Floridian ( Bukit Timah )-District 11 - 21- Singapore residential

Floridian ( Bukit Timah )-District 11 - 21- Singapore residential

LOCATION : BUKIT TIMAH ROAD ( Next to Nexus )
ARCHITECT : DP Architect Pte Ltd
TENURE : Freehold
CAR PARK : 355
Total : 336 units
(11 Towers, 10 storey)
SITE AREA : 21,441m2
T.O.P : Estimated 2011
UNIT SIZES : 2BR –(840 –947)sft
2+1 – (893-1001)sft
3BR - (1281-1432)sft
3+1 –(1658- 2034)sft
4BR –(1830- 2347)sft
4+1 – F(2357-2852)sft

Price above $1650 psf

Singapore Real Estate - Buy , Sell , Rent ,invest Singapore Property

Buy, sell and rent Singapore real estate: private property, residential apartments, commercial and industrial properties. HDB flats for sale and rental. Foreign investors, buyers, tenants or relocating expats can easily find their ideal landed house, bungalow, semi-d, terrace, condominium, townhouse, private apartment, HDB, HUDC, office, shop, factory, warehouse & land right here.

MINDY YONG

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EL Devt to build 200-unit condo in Woodlands-Singapore

EL Devt to build 200-unit condo in Woodlands-Singapore
EL Development plans to build a 200-unit mass market condominium on the Woodlands site it won in a government tender, the company’s managing director Lim Yew Soon told BT yesterday.
The project, which will be launched in the third quarter of 2008, is expected to sell for about $600-$650 per square foot (psf), Mr Lim said.

EL Development, which is fully owned by Evan Lim & Co Pte Ltd, trumped seven other bidders for the 99-year leasehold residential site at Woodlands Avenue 2/Rosewood Drive after a government tender closed earlier this month.

The company’s bid was $56 million or $232 psf per plot ratio.

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) yesterday announced that it is awarding the site to EL Development.

The 172,200 sq ft site has a 1.4 plot ratio, giving it a maximum gross floor area of 241,100 sq ft.

Mr Lim said that the project will consist of mostly 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom apartments. Prices, he said, will be kept ‘affordable’ to target the HDB-upgrader market.

‘We believe that the project will be for HDB upgraders and younger families,’ he said. The company will try to manage the construction costs as it is also a contractor, Mr Lim said.

EL Development also has two other residential sites in its landbank for launch soon - one along Devonshire Road and the other on Kampung Java Road. Both projects will be high-end developments and will be launched in the first quarter of next year, Mr Lim said. Prices for the two sites have not yet been fixed, he said.
Source : Business Times - 28 Nov 2007

Singapore Property - Buy , Sell , Rent , Invest

Mindy Yong

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mindy@mindyyong.com

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Singapore Westwood Apartments sold for $2,525 psf ppr

Singapore Westwood Apartments sold for $2,525 psf ppr

By ARTHUR SIM

WESTWOOD Apartments at Orchard Boulevard has been sold for $435 million or a unit price of $2,525 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), making it the most expensive site to be sold by collective sale to date.
In June, The Ardmore was sold for $262 million or $2,337 psf ppr.

The price achieved for Westwood Apartments is perhaps all the more remarkable as it comes after the US sub-prime crisis rocked markets around the world recently.

Sold to Malaysia’s YTL Corp, the deal was brokered by Savills Singapore. Savill’s director (Investment Sales) Steven Ming added: ‘It’s a good shot in the arm for the market as it has not been as hot as it was in the first half of the year.’

Mr Ming would only reveal that ‘a handful’ of bidders took part in the tender. But he added: ‘That the buyer is a foreign investor shows that foreigners are still optimistic on our market.’

Savills is also marketing another four to five collective sale sites, and Mr Ming says that ‘there is interest from both foreign and local buyers’.

Westwood Apartments did, however, sell for slightly under the indicative price of $2,800 psf ppr when it was put up for tender about two months ago.

Although investors were expected to bid cautiously, YTL group managing director Francis Yeoh said its bid reflects that YTL is ‘bullish on Singapore’.

‘I don’t think the bid was cautious,’ he added.

YTL, which is listed on the Malaysian stock exchange and has a market cap of about US$9 billion, ranks as one of Malaysia’s top 20 companies.

The conglomerate, whose businesses include construction, real estate and energy, has already acquired two Sentosa Cove sites.

The breakeven price for a new development at Westwood Apartments is estimated to be between $3,500 and $3,600 psf.

Mr Yeoh would not say what the expected launch price would be but cited the reported $5,000 psf for Ritz Carlton Residences at Cairnhill (RCR) as a possible benchmark.

YTL is the developer for RCR in Kuala Lumpur, and Mr Yeoh said that Westwood Apartments could also be a branded residence.

Mr Yeoh added that its Lakefront Collection development at Sentosa Cove would be branded as Armani Casa. He also did not rule out another Ritz Carlton Residences here. ‘There can be two in Singapore,’ he said.

The 30-year-old Westwood Apartments sits on a 62,179 sq ft site. It has a permissible plot ratio of 2.8 and has the potential to yield about 43 units of 4,000 sq ft apartments
Source : Business Times - 28 Nov 2007

Singapore Property - Buy , Sell , Rent , Invest

Mindy Yong

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mindy@mindyyong.com

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Yishun industrial site up for sale -Singapore

Yishun industrial site up for sale -Singapore
A SITE at Yishun Avenue 6 has been put up for sale for industrial development.
The land parcel is one of the four new industrial sites that were scheduled for release on the reserve list under the Government Industrial Land Sale Programme for the second half of 2007.

The 1.43-hectare site has a plot ratio of 2.5 with a lease period of 60 years. It is zoned for a Business 1 development and can be developed for a range of clean and light industrial and warehouse use, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said.

Savills Singapore director of industrial business space Dominic Peters said that he believes the site could attract bids of about $30 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr). ‘Demand is still likely to be strong,’ he said.

In October, an industrial site at Sin Ming Lane was sold for $68.9 million, or about $50 psf ppr. The site was more centrally located and larger.

Mr Peters said that potential bidders could be interested in developing strata-titled units on the Yishun site for sale. Real estate investment trusts (Reits) or developers targeting Reits may be less keen.

According to a Savills report on the industrial sector, Reits were the major players in the industrial market in the third quarter.

Mapletree Logistics Trust acquired six properties for a total of $62.4 million, Cambridge Industrial Trust purchased three properties for $108.5 million and the recently listed MacArthurCook Industrial Reit added two properties worth $109.3 million to its portfolio.

In the first nine months of this year, more than 25 acquisitions were made by Reits, taking the total transaction value to $503 million, up 27.3 per cent year-on-year

Source : Business Times - 28 Nov 2007

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Mindy Yong

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mindy@mindyyong.com

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Most new jobs in past 3 years taken up by PMETs

Most new jobs in past 3 years taken up by PMETs

They now make up 49% of resident workforce, up from 40% a decade ago
By CHUANG PECK MING

(SINGAPORE) Most of the record number of jobs created in the past three years went to better-paying resident professionals, managers, executives and technicians - known as PMETs - who earn more than the median monthly income of $2,330.

The result: these employees who are Singaporeans or Permanent Residents now make up 49 per cent of the resident workforce, up from 40 per cent a decade earlier, according to a study by the Ministry of Manpower.

‘More of the new jobs taken up by residents were in occupations paying more than the median income,’ says the Singapore Workforce, 2007 report released yesterday.

At the same time, the share of production and related workers in the past decade fell from 31 to 26 per cent and clerical, sales and service workers from 29 to 25 per cent.

Over this longer timeframe, from 1997 to 2007, nine in 10 jobs secured by residents went to PMETs, mostly in the services sector. It was only in the past three years that the gains were more spread out across the occupational groups, with more residents hired in sales and services jobs than before.

Still, 71 per cent of the jobs took up by residents from 2004 to 2007 were for PMETs, the report says.

The report, based on a comprehensive labour force survey in mid-2007, says the job market has continued to be tight, leading to significant gains in income and a fall in the number of low-wage workers.

And as more women and older residents are attracted to enter the job market and get hired, fewer are left to be added to the workforce.

‘Following rapid gains in the past two years and a record employment rate among residents this year, the growth in resident labour force eased in 2007, due to a smaller pool of remaining residents to bring into work,’ the report says.

Expansion of the resident workforce softened from an average 4.2 per cent yearly in 2005-06 to 2.0 per cent in 2007, which is close to the trend growth since 1991.

As at June this year, there were 1.9 million residents in the workforce - 1.1 million men and 800,000 women.

With the abundant job opportunities, the employment rate has shot up to a new high. Nearly two- thirds - 62.6 per cent - of the resident population aged 15 and above were working as at this June, the highest level since 1991.

‘Excluding the extreme age bands, the employment rate for those aged 25 to 64 edged up to a new record of 76.5 per cent from 75.5 per cent a year ago,’ the report says.

And this is among the highest in the world, comparable to the employment rates in Japan (75.6 per cent), the United Kingdom (75.8) and the United States (76.2). Only Sweden, with an employment rate of 80 per cent, is clearly ahead on the job front.

More older workers also found jobs in the current employment boom, with the employment rate for residents in the 55-64 age group up 2.5 percentage points over the year to 56.2 per cent in June 2007.

Income inevitably has risen sharply in the past year. According to the report, the median monthly income for full-time employed residents jumped over the year by 7.7 per cent to $2,330 in June, against gains of just 1.6 per cent per annum from 2004 to 2006 and 1.2 per cent per annum from 1998 to 2004. After adjusting for inflation, the median income rose 6.3 per cent in 2007.

‘As income rose, the number of low-wage workers in full-time employment with monthly income at or below $1,200 dropped by 6.6 per cent from 363,700 in 2006 to 339,500 in 2007,’ the report says.

These form 20 per cent of the full-time employed residents this year, down from 22 per cent in 2003-2006.
Source : Business Times - 28 Nov 2007

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Mindy Yong

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mindy@mindyyong.com

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S’pore Condo-like housing plot nets $134m bid

S’pore Condo-like housing plot nets $134m bid

A THIRD site earmarked for public housing to be designed, built and sold by private developers has attracted a top bid of $134.2 million.
Greatearth Development placed the bid, which was 13 per cent higher than the one submitted by its closest rival, AMK Development, and well ahead of those of the other three contenders.

Consultants say the higher-than-expected price - it works out at $212.4 per sq ft (psf) per plot ratio - reflects developers’ confidence in the demand for public housing and suburban condominiums. The 1.7ha plot in Ang Mo Kio Street 52 can house about 550 flats in blocks that can reach 36 storeys.

Savills Singapore’s director of marketing and business development, Mr Ku Swee Yong, estimated that the break-even price for the Ang Mo Kio plot would be about $500 psf.

This means the flats can be launched from $580 psf, putting the starting price of a four-room unit at about $560,000.

The first such project, developed by Sim Lian Land in Tampines and launched last year, met with an overwhelming response.

Source : Straits Times - 28 Nov 2007

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Mindy Yong

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High collective sale price catches analysts off guard - Singapore

High collective sale price catches analysts off guard - Singapore

By Jessica Cheam
BULLISH PRICE: Westwood Apartments’ $2,525 psf ppr price trumps the earlier record set by The Ardmore.

THE record collective sale price achieved by Westwood Apartments yesterday has put to rest industry concerns that the red-hot property market has cooled off.
Malaysian conglomerate YTL Corporation paid $435 million for the 30-year-old condominium in Orchard Boulevard, with an additional $4.6 million development charge.

This prices it at a startling $2,525 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr), a level that trumps the freehold The Ardmore, a 24-unit property off Orchard Road that was sold to SC Global Developments in June for $262 million, or $2,338 psf ppr.

Westwood’s owners will each reap about $8 million, with the two penthouse owners getting about $17 million each.

The sale comes after recent government land sales received lukewarm responses, prompting experts to voice concerns of a souring in sentiment.

A condo plot in Enggor Street in Tanjong Pagar, for example, fetched a top bid of $180.8 million, or $717 psf ppr when it closed recently. This was well below the $852 psf ppr achieved by an adjacent plot.

Analysts told The Straits Times they were caught off guard by YTL’s bullish price but added that the prime Westwood location justified the high price tag.

The 62,179 sq ft condo, which has a plot ratio of 2.8 and a 20-storey restriction, could accommodate 43 luxury apartments of 4,000 sq ft each, said Savills Singapore, which brokered the deal.

Knight Frank director for research and consultancy Nicholas Mak said the sale was refreshing as the volatility in global stock markets, coupled with recent government measures to cool the market, have slowed sales.

Other analysts believe the sale is a one-off with demand for collective sales likely to be confined to prime areas such as District 9, 10 and 11.

Chesterton International Property Consultants’ head of research and consultancy, Mr Colin Tan, said negative sentiment is unlikely to affect prime sites.

‘Even if a developer overpaid, it has secured the site. In the long run, it is likely to be in their advantage,’ he said.

Malaysian tycoon Francis Yeoh, who helms YTL, told The Straits Times yesterday that he was in it for the long- haul. Buying Westwood cements YTL’s entry into Singapore’s top-tier luxury property market.

YTL already owns Sandy Island and the Lakefront Collection at Sentosa Cove.

Dr Yeoh shrugs off the apparent recent real estate cool-down in Singapore, saying wealthy buyers will always demand quality homes, regardless of market sentiment.

‘The question of whether the price paid for the land is reasonable depends on what you do with it,’ he said. ‘There are many people who are still bullish about Singapore’s market.’

Westwood resident Richard Eu, who is also chief executive of the traditional Chinese medicine company Eu Yan Sang, said owners were ‘happy that we managed to get a good price given the recent slowdown’.

The deal took just seven months to complete and is the largest collective sale since new rules kicked in on Oct 4.

Source : Straits Times - 28 Nov 2007

Singapore Property - Buy , Sell , Rent , Invest

Mindy Yong

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mindy@mindyyong.com

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Citi sees likely Singapore office space glut by 2010

Citi sees likely Singapore office space glut by 2010

Other analysts argue that pent-up demand will soak up excess supply

By Fiona Chan, Property Reporter

OFFICE space may be in severe short supply now, but Citigroup predicts the tables will be turned by 2010 with even a glut possible.
‘The market is underestimating the potential supply of new office space in 2010 and beyond, in our view,’ said the banking group in a report on Monday.

While rents and prices of offices are skyrocketing due to the supply crunch, Citigroup said the situation is set to change in a few years, because of the slew of commercial sites sold by the Government in recent months.

It noted that since May, six new sites have been awarded that could yield three million sq ft of offices in 2010 and 2011. This is in addition to projects already under way.

It means that in those years, potential new supply could be 3.2 million to 3.5 million sq ft a year, according to Citigroup’s estimates.

Demand over the last few years has averaged only 1.5 million sq ft per year, the report added.

All eyes are now on the Government Land Sales programme for next year, which is due to be announced next month. If more office sites are released, even more supply can be expected.

Recent bids for office sites have already come in below market expectations, reflecting a more cautious long-term outlook among developers.

A Marina View site earlier this month attracted bids 35 per cent lower than those drawn by an adjacent plot just two months before. The site has yet to be awarded to a bidder even though the tender closed two weeks ago.

The Citigroup report also predicted that landlords of the new offices - most will be in the Central Business District - will face keen competition for tenants. Occupancy rates will peak next year or in 2009 and decline after that, it said.

This has led Citigroup to downgrade the shares of two major office owners: Keppel Land to ’sell’ and City Developments to ‘hold’.

But other analysts are sceptical of Citigroup’s forecasts of an oversupply. They say that for now and next year at least, demand for office space will still far outstrip supply.

When the new offices are opened from 2010 onwards, enough pent-up demand will have been built to soak up all the space, said Mr Wilson Liew, an investment analyst at Kim Eng Research.

‘Judging from the current demand, if this trend continues, there shouldn’t be much of an oversupply,’ he said. ‘These two, three years or so, the supply that is coming on stream is way below the average rate, so there will be a lot of pent-up demand.’

Mr Soong Tuck Yin of Macquarie Securities said the average supply of offices between next year and 2012 comes to only 1.7 million sq ft a year.

This drops to 1.4 million sq ft if space that has already been pre-committed - leased by companies even before being built - is excluded.

Another analyst added that in three to five years’ time, Singapore’s two casinos will have been built. And with the Government promoting Singapore as a financial hub, banks will still expand and be in need of prime space.

There may also be a delay in some of the new office space coming on stream, given the current shortage of contractors, he added.’It’s a bit soon to be making these sorts of predictions,’ the analyst said of the Citigroup report.

In the end, it boils down to whether the economy keeps growing, said Mr Winston Liew, senior investment analyst at OCBC Investment Research. ‘The office market is mainly driven by GDP growth. If our GDP continues to grow, demand should not be an issue.’
Source : Straits Times - 28 Nov 2007

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Mindy Yong

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mindy@mindyyong.com

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$30,000 auction bid for S’pore hotel room during F1 race

$30,000 auction bid for S’pore hotel room during F1 race

Sum paid was for charity but is indicative of F1 race interest building up

By Marcel Lee Pereira & Lin Xinyi

THAT room with a view of the Formula One race cost a bomb - $30,000 - but it was for charity.
A professional paid $30,000 for a three-night stay at the Pan Pacific Hotel to catch the F1 race from Sept 26 to 28 next year.

The winning bid was made at an auction during a charity dinner at the Pan Pacific on Sunday.

Some 500 guests, including Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Mrs Goh, were at the dinner which raised $700,000 for the Assisi Hospice.

While the sum the bidder paid for the hotel’s standard room was for a charity auction, it is indicative of the interest that has been building up over the F1 race.

Room rates have been the subject of much speculation since the announcement by the Government that trackside hotels will be slapped with a 30 per cent levy between Sept 24 and 28.

Trackside hotels include The Fullerton, Marina Mandarin, Conrad Centennial and Pan Pacific.

When contacted, several of these hotels said their F1 rates have not been finalised.

Among them, so far Pan Pacific has said its guests could fork out well over $1,000 a night for a regular room during the race period, with no guarantee of rooms overlooking the racetrack.

This is more than double Pan Pacific’s highest average room price of $455 this year.

The hotel also said its suites, which offer a view of the track, will cost over $2,200 a night. For both rooms and suites during that period, guests must stay a minimum of five nights.

Industry observer Noel Hawkes, who was general manager of the now defunct Hotel Phoenix, said in other cities which host F1 races, room rates could rise to as much as triple the normal rate.

‘I don’t think its unreasonable. It’s not that exorbitant by any means,’ he told The Straits Times.

Several non-trackside hotels, which will pay a 20 per cent levy, have set their rates and secured bookings too.

From checks with about 20 hotels islandwide, guests may have to fork out between $300 and $1,200 per night.

The Grand Hyatt Singapore is nearly sold out, though it still has limited suites available at $3,000 per night. Regular rates for its suites are about 50 per cent less.

‘We have not encountered resistance to our rates,’ said Grand Hyatt Singapore manager John Beveridge.

‘This buzz in the market has created an environment for strong demand for all categories of rooms. There is no question F1 fans want to be here,’ he said.
Source : Straits Times - 28 Nov 2007

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Mindy Yong

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mindy@mindyyong.com

http://www.hotvictory.com

Big jump in number of shortterm contract worker

Big jump in number of shortterm contract worker

SHORT contracts lasting less than a year are catching on here. The latest official figures show a jump in the number of short-term contract workers in the workforce.

The number of short-term contract workers soared by 14 per cent between June 2006 and June this year. In absolute numbers, that is an increase of 12,300, from 85,400 to 97,700.

This jump is largely responsible for the overall 6.8 per cent increase in the number of people hired for a specified period, according to the 2007 report on the Singapore workforce. The report includes permanent residents but excludes foreigners.

The trend was largely welcomed by human resource experts, who say that contract workers are an efficient way for companies with an unexpected need for workers to get more manpower.

Said Mr David Ang, executive director of the Singapore Human Resources Institute: ‘It makes sense when a company has to meet seasonal demands and ad hoc demands. They don’t have to carry the workers after that.’

It is especially useful in the current labour crunch as the workers can go when the job is done, he added.

Also, it helps companies cope better in the event of an economic downturn, said Mr Anthony Peck, the general manager of human resource training consultancy HRSingapore.

‘Some companies are unsure what business will be like in a year’s time and whether what they are going through now is just a surge,’ he said.

The temporary arrangement is not necessarily bad for the employee as well.

Said Mr Peck: ‘It gives companies a chance to assess the attitude of the worker to see if he’s suitable, but it also gives the employee a chance to see if the work suits him.’

But contract work is still shunned by many, said Mr Paul Heng of NeXT Career Consulting.

‘It allows employees to get a wider range of experience, although some people may not see it that way.’

This trend is, however, in its infancy stage.

Most workers are still permanent staff. In the one-year period to June this year, the proportion of such workers slipped only half a percentage point, from 88.4 per cent to 87.9 per cent.

Indeed, one contract worker, Mr Kenny Loh, 59, is still on the hunt for a permanent job even after two years of different contract positions.

Currently, he is on a two-year contract helping a school organise its extra-curricular activities. ‘This is better than sitting at home doing nothing. But if the opportunity for a permanent position comes along, I’ll jump at it.’
Source : Straits Times - 28 Nov 2007

Singapore Property - Buy , Sell , Rent , Invest

Mindy Yong

(+65)91002985
mindy@mindyyong.com

http://www.hotvictory.com