residences may be worth a visit. This is especially if you are looking for a big house with spacious interior living.

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And the grand total is...

The wife and I would like to thank those of you who had supported the donation drive for our adopted charity for 2010 - Rainbow Centre.

The total amount of Ad earnings that we have collected (but not paid - Nuffnang, are you seeing this?) came up to... S$53.32. Well, we reckon it's not so much the money but the thought that counts...   :-)

As promised, we will round the amount up to a hundred bucks and donate the money to Rainbow Centre.

We will probably adopt another charity for 2011, so please help us to help them by clicking on the ads that appears on our blog.


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