Singapore Toa Payoh condo site available for application under reserve list

Singapore Toa Payoh condo site available for application under reserve list

THE Housing & Development Board has made a 99-year leasehold condo site at the corner of Lorong 2/3 Toa Payoh available for application under the reserve list.

The 1.4-hectare plot can be developed into a project of about 530 units averaging 1,200 sq ft, property consultants say.

Market watchers suggest the site could attract bids ranging from $450 to $630 per sq ft per plot ratio - a spread that reflects uncertainty after recent market dynamics.

Last week’s withdrawal of the deferred payment scheme seems to have made developers cautious, as seen on Thursday when a state tender for a 99-year condo plot behind the Icon in Tanjong Pagar attracted just two bids.

But some observers say Far East Organization could submit a bid that matches the $601 psf per plot ratio it offered in September for a 99-year condo site next to Ang Mo Kio Hub. The $601 psf ppr was a record for suburban condo land.

Knight Frank managing director Tan Tiong Cheng believes a condo on the Toa Payoh site could sell for an average price of about $900 psf at most, considering it would be pitched mostly at HDB upgraders. That works out to a land bid of about $450 psf ppr and a breakeven cost for the project of about $800 psf.

But Sim Lian Holdings director Ken Kuik believes a new condo on the site could sell for an average price of close to $1,000 psf, going by recent launches. He was alluding to strong sales last weekend of freehold Park Natura at Bukit Batok, much further from the city, at an average price of $1,000 psf. The project is being sold on a partial deferred payment scheme.

Mr Kuik reckons the Toa Payoh site could fetch $500 to $550 psf ppr, which would result in a breakeven cost of $850 to $900 psf ppr and a selling price for the new condo of about $950-$1,000 psf.

Another developer reckons Far East, controlled by tycoon Ng Teng Fong, will at least match the $601 psf ppr it offered for the Ang Mo Kio site. ‘My gut feel is Far East could bid $620-630 psf ppr this time,’ the developer said.

‘Because of its size it can get lower construction costs and its architects are known to maximise efficiency, so even at this bid price its breakeven cost may be just above $900 psf.’

The 150,211 sq ft Toa Payoh site is flanked by Kheng Cheng School and the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations Building. It is within walking distance from Braddell MRT Station. The site has a plot ratio of 4.2.

Sites on the reserve list under the Government Land Sales Programme are launched for tender only after an application by a developer who undertakes to pay a minimum price acceptable to the state.

Source : Business Times - 03 Nov 2007

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US is seventh biggest market for Singapore food

US is seventh biggest market for Singapore food

By LYNETTE KHOO

FOOD from Singapore is gaining popularity with Americans, who are increasingly aware of Singapore’s food scene through portrayal in popular media by American food critics and personalities.

The United States is a growing market for Singapore food and beverages. It has moved up two places to become the seventh largest export market for Singapore food, after the total value of Singapore’s food exports to the US rose 17 per cent from a year ago to $249.1 million last year.

A significant 60 per cent of this came from Singapore’s domestic food exports, which expanded by 23.5 per cent to $149.5 million in 2006 compared to 2005.

‘This upward trend is likely to continue as Asian flavours become increasingly popular among American menu developers due to changes in the world economy, politics and cultural forces,’ IE Singapore and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said in a joint statement yesterday.

The statistics were released by the two statutory boards in conjunction with Singapore’s participation at the Worlds of Flavor International Conference and Festival in Napa Valley, US, which opened yesterday and runs till tomorrow.

The conference, which gathers over 700 top chefs, corporate menu decision-makers and other F&B professionals, is being used to show off Singapore’s F&B offerings, companies and talents.

‘Singapore cuisine has the potential to be instantly recognisable to the world, just like sushi is to Japan and tom yam soup to Thailand,’ said Andrew Phua, director of cluster development, tourism shopping and dining at the STB.

‘Local favourites such as the Singapore fish-head curry, Hainanese chicken rice and satay have made their way half-way across the world to be served up at international platforms such as the inaugural Singapore Season in London 2005 and Singapore Day at Central Park in New York this April.’

To promote Singapore and its unique food, IE Singapore and the STB partnered with the Culinary Institute of America to organise a delegation of renowned expert chefs and critics to participate in the conference.

At the event, Singapore chefs will prepare specially developed recipes and iconic Singapore dishes such as chilli crabs, laksa, roti prata and Hainanese chicken rice during special seminars and cooking workshops for 200 participants.
Source : Business Times - 03 Nov 2007

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Singapore Changi Airport’s T3 set to wow visitors the moment they step in

Singapore Changi Airport’s T3 set to wow visitors the moment they step in

Built at a cost of $1.75b, the terminal will open for operations on Jan 9
By VEN SREENIVASAN

WHILE the Airbus A380 superjumbo has grabbed the headlines of late, the spotlight will soon fall on the terminal from which many of these aircraft will take off in the years to come.

State of the art: The 380,000 sq metre, seven-storey building - with three basement levels and four above ground - will handle up to 22 million passengers a year, raising Changi’s total capacity to 70 million
And as passengers wait for their flights at Changi Airport’s Terminal 3, which opens for operations on Jan 9, they will actually be able to admire the scenery outside - including watching planes land and take off. It’s a next-generation airport, worthy of the next-generation aircraft.

Built at a cost of some $1.75 billion, this 380,000 sq metre, seven-storey building - with three basement levels and four above ground - will handle up to 22 million passengers a year, raising Changi’s total capacity to 70 million.

Terminal 3’s anchor tenant will be Singapore Airlines, which plans to move more than half its operations from T2, where it is currently housed. Four other airlines have so far signed up to join SIA at the new terminal.

The spanking new facility will boast 28 aerobridges, including eight to cater for the Airbus A380. It will also have four extra-long A380 purpose-built belts and 132 check-in counters (compared to 160 in T1 and 144 in T2).

Its 100 shops and more than 40 food and beverage outlets will add to Changi Airport’s existing 29,000 sq m of retail and F&B space.

DFS Group, which raked in sales of more than $250 million last year, will be an anchor tenant at T3 - as it is at the other terminals - after clinching the tobacco and liquor retail franchise for the airport for three years.

It sealed the deal by offering the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) a minimum monthly guarantee of $10.17 million in Year 1, with the amount going up to $10.5 million by the third year.

As Transport Minister Raymond Lim put it, T3 will have that ‘wow’ factor which will hit visitors the moment they step into its giant lobby.

The size of 63 football fields, the terminal is served by 6.5 km-long elevated tracks via which skytrains will take passengers between the three terminals.

The 1.7 km-long T3 alone will have three of the total seven stations in the network, transporting passengers heading for the furthest gates on both sides of this huge complex.

Visitors and passengers walking into the giant lobby from the land side will be greeted by a five-storey high vertical garden, called the ‘Green Wall’. Spanning 300 metres across the main building, and covered with climbing plants and interspersed with four cascading waterfalls, it can be seen from both the Departure and Arrival Halls.

And from above, the entire public area of the complex is illuminated by skylights on the roof, which is equipped with 919 skylight panels which allow natural daylight into the entire building via ’smart’ self-adjusting reflectors.

On the air-side, the new T3 has three giant passenger gate-hold areas that can serve up to five flights at the same time, and hold up to 2,000 passengers each.

Terminal 3 also boasts a high-speed inter-terminal baggage transfer system and an automated early bag storage facility.

Baggage of transfer passengers making connections at different terminals will be transported individually through underground tunnels at a remarkable speed of seven metres per second. This means it will take only about three minutes for a bag to be transported through the underground baggage tunnel between Terminals 2 and 3.

Adjacent to the new terminal is a 350-room five-star airport hotel with a swimming pool, restaurants, conference rooms and a spa, among other facilities.

T3 opens amid increasingly intense competition in civil aviation.

As the sixth busiest airport in the Asia-Pacific and the busiest hub airport in the region, Changi’s position as a pan-Asian air hub underscores Singapore’s strategic purpose to be a leading global financial centre and key economic hub.

Last year, the Singapore airport was ranked 22nd among the world’s busiest airports by passenger volume, with a total of 35 million passengers, or an 8 per cent increase over 2005.

Passenger traffic is likely to hit 40 million this year.

The airport has also done well financially.

CAAS, which operates Changi and is also the air transport regulator for Singapore, made a record surplus of $398.3 million for FY05/06 - up 14 per cent from $349.5 million the previous year (FY06/07 numbers will be released soon).

This came on the back of record revenues of $1.4 billion, boosted by robust passenger and aircraft traffic, as well as higher spending in shops and restaurants. CAAS gets 60 per cent of its revenue from commercial, non-aeronautical activities such as shop-floor rental.

But the multiple-award winning airport (it was recently voted the ‘Best Airport in the World’ for the 20th year in a row by global business travellers) is facing increasing competition and challenges.

Analysts have warned that Changi Airport’s traffic growth could plateau as global business attention is diverted from South-east Asia to powerhouses China and India.

And one of its greatest challenges is retaining and attracting talent.

Over the past three years, Changi has lost many experienced staff to upstarts around Asia. While CAAS does not keep tabs on who goes where, anecdotal evidence suggests that India and the Middle East have been the biggest poachers so far, with China not far behind.

To meet some of these challenges, the airport is looking into corporatising some of its operations.

Besides retaining and attracting talent through better remuneration and rewards, such a move is also aimed at enabling the airport operator to respond quickly and nimbly to changing market circumstances.

And with air traffic expected to triple worldwide over the next 20 years, Changi Airport, through its wholly owned unit Changi Airports International (CAI), has been aggressively building a portfolio of assets in key markets like India, China, Russia and the Middle East. Terminal 3 will be the jewel in its crown.
Source : Straits Times - 03 Nov 2007

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Singapore good place for social enterprise: Nobel winner

Singapore good place for social enterprise: Nobel winner

By CONRAD TAN

(SINGAPORE) Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus believes Singapore is ‘a good place’ to start more businesses with a social objective.

‘Human beings are much bigger. They are not created to spend their lives making money.’
- Muhammad Yunus
‘Creative ideas are thriving here, but for personal reasons… now widen it for the common good of the people,’ said the founder of Grameen Bank, famous for its successful business of making small loans to poor people in Bangladesh to reduce poverty.

He was speaking at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy yesterday, ahead of a panel discussion among top personalities from the private and public sectors in Bangladesh and Singapore on the development of the two countries since independence.

In his wide-ranging speech and a discussion with the 200-strong audience afterwards, he repeatedly stressed the need for ‘defiance’ of established ideas, particularly in the conventional banking system and modern economic theory.

‘Sometimes conventional wisdom is also conventional stupidity,’ he said.

‘We’ve made a big mistake in interpreting human beings in a very limited way within the financial sphere.’ To see people as nothing more than ‘profit-maximisers, all yearning after personal gains … is a travesty of the truth.

‘Human beings are much bigger. They are not created to spend their lives making money.’

Asked by an audience member what Singapore could do, he said: ‘Run water companies, healthcare programmes, nutrition programmes for the children, address diseases that are curable but no one pays much attention to.’

Venture capital funds that channel money into such social enterprises are another possibility, he added.

‘There’s plenty of money here to start social businesses for Singapore and for other countries.

‘Singapore can be a much broader society than currently … its image is that this is a society which is always running for economic success - personal success, mostly.’

His experiment with Grameen Bank, which started with him making a US$27 loan from his own pocket to 42 women in a village in Bangladesh in 1976, showed that extending micro-credit or small loans to poor people can be a sustainable business model.

Today, the bank lends more than US$500 million a year. It has 7.3 million borrowers. Almost all are women - a deliberate strategy started after Prof Yunus found in the early days of Grameen Bank that lending to women had a much bigger social impact than lending to men.

Within Bangladesh, he estimates that about 80 per cent of poor families now have access to micro-credit.

‘This is a methodology which should become part of the mainstream banking system, not a footnote, because two-thirds of the world’s population have no access to the conventional banking system,’ he said.

‘People used to ask me, how much money do you need to start a micro-credit programme? If you’re earning money, take one month’s income - that’s good enough.

‘With your income you can probably give loans to 10 or 20 people. And if you can recycle this, you’re in practice.

‘You don’t have to work with thousands. You can work with five. If you can do it with five and you’re successful, you can find another 10 who would like to put in their one month’s salary or income to add another five, and that’s it.’

The difference between charitable giving and a social business - which he defines as ‘a non-loss, non-dividend company with a social objective’ - is that a social business is self-sustaining.

‘Charity money has only one life,’ he said. ‘You can use it only one time.’
Source : Straits Times - 03 Nov 2007

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Take-up of JTC ready-built space rises to 2-year high - Singapore

Take-up of JTC ready-built space rises to 2-year high - Singapore

Strong demand for factory, business park premises in third quarter

By Tan Hui Yee, Housing Correspondent

THE take-up among businesses for JTC Corp’s ready-built facilities is at a two-year high.
Net allocation of such industrial space stood at 75,100 sq m in the July to September quarter - 29 per cent more than in the previous quarter and the highest since the third quarter of 2005.

This increase in take-up from the industrial landlord was due mainly to good demand for factory space and business park space.

Gross allocation of ready- built space in JTC’s business parks almost doubled to 5,300 sq m in the third quarter.

If the amount of space given up is taken into account, the net amount of business park space taken up stood at 1,800 sq m for the third quarter, more than double the figure achieved from April to June.

Occupancy of JTC’s business parks was 94 per cent as at the end of September.

The net take-up of JTC’s prepared industrial land stood at 55.9ha in the quarter.

This is 13 per cent down from the previous quarter but still more than twice the figure achieved in the third quarter of last year.

Such land - which has road access, drains, water and sewer mains so companies can develop their own facilities - is provided both inside and outside specialised parks such as Changi Business Park, International Business Park in Jurong East and Biopolis at one-north in Buona Vista.

JTC said demand came mostly from companies dealing in logistics, precision engineering and services.

Meanwhile, consultants expect more companies to consider moving operations from the Central Business District (CBD) as office rentals soar.

Rents grew 14.8 per cent in the third quarter and have shot up more than 40 per cent since the end of last year.

The director of research and consultancy at Colliers International, Ms Tay Huey Ying, said: ‘We are seeing firms that are more prepared to consider alternative business premises other than office space within the CBD.’

Companies providing management services or those in the insurance, design or aviation sectors, for example, have already made the move out or are preparing to do so, she said.

Ms Tay expects the trend to continue until more prime office space is added from 2010, mainly at Marina Bay.

Meanwhile, JTC said that the first phase of its research and development complex, Fusionopolis in one-north, is expected to be completed by the end of this year. It will offer about 120,730 sq m of business park space.

Source : Straits Times - 03 Nov 2007

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