Case, Singapore property body seek licensing of housing agents

Case, Singapore property body seek licensing of housing agents

Calls come amid growing number of complaints lodged against agents
By Jessica Cheam

A SHARPLY rising tide of consumer complaints against property agents has emerged in recent data, amid a spike in property sales in the current market boom.
Complaints include claims of misrepresentation and a failure to explain contract terms and conditions fully, the consumer watchdog, the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case), said.

This has led to renewed calls by Case for a stronger industry watchdog to regulate the sector.

Case, together with the Institute of Estate Agents (IEA), is seeking the mandatory licensing of property agents in Singapore.

In the interim, IEA yesterday launched a new ‘practising certificate’ to all its members, aimed at boosting their credibility and giving homebuyers and sellers more confidence in agents’ professionalism.

The IEA represents about 900 property agents in Singapore. Its president, Mr Jeff Foo, said mandatory regulation for estate agents was overdue, especially given the current property market’s bullishness.

The IEA practising certificate will have the identification number of the agent who, as a member, is bound to adhere to the organisation’s strict guidelines and code of conduct.

Case president Yeo Guat Kwang said yesterday at a public forum held by the IEA, that agents should be licensed individually. He said Case and IEA will ‘push the message to the relevant authorities’.

Complaints lodged against estate agents have almost doubled in the last two years. Case received 991 complaints last year, up from 672 in 2005, and 469 in 2004.

So far this year, 557 complaints have been made.

Mr Yeo said some complainants claimed that unexplained contract clauses were added by the agents, such as changing the level of commission that had been agreed upon.

Mr Yeo, an MP for Aljunied GRC, also said that Case and IEA are already in talks to introduce more regulatory measures.

This could be in the form of a standardised proficiency test that every agent has to pass before being allowed to operate, he said.

Currently, there is no mandatory qualification or licence requirement for housing agents. To operate, an agent has to join a licensed property agency, whose licence is issued by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore.

Mr Yeo told The Straits Times: ‘Even taxi drivers have to fulfil certain criteria before they can operate. What more for property agents, who deal with the hard-earned life savings of Singaporeans.’

Even if rogue agents were sacked, they could join another agency because of the lack of a central body to regulate these agents, he added.

Mr Yeo said IEA’s new initiative was a good way to encourage self-regulation, and encouraged consumers to choose agents with such recognition.

To boost membership numbers, the IEA also announced a new tie-up with NTUC yesterday, which enables IEA members to enjoy social benefits under the NTUC.

NTUC’s secretary-general, Mr Lim Swee Say, who was at the signing of the memorandum of understanding yesterday, said that through IEA, NTUC can now extend its membership to agents.

He said this was another step closer towards the labour movement’s 2011 vision of an all-inclusive membership for workers of all backgrounds.

Source : Straits Times - 26 sept 2007

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Singapore office rentals still in competitive

Singapore office rentals still in competitive

COMPANIES are paying more for labour and rentals in Singapore than before, but prices are still competitive compared to global cities such as London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew pointed this out yesterday, but said the Government would ensure prices stayed lower than countries ‘in a similar position’.

This is so that Singapore can stay competitive.

‘I think we should be able to manage that,’ Mr Lee said. ‘I believe we’ve got to watch it closely, make sure that it doesn’t run away and get us into an uncompetitive fashion.’

He gave this assurance at a dialogue which followed the inaugural Singapore Maritime Lecture. A member of the audience asked how Singapore was balancing its bid to be a cosmopolitan city, with the need to stem soaring costs.

Mr Lee noted there was a property crunch now, with both commercial and residential sectors hit, as a result of the ’sudden influx’ of bankers and top corporate types. However, the Government has already taken action to tackle it, he said.

‘I think we can sort it out in two to three years. In the meantime, we have put into our plans some release of buildings from one use to another in order to loosen up the market,’ he added.

On Monday, the Government also released a second temporary office site for sale to help ease an office crunch that has sent rents and prices soaring.
Source : Straits Times - 26 sept 2007

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Singapore Collective sales ease as new rules take hold

Singapore Collective sales ease as new rules take hold

THE market for collective sales has had a spectacular run this year, but new rules are likely to act as a brake to it, Mr Simon Cheong, chief executive of property developer SC Global, said yesterday.
Mr Cheong, who is also chairman of the Real Estate Developers Association Singapore (Redas), said the market is still digesting changes in collective sale legislation passed in Parliament last week.

‘In the process of digesting, obviously there will be a pause,’ he said.

The new rules, which are likely to kick in next month, will lengthen the collective sale process and likely constrict land supply.

‘For us developers, we are already anticipating that it will be more difficult to get choice sites in the near future. If we do, it will be at a higher price,’ Mr Cheong said on the sidelines of a Redas lunch yesterday to mark the mid-autumn festival.

In a separate move, a Knight Frank report yesterday forecast a slowdown in collective sales. The property consultancy said developers have been spending $10.22 billion on sites for collective sales since January, more than the $8.08 billion outlay for all of last year.

Activity, however, is already abating, with only 13 deals worth $1.65 billion done in the third quarter. This compared with 27 deals worth $5.24 billion in the second quarter, said Knight Frank.

Source : Straits Times - 26 sept 2007

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Singapore Boutique developer buys Sentosa Cove site for $79m

Singapore Boutique developer buys Sentosa Cove site for $79m

It beats 7 others for landed property plot; plans to build 20 houses there
By Joyce Teo, Property Correspondent
VALUE BOOST: Mr Garcha’s property portfolio will be worth up to $500 million once the Sentosa Cove site’s developments are completed: PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

A YOUNG entrepreneur who became a full-time polo player after selling his Silicon Valley dot.com firm has emerged as a successful property developer here.
Indian-born Satinder Garcha, 36, signalled his growing status in the industry yesterday when his company paid $78.68 million for a 200m-long landed plot in Sentosa Cove.

Boutique developer Elevation Developments beat seven other bidders in what Sentosa Cove, which is marketing the land, said was a highly competitive process.

Its price for the 71,589 sq ft plot, which faces the Sentosa Golf Club’s Tanjong course, works out to $1,099 per sq ft of potential gross floor area.

This surpassed the $771.25 psf collective sale price paid for the enclave’s Sandy Island in March.

Sentosa Cove now has just one last landed parcel to be sold en bloc to developers.

Mr Garcha’s property portfolio will be worth $400 million to $500 million once the developments are completed.

He has 22 other properties - about half of which are good class bungalows - in prime areas such as Swettenham Road and Gallop Road. Most are in various stages of development.

Mr Garcha, who is the captain of the Singapore polo team, plans to build 20 houses on the Sentosa site, each with a rooftop pool.

The houses will have 10m glass frontages giving residents a clear view of the golf course.

Many of the homes the firm is building around Singapore will be rented out but

Mr Garcha intends to sell the Elevation Golf Villas for $9 million to $10 million each once they are completed around 2010.

These numbers are dwarfed by the price tag of two other properties he owns - bungalows in Nassim Road designed by world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid.

These houses, with a built- up space of 10,000 sq ft, will probably sell for $40 million to $50 million, he said.

The bungalows, now at the design stage, are expected to be ready by 2010. They are Ms Hadid’s first residential project in Asia, said Mr Garcha.

‘She was very excited about Singapore,’ he said.

The Iraqi-born architect, known for projects such as the classic Vitra Fire Station in Germany, had worked on the masterplan for Singapore’s science hub one-north.

When Mr Garcha first came to Singapore, he was intent only on playing polo.

He had sold his information technology company people.com in late 2000 to TMP Worldwide, a recruitment advertising business.

He then set up his own polo team that competed around the globe.

Mr Garcha used part of his dot.com windfall - he will not disclose his firm’s sale price - to enter property development about three years ago when he saw the opportunities.

‘I saw a lot of value in the property market. Prices were at a 10-year low,’ he said.

Mr Garcha, who is of Indian descent, has become a Singapore citizen.

Source : Straits Times - 26 sept 2007

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Vietnam property boom a goldmine for S’pore firms

Vietnam property boom a goldmine for S’pore firms

By Joyce Teo, Property Correspondent
HOT DEMAND: Pent-up demand fuelled by Vietnam’s economic boom has led to a shortage of mid- to high-end properties. — PHOTO: AFP

LE THI Phuong Thao, 51, never planned to get rich - very rich, in fact, by Vietnamese standards - by speculating on real estate.
Ms Thao, a home furnishings business operator, stumbled across buying and selling property almost by accident five years ago.

And she is now seizing the opportunity presented by an extraordinary boom in the top end of Vietnam’s property market with both hands.

Back in 2002, Ms Thao bought a shop in downtown Ho Chi Minh City for her business. But a year later, she realised its value had shot up dramatically, so she sold it.

‘It wasn’t planned,’ Ms Thao said. Emboldened by the success of her ‘accidental’ investment, she went on to buy more.

Last year, she teamed up with two friends to buy not one, but three houses in a Ho Chi Minh City waterfront gated development, Villa Riviera, developed by Singapore’s Keppel Land (KepLand).

They have since sold all three for a total profit of US$100,000 (S$150,059), and are now eagerly awaiting the year-end launch of KepLand’s condo, The Estella.

The Singapore developer said there is strong pent-up demand, given the booming economy and a shortage of mid- to high-end properties.

The Asian Development Bank projects that Vietnam’s economy will grow by 8.3 per cent this year and 8.5 per cent next year.

Already, high-end home prices average about US$177 per sq ft (psf) in Hanoi and US$270 psf in Ho Chi Minh City, the business hub.

Earlier this month, a 1,108 sq ft condo unit at The Lancaster in Ho Chi Minh City’s prime District 1 sold for US$515,000, or a record US$464.5 psf. The condo was launched three years ago at an average of US$185.8 psf, or about US$206,000.

Vietnam is also experiencing a shortage of quality office space - all the Grade A buildings in Ho Chi Minh City are fully leased, along with hotel rooms and retail centres. Service apartments are in great demand as well.

‘Investment funds are coming out of your ears,’ said Mr Tony Foster, who has been in Vietnam since 1994 and set up law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Hanoi.

‘Infrastructure work is booming. It has always been on the up, but the pace is going faster and faster. There is a huge amount of pent-up demand.’

The Vietnamese - young, hungry for success and hardworking - aspire to own their homes, especially landed ones, observers say. Viet Kieu, or overseas Vietnamese, have also been buying.

Foreigners are not allowed to invest outright in Vietnam unless they are residents, and even then, they can buy only on leasehold terms.

‘The market here is booming. It is just like Hong Kong 20 years ago,’ said Mr Bowie Leung, a Hong Konger who has lived in Ho Chi Minh City since 1989.

Vietnam’s population of 86 million is young - the average age is 24 - and also represents a growing consumer market.

‘The key is that the Vietnamese are spending money like Singaporeans,’ said Mr Marc Townsend, managing director of property agency CB Richard Ellis (Vietnam).

On the property front, Singapore developers such as KepLand, CapitaLand, Frasers Centrepoint, GuocoLand and Allgreen have entered Vietnam.

Said Mr Lui Chong Chee, CEO of CapitaLand Residential: ‘Vietnam is a vibrant Asian country and an important new market for CapitaLand.’ CapitaLand has plans to build 2,800 homes in Ho Chi Minh City.

Even smaller players want a share. Another Singapore-based developer, Chip Eng Seng, said last month that it would take a 5 per cent stake in a listed Vietnamese firm, marking the start of its growth into the country and overseas.

Yet another Singapore developer, Heeton Holdings, is looking for a site.

Developers from Malaysia, South Korea and Japan are also eyeing Vietnam’s potential.

Few Vietnamese have a bank account, so property purchases are almost always made in cash, though sometimes with gold tael bars.

‘Ho Chi Minh City has no lack of suitors,’ said an industry observer. ‘If you want to survive, go to the suburbs.’

As Ho Chi Minh City grows, surrounding provinces will ride on the upswing, she said. ‘The potential is there, the demand is there, but the supply is not.’

But while competition is rising, the market is in no danger of oversupply soon.

Resettling those occupying a proposed development site can also cause headaches as land compensation can be costly for developers, observers say.

Industry players also say the approval and development process in Vietnam can be cumbersome and drawn-out.

‘Supply is affected by the difficulties of getting a licence for a project,’ said Mr Townsend.

This is where the experience of an established player such as KepLand comes in handy - it entered the Vietnamese property market about 13 years ago.

Said an industry observer: ‘Vietnam is a market where you need staying power. Don’t expect to come in to just do a project and run.’

Currently, the tallest building in Ho Chi Minh City - Saigon Trade Centre - is just 32 storeys tall. But the cityscape is set to change, with the next phase of construction set to bring buildings of 40 to 60 storeys, Mr Townsend said.

KepLand, for one, is ramping up its presence. ‘We’re now quickly selling more projects to ride on the upswing,’ said Mr Ang Wee Gee, its director of regional investments.

Frasers Centrepoint is also looking to scale up its activities in Vietnam, where it has two existing properties, said CEO Lim Ee Seng.
Source : Straits Times - 26 sept 2007

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Singapore Jalan Sultan conservation shophouses up for tender

Singapore Jalan Sultan conservation shophouses up for tender

By KALPANA RASHIWALA
SEVENTEEN two-storey conservation shophouses opposite KeyPoint at Jalan Sultan were yesterday offered to suitable investors by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). The reserve-list site is 0.14 hectares in size.
A URA spokeswoman said: ‘The land parcel can be put to commercial uses such as hotel, office, shops and restaurants. There is no control on the quantum but detailed proposals for the use and layout within the shophouses are subject to approval of all relevant Competent Authorities.’

Knight Frank reckons the plot will attract good demand from boutique hotel developers and those keen on turning the units into office space, given the supply crunch in these two sectors.

When restored, the shophouses would also be suitable for housing food and beverage outlets, in line with the proliferation of such venues in the Kampong Glam Conservation Area where the latest parcel is located. ‘Tender prices are estimated in the $7 million to $10.2 million range, equivalent to $470 to $680 per square foot of land area,’ Knight Frank director Nicholas Mak said.

Its auctions director, Mary Sai, a veteran in the shophouse market, reckons investors will offer the URA around $500,000 to $600,000 per shophouse unit. ‘The restoration cost will amount to about $400,000 to $500,000 per shophouse, bringing the all-in investment to around $1 million or more per shophouse unit. This is in line with the $1.2 million to $1.3 million that sellers of 99-year leasehold restored shophouses with land areas of under 1,000 sq ft are generally seeking,’ Ms Sai said.

URA will launch the reserve-list site for tender only if there is a successful application with an undertaking to bid a minimum price that is acceptable to the state.

Source : Business Times - 26 sept 2007

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Sentosa’s strata landed site goes for $78.7m

Sentosa’s strata landed site goes for $78.7m

Boutique developer Elevation bags The Green Collection
By UMA SHANKARI
SENTOSA Cove’s only strata landed housing development, The Green Collection, has been sold for $78.7 million, or some $1,099 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).

Fair view of fairways: Elevation Developments is going with a luxury ‘golf villa’ theme as the project faces Sentosa Golf Club’s famed Tanjong Course with a 200 m frontage to the golf greens and all units will have 7- 20 m of frontage facing the golf course
Boutique developer Elevation Developments won the 71,600 sq ft site with the highest bid out of eight received, following an expressions of interest exercise which closed last month.

Elevation intends to launch the project at around $1,500-$1,670 psf in about six months’ time, the company’s founder, Satinder Garcha, told reporters yesterday.

The developer will build 20 units of about 6,000 sq ft each on the site, which has a plot ratio of one. The project will be called Elevation Golf Villas.

‘The project will probably set a benchmark for its kind of property,’ said Mr Garcha.

The units, which will be ready by the end of 2009, could sell for between $9 million and $10 million apiece - which works out to $1,500-$1,670 psf, he said.

Elevation is going with a luxury ‘golf villa’ theme as the project faces Sentosa Golf Club’s famed Tanjong Course with a 200 m frontage to the golf fairways.

All units will have three storeys and 7- 20 m of frontage facing the golf course. Each home will also have its own swimming pool, Mr Garcha said.

The price paid for the land far surpassed the last en bloc sale price of Sentosa Cove’s Sandy Island, which went for $771 psf ppr in March this year, Sentosa Cove said.

The Green Collection is Sentosa Cove’s second-last en bloc sale of landed parcels.

The plot is the only land parcel in Sentosa Cove where a developer has the flexibility to design and develop either strata terrace, semi-detached or detached houses with shared recreational facilities.

Elevation is a boutique developer of landed residential property in Singapore. Over the last three years, it has acquired 22 sites for building good class bungalows (GCBs) in Singapore’s prime areas such as Nassim Road.

Source : Business Times - 26 sept 2007

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Singapore Redas: Mass market poised for double-digit growth

Singapore Redas: Mass market poised for double-digit growth

En bloc sales slow after introduction of new rules by govt
By UMA SHANKARI
(SINGAPORE) The Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (Redas) yesterday said that it expects ‘double-digit’ price growth in the mass market over the next 12 months.

A toast: From left, Mr Cheong, Mr Tharman and Kwee Liong Keng, immediate-past president of Redas, at the association’s annual Mid-Autumn Festival celebration yesterday En bloc sales slow after introduction of new rules by govt
‘The mass market hasn’t been very active and the base is low,’ said Chia Ngiang Hong, Redas’ first vice-president. ‘It will probably play a bit of catch-up with the high-end segment. So I believe it is going to be double-digit (price growth) for the next 12 months.’

Mr Chia is also the general manager of City Developments, one of Singapore’s largest developers.

Developers and analysts agreed with him.

‘Mass-market home prices will go up in line with higher costs of building materials, labour and land prices,’ said Margaret Goh, chief executive of NTUC Choice Homes.

Yesterday was Redas’ annual Mid-Autumn Festival celebration.

Kicking off the event, Redas president - and SC Global chief executive - Simon Cheong called for more good local and international schools in Singapore.

‘One of the most important conditions for expats to stay in Singapore, I am told, is education,’ he said. ‘In short, no good education, no good future, no global city, no good real estate market.’

Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was the guest of honour at the event.

Mr Cheong also told reporters that collective sales in Singapore are slowing after the government recently introduced new rules governing such sales.

‘In the process of digesting all these new rules, there will obviously be a pause . . . It will probably slow down the supply of en bloc land,’ Mr Cheong said.

Sales could also be slowing as homeowners who cannot find replacement properties might be reluctant to sell, he said.

But Mr Cheong expects the prices fetched by en bloc sites to keep climbing as more owners will have to be enticed to sign up for a collective sale.

Developers are already anticipating more difficulty in getting prime land and expect to pay higher prices going forward, he said.

Mr Cheong also said that developers could be holding back launching new properties because changes to the en bloc legislation means that supply of new prime land sites could be harder to come by.
Source : Business Times - 26 sept 2007

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