Singapore En bloc tussles take nasty turn as market cools

Singapore En bloc tussles take nasty turn as market cools

One of the vandalised cars at Laguna Park. The estate’s owners are engaged in an acrimonious battle over a collective sale, with vandalism among various tactics to ‘persuade’ dissenters to sign.

NAME calling: check. Anonymous letters: check. Scratched cars and damaged property: check.
Residents of an East Coast condominium are now entering the next phase of what has become an especially fractious en bloc sale: finger-pointing.

At a Laguna Park meeting last Saturday, residents against the collective sale squared off against those in favour. They each blamed the other for a recent spate of vandalism which saw cars doused with what was likely to be acid.

The situation is the latest example of en bloc battles that are bleeding the neighbourliness out of neighbourhoods. As the fever for collective sales cools and profits thin, some insiders say the battles are becoming nastier.

Property consultant CBRE says a total of 112 sites sold for $12.45 billion last year. So far this year, six sites have been sold for $360.03 million.

Residents in some estates have seen a surge in pressure tactics, from name-calling and flyers shoved into letter boxes to paint thinner poured on cars.

But just who is behind the crimes is a matter of much debate.

En bloc vandals work on the sly and have yet to be caught, but those in the property industry feel that investors are the ones playing dirty.

Property consultant David Chia said that the crimes are unlikely to have been committed by long-time owners, as they would not want to risk the embarrassment of being found out.

‘This narrows it down to investors who have nothing to lose,’ he said.

Many of these investors bought multiple flats at the height of the en bloc fever last year and are eager to sell them off in the face of a cooling property market.

But investors such as Mr Simon Teh, 50, disputed the accusations: ‘Why should we go and fight and vandalise cars? That doesn’t help us get 80 per cent approval for the sale and, worse still, we can get jailed.’

Mr Patrick Kumar, 53, who has been involved in three collective sales, agreed: ‘Violence will just harden a person’s sentiment not to sign.’

As an investor, he said, he was ‘more likely to placate the residents’. ‘Investors are there for the money, not for the violence,’ he explained.

Instead, he passed the buck to owners living in the condominiums, saying some might be anxious to catch the tail end of the en bloc wave and cash out.

Another bogeyman cited by unhappy home owners: agents appointed by the sales committee, who usually collect a fee of 0.2 per cent to 1.5 per cent of the property value.

Veteran ‘en blocker’ Mr Kumar said agents are the ones who ‘rile people up’ and keep track of who has signed the collective sale agreement and who has not.

But Mr Jeremy Lake, CBRE’s executive director of investment properties, maintained otherwise.

He said: ‘We will be proactive, but we also know that if we push too far, it would be counter-productive.

‘In fact, we do take appropriate steps to dissipate tension during meetings.’

Property consultants who deal with en bloc sales say the ugliest cases, like in Laguna Park, are rare.

More common, said Mr Karamjit Singh, the managing director of Credo Real Estate, are shouting matches during residents’ meetings.

Property firm Savills’ director of marketing and business development Ku Swee Yong said: ‘When it comes to en blocs, even educated people become idiots.’

LIM WEI CHEAN & MELISSA SIM

Source : Straits Times - 11 Aug 2008

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Mindy Yong

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Second state property in Changi offered for Singapore hotel use

Second state property in Changi offered for Singapore hotel use

A SECOND state property, which is part of a former military camp in Hendon Road, in Changi, is put up for public tender on Monday for dedicated hotel use.

The site has a land area of 9,666 square metres, slightly larger than a football field with a gross floor area (GFA) of 5,097 square metres. It comprises two blocks of three-storey buildings and a covered shed.

The tenancy, with a guide rental of $28,500 a month, is for an initial term of three years. renewable up to 2018, said the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) on Monday.

SLA said the land is well suited for hotel use as the Changi area is being transformed into an exciting destination for locals and tourists alike with its wide ranging leisure, recreational and lifestyle attractions.

It is also conveniently located next to a park connector, a walking route along Netheravon Road from Cranwell Road to Changi Village, and the Changi Point boardwalk.

More buzz can also be expected with the introduction of motor sports near the Changi Beach Park, as announced by the Government.

The first state property that has been converted for hotel use is at No. 175A Chin Swee Road.

Today, it is a boutique business hotel called ‘Hotel Re!’ with 140 rooms. It officially opened for business in mid-May with an initial occupancy rate of around 50 per cent.

Since last year, SLA has awarded four state properties - in Lorong Bekukong, Turnhouse Road and the former Changi Hospital) - in the Changi area for adaptive commercial re-use after receiving strong response.

Two of them are now restaurants while the former Changi General Hospital at Halton Road is being transformed into a spa resort. The groundbreaking will take place next month and the development is expected to be ready by next year.

The Government, on its part, has upgraded the car parks at Changi Village and provided additional car park lots at Turnhouse Road.

Mr Teo Cher Hian, director of Land Operations (Private) Division, said: ‘SLA is offering a number of the vacant State properties for adaptive re-use such as hotels and lifestyle attractions in line with the government’s vision for Changi Point as an attractive and rustic seaview hotel, resort and recreational destination’.

‘This latest property will add greater buzz and vibrancy to the Changi area’.

According to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), leading hoteliers have expressed keen interest in this property.

Ms Caroline Leong, Director, Travel Services & Hospitality Business, STB said: ‘The STB encourages the development of different types of accommodation to add to the hotel mix available here.

‘With its lush greenery and historical charm which the old military barracks lend, a hotel development on the former Changi Camp site will provide an ideal alternative to visitors who prefer staying amidst a rustic environment’.

According to STB, mid-tier and economy hotels enjoyed healthy average room occupancy rates of 85 per cent and 87 per cent respectively in the first six months.

Source : Straits Times - 11 Aug 2008

Singapore Property - Buy, Sell, Rent, Invest

Mindy Yong

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mindy@mindyyong.com

US law firm opens Singapore office, its 5th in Asia

US law firm opens Singapore office, its 5th in Asia

It will service the South-east and South Asia markets, focusing on finance

By EMILYN YAP

WITH an eye on the South-east and South Asia markets, US law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP announced last week that it has opened an office in Singapore.

The Singapore office - O’Melveny’s fifth and newest in Asia - will start off with a focus on the finance, merger and acquisition, private equity, restructuring and distressed investment, and capital markets.

Three partners will anchor the Singapore office. They are Bertie Mehigan and Huey Yann Thong, both previously finance and restructuring partners with White & Case in Singapore. David Makarechian, O’Melveny’s transactions partner from the US, will also move over.

‘We are in the process of recruiting more lawyers,’ said Howard Chao, chairman of O’Melveny’s Asia practice. He reckons that the Singapore office may have up to 12 or 15 lawyers by the end of the year.

‘The office will service the greater South-east and South Asia markets, and given the growth rates in those markets, we expect the office will grow quickly too,’ he said.

O’Melveny has also formed an Asia Strategic Capital and Finance Group. Under the group, Mr Mehigan and Ms Thong will work with other lawyers in the firm’s Asia offices to advise clients on complex debt, equity, hybrid financings and other capital-raising transactions across asset classes and capital structures.

Chambers Asia (2008) - a publication that ranks the leading law firms and lawyers across the region - awarded Mr Mehigan a Band 1 recognition in its Singapore banking and finance and restructuring/insolvency categories, said O’Melveny.

Asked if O’Melveny would be applying for a Qualified Foreign Law Firm (QFLF) licence in Singapore, Mr Chao said: ‘Our participation in the QFLF program is yet to be determined, though we would certainly view it as a tremendous honour to be selected.’

Apart from five offices in Asia, O’Melveny has nine more in other cities such as London and New York.

Source : Business Times - 11 Aug 2008

Singapore Property - Buy, Sell, Rent, Invest

Mindy Yong

(+65)91002985

mindy@mindyyong.com

Bulls may return to Wall Street as oil bubble bursts

Bulls may return to Wall Street as oil bubble bursts

Picture changes surprisingly fast as analysts say the worst may be over

By ANDREW MARKS
NEW YORK CORRESPONDENT

THE last weeks of summer are hardly a typical time for a bull run, with many of Wall Street’s traders and money managers away on vacation. Add to that the precarious condition of the US economy and it is easier to picture more of the bear-market turbulence that stocks have endured over the past two months. But thanks to strong signs that the commodity bubble may have finally burst, the US stock market finds itself in the surprising position of being poised for a rally as it begins the second week of trading in August.

Here’s looking at you, bull: Analysts say momentum is clearly with the bulls after the dollar rose strongly and oil prices tumbled last week. The US$117 per barrel mark has long been looked upon as a key support level for oil, and that was breached last Friday
‘You finally have the sense that the worst could very well be over for stocks,’ said John O’Donoghue, SG Cowen’s co-head of equity trading. ‘We’re still facing some major challenges, with the financial sector still in terrible shape, the consumer pressured by rising jobs losses and inflation still a big issue, but this market has been all about commodity prices, namely oil, since the middle of May, and now it looks like we’re set up for a sustainable rally based on the bursting of the speculative bubble in oil,’ he said.

After enduring yet another volatile up-and-down week featuring two more 300-point swings in the blue chip index, which was the seventh time in two weeks that the Dow rose or fell by triple digits, and suffering through more mortgage crisis fears once again stoked by Fannie Mae, Wall Street’s traders pronounced themselves eager to get back to work on Monday for the first time in weeks.

Momentum, said Mr O’Donoghue, is clearly with the bulls after the dollar rose strongly and oil prices tumbled last week. ‘That’s what happens when you have an unwinding in a speculative market. We saw the bad side of it a year and a half ago with the yen trade, and now we could be seeing the good side of it with the oil trade. A lot of people have made some very big, long bets on oil at much higher levels, and now they’re racing to get out of their positions before they’re wiped out,’ he observed.

Analysts have long pointed to the US$117 per barrel mark as a key support level, which was breached last Friday.

‘The next one is at about US$110 per barrel. If we go through that level, watch out: you could see another rapid unwind and a big tumble in oil,’ said Rob Mcnamara, an oil analyst at Phillips Research.

On Friday, the Dow Jones industrials soared more than 300 points, reversing a 225-point loss on Thursday and then some, as the dollar rose to its highest level against the euro since February. The dollar’s strength drove down light, sweet crude, which fell US$4.82 a barrel to settle at US$115.20 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That brought crude’s decline over the past four weeks to more than US$30.

The Dow rose 302.89, or 2.65 per cent, to 11,734.32; the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 index advanced 30.25, or 2.39 per cent, to 1,296.32; and the Nasdaq composite index advanced 58.37, or 2.48 per cent, to 2,414.10. For the week, the Dow rose 3.6 per cent, the S&P gained 2.9 per cent and the technology-heavy Nasdaq jumped 4.5 per cent. It was the indexes’ best weekly performance since the third week of April.

If stocks are to register a third straight week of gains, oil must continue its decline, or at least hold below US$120 per barrel. Investors will be likely keying off Wednesday’s weekly crude oil inventories data.

The economy will take the second position in investors’ focus this week, with a big US retail sales number for July due out on Wednesday. On Thursday, the government will release the consumer price index, which will be a major inflation data point. Then, on Friday, data on capacity utilisation and industrial production will be released by the Federal Reserve.

The sagging economy has played a major part in the commodity reversal, but an even more key element is the renewed strength in the dollar, which has been coming back amid weakness in international economies. Wall Street will be eagerly watching the dollar this week to see if it can keep its gains.

On the earnings front, the market should also benefit from the fact that all the major financial companies have reported their second-quarter earnings, clearing the way for upside surprises to dominate the news this week.

With oil prices falling, investors will be able to look past the most negative aspects of this week’s economic data and the retailers’ earnings, because oil at US$115 per barrel instead of US$140 per barrel changes the entire picture enormously.

On Thursday, retailer and Dow component Wal-Mart Stores will report its earnings. The week is full of retailers reporting, including American Apparel on Monday, Macy’s on Wednesday, Kohl’s and Nordstromon on Thursday, and Abercrombie & Fitch, JC Penney on Friday.

Other important profit reports due this week will come from Liberty Media, on Monday; Applied Materials on Tuesday; Deere on Wednesday; and JM Smucker and Agilent on Thursday.

Source : Business Times - 11 Aug 2008

Singapore Property - Buy, Sell, Rent, Invest

Mindy Yong

(+65)91002985

mindy@mindyyong.com