Enbloc News #2: Crystal Tower

Crystal Tower, located at Ewe Boon Road, has been put up for collective sale by tender at an indicative price of $155 million.

It is a 28 unit, 11-storey residential development.

The 60,482sqft residential freehold site has a gross plot ratio of 1.6.

Its elevated site enjoys an unobstructed view of the Bukit Timah residential district.

Its marketing agent Colliers International said the compound can be re-developed into a 12-storey residential development comprising 81 units of 1,200sqft each.

The breakeven price for Crystal Tower is estimated to be in the region of $2,200 to $2,300psf.

The development charge might not be payable.

A development baseline enquiry has been submitted to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) for confirmation.

Tang Wei Leng, Executive Director for Investment Services at Colliers International, said the indicative pricing is competitive with an approximate $1,600psf ppr.

She cited that the recent collective sale of Balmoral Condominium was sold for $1,543psf ppr.

Current owners at Crystal Tower can expect to receive between $5 million to $10 million from the sale proceeds.

Recent transacted prices of residential projects in the Bukit Timah area, such as Cyan, are in the region of $2,400-$2,500psf.

The tender will close on August 4 at noon.

Source: Channel News Asia

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Enbloc News #1: Daisy Apartments

Daisy Apartments, a residential redevelopment site near Serangoon Gardens, is up for en bloc at an expected price of above $14.5 million.


Property consultants Credo Real Estate said the freehold site is located at Daisy Road and has a land area of more than 13,000sqft.

The land is zoned for Residential use at a plot ratio of 1.4 and an allowable height of up to five storeys.

All the owners of the 12-unit apartment development have signed a collective sale agreement to sell the property.

Credo said the potential buyer has the option of redeveloping the site to accommodate approximately 42 apartment units of average 500sqft, depending on layout and configuration.

Including an estimated development charge of $744,000 for the 10% bonus gross floor area for balconies, the land rate reflects approximately $727psf ppr.

Deputy Managing Director at Credo Real Estate Tan Hong Boon said the site is likely to attract keen interests from small boutique developers.

He added that the once sleepy neighbourhood has been gaining popularity among homebuyers especially with the opening of the nearby NEX mall at Serangoon Central.

The tender for Daisy Apartments closes at 2.30pm on August 3.

Source: Channel News Asia

The wife and I have never heard of Daisy Apartments until today. Guess you learn something new with each collective sale... 


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Enbloc News: Grand Tower

Grand Tower, a boutique freehold residential site located near Novena MRT station, has been launched for sale by tender.

The redevelopment site is located at the junction of Sinaran Drive and Moulmein Rise.

The 33-year-old tower block, consisting of 28 apartments, occupies an area of almost 22,000sqft in total.

Its marketing agent Savills Singapore said that the site can potentially be redeveloped into a high-end lifestyle project with a permissible gross floor area of approximately 64,000sqft.

This exceeds the allowable plot ratio of 2.8 as indicated in the 2008 Master Plan.

The new development can accommodate 74 apartments averaging 800sqft each.

Grand Tower has an indicative price of $88.8 million or about $1,381psf ppr.

Savills said there is no development charge payable and the breakeven price for the new development is estimated to be between $1,900 and $2,000 psf.

The company added that the recent transactions at nearby Gilstead Two were priced between $2,181 and $2,217psf whilst units at the 99-year-old leasehold Soleil @ Sinaran were transacted at between $1,773 and $1,966psf.

The tender for Grand Tower will close at 3pm on July 28.

Source: Channel News Asia

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What if Godot really appears?

The wife and I chanced upon this really interesting research article by Associate Professor Lum Sau Kim from the National University of Singapore. It provides a good insight on the various policies and measures that the Singapore Government has implemented on the private housing market during the past decades.

http://www.ires.nus.edu.sg/workingpapers/IRES2011-005.pdf

What we find most intriguing is factors that prevailed prior to the last two economic downturns (i.e. the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and the 2008 Subprime Crisis) are very much evident today:

• Bullish sentiments at the back of sustained economic growth and low inflation expectations
• Spectacular bull run in the stock market
• Record job creation
• Increasing concerns about the sustainability of US economic growth
• Ample capital inflow keeping domestic interest rate and risk premia low and encouraged more risk taking in the property market.

We recall reading comments from certain industry expert that even if the Eurozone crisis unfolds, the impact on Singapore property prices is only perhaps 20% below today’s prices.

The wife and I are definitely no experts but if our memories served us right, property prices actually fell by more than 30% during the 18 months following the Asian Financial Crisis.

We understand that the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) Private Residential Property Price Index has climbed about 50% in the last 18 months. On a year-on-year basis, the private residential index has shown growth every quarter for the last six quarters.

And looking at the chart below, would you bet against a significant price correction or even a property market “perfect storm” if one or more of the major economies around the world falter?

So even if you have been staying in the sideline for the past 18 months (and possibly missing out on the action and returns), while the property you are eyeing (especially for investment purpose) has only increased by less than 20% in price and trading well below their newer neighbours, we remain skeptical on whether it is really the opportune time to enter the market now.

Then again, we are not the experts...

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Private home prices rose 1.9% in Q2 2011

Private home prices in the second quarter rose at a slower pace than the previous quarter indicating that the red-hot property market might be cooling down.

This is according to the latest flash estimates from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

The price index rose 1.9% to 202.8 points, compared with the 2.2% increase in the previous quarter.

URA said the rate of price increase has moderated for seven consecutive quarters, since the fourth quarter of 2009.

For the second quarter of this year, non-landed residential properties in the prime city area, or core central region, increased by 1.6%.

The city fringe areas, or rest of central region, posted a 1.2% increase.

And suburban areas, or outside central region, also showed an increase of 1.6%.

The flash estimates are compiled based on transaction prices given in caveats lodged during the first ten weeks of the quarter supplemented by information on the number of new units sold.

Source: Channel News Asia

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