Singapore HDB and private property prices up in Q1 flash estimates

Singapore HDB and private property prices up in Q1 flash estimates

Private residential property prices in Singapore rose 4.2 percent in the first quarter this year, according to the latest preliminary estimates from the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The pace was slower than the 6.8 percent clip recorded in the fourth quarter of last year.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the biggest rise in property prices for non-landed properties came from outside central region - up 4.8 percent in the January-March quarter compared with the October-December period.

Properties in the prime districts of 9, 10 and 11, as well as the downtown area and Sentosa, rose 4.4 percent on quarter.

Prices in the rest of the central region increased 3.9 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months.

The preliminary estimates were based on transaction prices given in caveats lodged during the first 10 weeks of the quarter, as well as the number of new units sold.

Meantime, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) said prices of HDB resale flats rose 3.4 percent in the January to March period over the previous three months. This was lower than the 5.7 percent increase in the fourth quarter.

Both the URA and HDB will release final figures at the end of April.

The URA said that as at 4th Quarter 2007, there are about 64,900 private residential units in the pipeline, of which about 56,100 new private housing units are expected to be completed between 2008 and 2011.

There are also some 38,300 units that have yet to be put on sale by developers.

As for the supply of government flats, the HDB said it had made available in the first quarter of this year some 1,100 new flats in two Build-To-Order (BTO) projects in Punggol and Yishun.

It said that depending on demand, there could be another 5,000 new BTO flats in towns such as Punggol, Sengkang, Woodlands and Bukit Panjang.

The total planned BTO supply of 6,100 new flats for January till September 2008 will surpass the annual BTO flat supply in 2007 and 2006.

This new supply of flats will be in addition to those offered under Balloting Exercises for surplus replacement SERS and other flats, as well as the planned release of three Design-and-Build sites in Simei, Toa Payoh and Bedok with some 1,500 flats in the first half of 2008. - CNA/sf
 

Source : Channel NewsAsia   - 01 April 2008

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F1 trackside Singapore hotels see good demand for rooms

F1 trackside Singapore hotels see good demand for rooms

By Patwant Singh,

SINGAPORE: Hotel rooms that provide a good view of Singapore’s first Formula One Grand Prix race in September are being snapped up, including those that cost more than S$13,000 a night.

Most hotels that line the track said business is good. With six more months to go before the big event, some have already had confirmed bookings for 50 to 95 percent of the rooms.

From the 26th floor of Fairmont Hotel, one gets to see almost half of the Singapore Grand Prix track – from Suntec Singapore to Nichol Highway, through St Andrew’s Road and the Esplanade.

During the F1 period, the Penthouse Suite at the hotel, which normally costs S$5,000 a night, will go for S$13,800. And with a minimum five-day booking period, that’s S$69,000 in total.

Ian Wilson, General Manager, Fairmont Singapore, said: “The other thing which this view provides is some real perspective on the course and that you can really get a sense of how fast those cars are moving because you can see them over a longer distance.”

Some 70 percent of the other 769 rooms at Fairmont Hotel, which are priced from S$1,320 onwards for a night during the F1 week, have already been booked.

The rooftop of the Fairmont Hotel offers a spectacular view of the race track, but it is not open for public booking. Only a few of the hotel staff will get to watch the race from that location.

Swissotel - another hotel within the same vicinity - did not provide actual figures, but they said demand is good. The lowest rate at this hotel is S$1,500 per night, with a minimum five-day booking period.

Both Swissotel and Fairmont are also offering hospitality suites at the Raffles City Convention Centre, which has a view of the track action.

Another hotel that is close to the action is Marina Mandarin and it has seen more than half of its rooms booked for the F1 period.

The hotel’s most expensive room is priced at S$3,000 a night, with a three-day minimum booking period.

Serene Law, Director, Sales & Marketing, Marina Mandarin, said: “At this point, we are still awaiting confirmation from the F1 organisers on how they are going to set up the circuit and the peripheral barricade before we decide on whether the rooms with a good view will come with a premium.”

The Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore is not imposing any minimum number of days to be booked. The hotel said more than 95 percent of its rooms have been taken up for the last week of September.

Others like the Fullerton, Mandarin Oriental and Pan Pacific Hotel did not reveal the take-up rates, but said they have been receiving many queries. They added that their rooms will cost about three to four times the usual rates.

Hoteliers also generally feel that the 30 percent government levy on trackside hotels during the race week will not impact demand for their rooms.
- CNA/so
Source : Channel NewsAsia   - 01 April 2008

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Mapletree buys industrial property from First Engineering Plastics - Singapore

Mapletree buys industrial property from First Engineering Plastics - Singapore
SINGAPORE : Mapletree Industrial Fund has bought an industrial property from First Engineering Plastics for nearly S$22 million.

The property comprises three buildings with a gross floor area of 14,387 square metres.

The land, which spans more than 10,000 square metres, is located in the established Woodlands East Industrial Estate.

First Engineering Plastics will lease back the premises following the sale.

The company makes high-precision moulds, plastic components and business machines for high-technology engineering applications.

It also offers an integrated suite of solutions for the hard disk drive, PC peripheral and automotive industries. - CNA/ms

Source : Channel NewsAsia   - 01 April 2008

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Guidelines for wealth funds apply to Singapore Temasek, says ministry

Guidelines for wealth funds apply to Singapore Temasek, says ministry
 
The policy principles are relevant to S’pore investment company as it is state-owned

By Bryan Lee 
 
THE Ministry of Finance yesterday said that Temasek Holdings should abide by guidelines for sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) that were unveiled just over a week ago.
It said that as Temasek is wholly owned by the Government, the ‘policy principles’ it helped craft with counterparts from Abu Dhabi and the United States are relevant for the local investment company.

‘There is still no universally accepted definition of SWFs,’ said Mr Laurence Lien, the ministry’s governance and investment director. ‘The policy principles for SWFs are broad guidelines that take into account the diversity of SWFs and the different contexts they operate under,’ he said in response to queries from The Straits Times.

His comments come after Temasek said it was not affected by the new guidelines. ‘We are not a sovereign wealth fund. Temasek has to sell assets to raise cash for new investments and doesn’t require the Government to give approvals,’ said a Temasek spokesman.

The guidelines aim to help ease tension between SWFs and the countries receiving their investments. While most SWFs were created to maximise returns on government surpluses, they are viewed with increasing suspicion that their motives may not be purely commercial.

Mr Lien said the aim of the principles is to ensure that concerns over SWFs will not lead to protectionist measures inhibiting cross- border investments.

He added that while transparency is not a goal in itself, it is a means for SWFs to demonstrate and support their commercial orientation.

Mr Lien said SWFs may be narrowly defined as government- owned investment vehicles that are funded only by foreign reserves or central bank assets. But a wider definition could include all state-owned investment vehicles, regardless of their funding.

‘Whether Temasek is classified as an SWF, therefore, depends on which definition one uses,’ he said. ‘Temasek owns and manages its own assets. The Government’s relationship with Temasek is that of a sole shareholder.’

By contrast, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) does not own its own assets, but manages them on behalf of the Government, he added.

‘The Government’s relationship with GIC is hence that of a fund owner-fund manager.’

In any case, Mr Lien said Temasek’s annual reports already exceed the disclosure standards set out by the policy principles.

He said he hopes that the policy principles will be used as a basis for upcoming SWF rules by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The IMF is putting together a voluntary code of best practices for SWFs, while the OECD is developing guidelines for countries receiving the investments.
Source : Straits Times  - 01 April 2008

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Five-year terms for Singapore Home Office Scheme

Five-year terms for Singapore Home Office Scheme 
 
PROPERTY owners can now run businesses from home for five-year periods instead of the previous three-year terms.
The change, which kicked in today, was to ‘provide greater convenience to home office users’ and help them formulate longer-term business plans, said the Housing Board (HDB) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday.

The Home Office Scheme was launched in 2003 to encourage entrepreneurship by giving ‘private property and HDB home owners the flexibility to conduct small-scale business from their homes’, the two agencies said.

Applications are granted subject to certain conditions such as having low noise levels and not involving selling physical goods.

Since its introduction, about 21,000 applications have been approved, primarily for companies in IT consulting, Web design, advertising and real estate services. About 95 per cent of successful home office applications are for public housing.

CHUA HIAN HOU
Source : Straits Times  - 01 April 2008

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Sprawling hotel site in Singapore Balestier put up for sale

Sprawling hotel site in Singapore Balestier put up for sale 

Among the restrictions: Developer must build a park in the middle of the 1.77ha plot

By Fiona Chan, Property Reporter 
 
IT IS hardly one of Singapore’s must-see tourist destinations, but Balestier Road is getting the sort of boost that might make it more visitor-friendly.
The Government yesterday released a sprawling hotel site for sale between Balestier Road and Ah Hood Road, in front of the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall.

And there is an unprecedented twist: The developer must build and manage a park that takes up a quarter of the land right in the middle of the site.

It has even been named - Zhongshan Park - and its use has also been decided, with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) stating that it wants it to, among other things, ‘enhance the experience for…visitors to the memorial hall’, which draws about 50,000 tourists a year.

Other restrictions, such as a required public event space and outdoor food and beverage or retail outlets in the park, also apply.

The URA said yesterday that the land release provides a ‘great opportunity to develop a unique hotel development’ in an area rich with heritage.
While Balestier is better known for famous eateries and lighting shops, it is also lined with shophouses, many of which have been earmarked for conservation and are a niche tourist attraction.

But the site’s large size and many restrictions mean that there are likely to be few bidders in the public tender, said property experts.

Mr Nicholas Mak, the director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank, expects fewer than five offers, with bids coming in at $150 million to $200 million, pricing it at $350 per sq ft (psf) to $470 psf per plot ratio.

The 1.77ha plot is the biggest hotel site released by the URA since 2001 and is a tad smaller than the Orchard Turn parcel, where the Ion Orchard mall and The Orchard Residences condominium are being built.

Sixty per cent of the site’s total gross floor area of 430,556 sq ft must be used for a hotel, which would yield about 675 rooms - slightly more than the 663 rooms at the Grand Hyatt Singapore in Scotts Road.

The rest of the land can be used for homes, shops, offices or more hotel rooms.

Even the hotel’s design, envisioned as contemporary Chinese, must be approved by a URA advisory panel.

The agency had previously offered a smaller version of the site for sale, without the park. But that plot - half the size of the present one - lingered on the market for a year without any takers before the URA took it off in October last year to combine it with other vacant land nearby.

It is now on the URA’s confirmed list, so it is up for sale regardless of demand.

Consultants noted the challenges inherent in the site.

Bidders will need a strong design concept and a strategy to make the park generate income, said Mr Mak.

He added that the site is not near an MRT station and is in fact ‘on the outskirts of everything’.

But some developers may still be attracted ‘because the challenges may reduce the number of competitors’, Mr Mak said.

‘This site could attract niche developers who are experienced in developing hotels with strong themes.’

Another bright spot is the strong sentiment in the hotel sector, especially for the mid-tier segment, said Ms Tay Huey Ying, director of research and consultancy at Colliers International.

‘The market is quite short of mid-tier hotels, so the prospect is good,’ she said.

The hotels dotting Balestier Road are mainly budget stays, including multiple outlets of Fragrance Hotel and Hotel 81.

 Requirements

Developer must build and manage a park that takes up a quarter of the land.

Sixty per cent of the site’s total gross floor area must be used for a hotel, which would yield about 675 rooms.

The rest of the land can be used for homes, shops, offices or more hotel rooms.

The hotel’s design must be approved by a URA advisory panel.

Other restrictions include a required public event space and outdoor food and beverage or retail outlets in the park.

Source : Straits Times  - 01 April 2008

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Finding a parking lot in Singapore CBD will soon be harder

Finding a parking lot in Singapore CBD will soon be harder
 
New and old buildings to have fewer lots but S’pore will have more lots than other cities

By Yeo Ghim Lay 
TOUGHER TIMES AHEAD: Given the office-space crunch and spiralling rents, some carparks are being converted for more profitable uses. The Market Street Carpark, for example, will be redeveloped into an office building, cutting the number of lots available in the CBD. — ST FILE PHOTO
 
 
MOTORISTS venturing into the Central Business District (CBD) will find it tougher to find a parking space in the future.
And when they do, it is likely to come at a premium.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA), in its Land Transport Masterplan unveiled on Sunday, said this will happen gradually because upcoming buildings in the CBD have to adhere to regulations tightened in 2002 that restrict the number of parking spaces they can have.

The Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC) will be among those hardest hit by the regulations, since many of the other buildings in the CBD were built before 2002.

As a ‘white site’ - a building that can be used for different functions, such as a retail/office complex - it is allowed only one car space per 425 sq m of commercial space.

The MBFC has three office towers with 130 floors in total, ranging from 21,000 sq ft to 45,000 sq ft. This translates into fewer than five and fewer than 10 parking spaces per floor, respectively.

What is in store from LTA
Measures to slow down traffic
The carpark squeeze will get worse because some old buildings in the area are converting their lots for other uses. The office-space crunch facing Singapore, which has resulted in spiralling rents and some firms moving out of the area, means a carpark earns less money for a landlord.

The Market Street Carpark, which has 704 parking lots, is one that will go. It may be redeveloped into an office building, cutting the number of spaces available in the city.

Despite the coming crunch, the LTA noted that Singapore has lower CBD season-parking charges and more parking spaces, compared to cities like Hong Kong, London and Tokyo.

Currently, season parking in the CBD costs $160 to $200 a month on average, compared to $720 to $850 in Hong Kong.

Workers in the CBD here also have more parking spaces: about 165 per 1,000 jobs, while Hong Kong has only 23.

But others say limiting the number of spaces will have an adverse effect on businesses.

Mr Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at property consultant Knight Frank, said: ‘Limiting carpark lots might actually increase business costs, especially for those in the sales and marketing industry who need a car to get around.’

And with Singapore hoping to attract top-notch talent who will be paid well, it is not reasonable to expect these people not to drive to work, he added.
Source : Straits Times  - 01 April 2008

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S-E Asia and China forge links with road network -BANGKOK

S-E Asia and China forge links with road network  -BANGKOK

Agreement to develop the Mekong region promises to boost trade, reduce poverty

By Nirmal Ghosh, Thailand Correspondent 

BANGKOK - A NEW road now makes it possible to drive from Singapore to Beijing, connecting markets and also mirroring an ancient trade route that once linked South-east Asia to southern branches of the Silk Road in the 13th century.
Spanning thousands of kilometres, it winds along modern highways and through rice paddies and tea plantations, making its way through Malaysia, Thailand and Laos before entering China.

The through connection mirrors the linkages being built up by the countries through which the Mekong River runs, in a concerted effort to transform the region surrounding South-east Asia’s longest river.

Yesterday at the third Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit in Vientiane, the prime ministers of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam inked an agreement to cooperate in developing the region.

Apart from building infrastructure, the declaration seeks to transform improved connectivity into enhanced competitiveness, accelerate livelihood improvement and reduce poverty in the region.

The countries will also work together on projects in areas such as trade, telecommunications, power generation and tourism.

Asian connection
ECONOMIC CORRIDORS: More highways and railways to boost flow of people and goods.
As for fears that the new, increased connectivity will also facilitate illegal trafficking in goods, people and natural resources, they agreed to address the trans-boundary challenges of transmission of communicable diseases, illegal migration of workers and environmental degradation.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, ‘we had countries on different sides (of the Cold War) start coming together’, said Mr John Cooney, director of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) infrastructure division for South-east Asia.

‘Building on infrastructure, everyone can cooperate and move on from there. The hardware was the easy part; what we are focusing on now in terms of the software is much more complex,’ he told The Straits Times.

That software includes reducing the complexity of border crossing protocols to make it possible for a freight truck to travel without inordinate delay from Thailand to Laos and then into China.

The official opening of Route 3 yesterday - the highlight of the summit - brought that aim closer to fruition.

The US$97 million (S$134 million) road, which makes it possible to drive from Bangkok to Kunming in a little over a day, meanders through rice paddies in Laos and burrows north through the opium hills of the fabled Golden Triangle, then snakes through forested hills and up through the mountain landscapes of Yunnan.

For now, Route 3 has a tiny gap: A single bridge between Thailand and Laos remains to be completed by 2010, forcing a 400m crossing of the Mekong by ferry.

But once completed, the bridge will enable for the first time ever, a dry, all-weather overland route from South-east Asia to Yunnan.

‘Revitalising this ancient route and stimulating new businesses between these Mekong neighbours will bring more jobs and greater prosperity to the region,’ said ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda at the inauguration of the road.

Already, the China-Thailand link has broken the region’s isolation, bringing Chinese apples to Thailand - and gamblers to a new casino in Luang Namtha in Laos.

Along with the numerous other projects being planned, Route 3 promises to boost trade and investments in the region. Exports from GMS members grew from US$37 billion in 1992 to US$179 billion in 2006, while foreign direct investment more than tripled to US$7 billion between 1992 and 2005.
Asian connection
ECONOMIC CORRIDORS: More highways and railways to boost flow of people and goods.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS: An information superhighway with optical fibre networks.

ENERGY: Agreement on power trade, with more power stations.

TOURISM: Maintaining natural and cultural sites.

TRADE: Simpler trade and border procedures.

Source : Straits Times  - 01 April 2008

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Making the city more dense and compact - Singapore

Making the city more dense and compact - Singapore

Sustainability is about retrofitting a city and allowing for local initiatives, reports MATTHEW PHAN
MALONE-LEE Lai Choo, director of the environmental management programme at the National University of Singapore, is no stranger to city planning. Prior to academic life, she headed the conservation division at the Urban Redevelopment Authority and was deputy director of strategic planning and the Ministry of National Development.
 
One Shenton: A pair of towers in the heart of Singapore’s new financial district, One Shenton will feature over 340 apartment units as well as some 5,000 sq ft of retail space. Designed with energy and water efficient devices, its facilities - such as a gym, yoga terrace, gardens and theatrette - are located at intermediate floors 
In a paper, Dr Malone-Lee and co-author Chua Yang Liang, head of research (South Asia) at Jones Lang LaSalle, argue that changing circumstances - a growing and ageing population, immigration, wider income gaps and a drive to resource efficiency - will challenge traditional planning frameworks.

Business Times: In the paper, you say ‘the planning ideology of technical rationality that emphasises economic growth, spatial order and functional efficiency has been the predominant paradigm’ but this top-down approach needs to evolve into one that draws on local community initiatives. What do you mean by local initiatives?

Malone-Lee: We have to go back to incremental and adaptive thinking. Instead of the big-bang approach - of having a big organisation to plan and design the whole solution all the time - we can look at alternative ways - say there are 10 guys, smaller entities, who understood the local problems and work something out in different ways, perhaps not systematically, but the problem could still be solved in the end, with probably more interesting and varied outcomes.

When you break down something big into smaller components, it may seem chaotic, but some order will emerge if your ultimate goals for the country are congruent.

BT: What’s wrong with traditional approaches?

ML: Traditionally we’ve used the ‘predict-and-provide’, ‘more-of-everything’ model when population and the economy grow. New towns on greenfields, the use of undeveloped land, more roads, more shopping centres, etc.

Now, in European cities, people are rediscovering city centres, converting rooftops, moving back. For example, in Berlin, they turned old areas like single-storey houses and bombed-out areas into cluster housing and in the end only added 10 per cent of the required development on greenfield land.

You can already see this type of thinking partly evolving in Singapore’s plans:

In the 1991 Concept Plan, we talked about needing ‘x’ number of Ang Mo Kio’s. In the 2001 Plan, it was not about adding new towns but making familiar places better, and increasing densities.

But Singapore’s urban planners are always hedging. They have not fully embraced the idea of no more new towns on greenfields until all possibilities of development within existing areas have been exhausted.

BT: Higher densities - can Singapore absorb this?

ML: When we argue that the city can be more dense and compact, people usually counter that it is already very crowded. I think the idea is to be more efficient and optimal in our allocation of density.

Maybe, for example, taking things to different levels, like having a multi-layered city with walking on street as well as upper levels, and densely compact activities around public transport nodes.

And connectivity - we’ve never planned a pedestrian-oriented city, so most people drive in, and much of the city land has to be devoted to road space for cars.

But we have a good MRT system. If we improve links to the stations and bus stations with covered footpaths, overhead bridges or underground links, and focus on mobility of people within urban spaces, we would not have that sense of crowdedness.

BT: Presumably this whole movement requires a mindset change?

ML: We live in a planned city. We do not have a random sprouting of land uses. This has its merits as we avoid certain environmental impacts. But sustainability is not just about building a new city such as the Masdar City in Abu Dhabi or eco-cities in China. It is also about retrofitting a city, which is much harder.

We still have opportunities to do something different, particularly at the urban fringes, like Balestier, Whampoa, Lavender or Rochor, which already have mixed uses - opportunities to allow these places to develop their own symbiosis.

Let Greenwich (a New York neighbourhood) develop out of Balestier. As it is, the land use pattern is not pristine, so additional mixed users will not make it worse. These are some areas where you can let local initiatives take off - albeit with minimum regulations to safeguard things like public health and the environment.

BT: What are the hindrances?

ML: Sometimes zoning guidelines hinder local initiatives. Take, for example, the Bollywood farm-cafe run by Ivy Singh-Lim at Lim Chu Kang. If the restaurant is not allowed on zoning grounds, the viability of the farm could be affected.

BT: How could planners address this?

ML: Perhaps finer-grained zoning, rather than traditional zoning with its big chunks of specialised land use.

Integration allows users, for example, within a big area of residential land, to subdivide it into smaller parcels, for schools, restaurants, light industries or a bus interchange, all at close proximity.

Singapore is already doing that in some areas like One-North, where there are many activities - restaurants, research facilities, infocomm offices, creative industries, condominiums - within a small area.

At the building level, you can have many uses within a single complex.

The Pinnacle@Duxton is a good example. The concept is exciting - you don’t need shops on the ground floor and apartments for 30-40 storeys above, but rather have more mid-level decks where you have, for example, a clinic, supermarket, gym or other amenities, so people move less for daily or basic needs.

When a single multi-storey complex has mixed uses, transport is verticalised within the complex, instead of horizontal.

BT: What are your thoughts on malls?

ML: There is a limit to putting in more of the same kind of shopping malls as far as the retail environment is concerned.

However, the tendency is that in time, large developers will go in and buy up many of the fringe areas, especially if they become vibrant. We may need to protect these areas, such as by allocating large sites elsewhere or having guidelines to keep the developments small, say in four to six-storey dense clusters.

I am in favour of market forces - our real estate industry can only respond to demand - but the question then is how to provide for the diverse smaller groups or individuals, with more alternatives where rental is more moderate.

BT: Are you suggesting that there should be fewer shopping malls?

ML: A lot can be said for home delivery for daily needs - some supermarkets like Cold Storage have on-line facilities and deliver daily necessities to your doorstep.

Then, if people go to the supermarket just for specialities, developers and retailers will change their planning and marketing methods to focus on these. You might then need less space for the big supermarkets, which consume a lot of energy, and need huge space for car-parks or other attendant uses such as on-site storage.

Smaller shops can then compete by getting more specialised in niche areas. For example, we are beginning to see shops selling organic food, Manuka honey, or wine, in places like Bukit Timah and even HDB estates.

Neighbourhood shops are the most environmentally responsible way to go. The concept is to reduce travel distance and encourage walking.

Source : Business Times  - 01 April 2008

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Pinetree back with lower Singapore en bloc asking price

Pinetree back with lower Singapore en bloc asking price

PINETREE Condominium, which was put up for collective sale in September 2007, has been relaunched at a lower indicative price of about $1,700 per square feet per plot ratio (psf ppr). This is about 20 per cent lower than the previous indicative price of $2,100 psf ppr seven months ago. The indicative asking price now is $128 million.
The property is being marketed by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). JLL associate director (investments) David Batchelor said: ‘Market conditions have changed.’ But on the residential collective sales market, he added: ‘I believe there is still interest but the market is more cautious.’

The 41,361 sq ft site at Balmoral Park has a 1.6 plot ratio. JLL said the site has the potential to be redeveloped into a residential development with a gross floor area (GFA) of up to 66,178 sq ft, subject to approval. Mr Batchelor said that currently, Pinetree Condominium is built up to a plot ratio of about 1.816 and added that there is no development charge payable.

The potential developer of the Pinetree site also has the opportunity to combine seven adjoining landed properties to form a total potential land area of 81,303 sq ft, yielding a combined GFA of 130,084 sq ft. This combined total will allow a developer to have a project with 60 to 80 apartment units ranging from 1,500 sq ft to 2,000 sq ft.

Mr Batchelor said the seven landed properties have a total indicative price of about $62 million, bringing the total land price to about $190 million. There is also a development charge of $46 million to $47 million for the landed housing properties.
 
In March 2006, Pinetree was on the market with an indicative price of around $59 million, or $888 psf ppr.
Source : Business Times  - 01 April 2008

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