Singaporeans feel there are lessons to be learnt from table tennis saga

Singaporeans feel there are lessons to be learnt from table tennis saga

By Patwant Singh,
SINGAPORE: The Olympics table tennis saga created much unhappiness among Singaporeans. However, the incident has provided valuable lessons for the sports scene here.

High drama followed Singapore’s first Olympic medal win in 48 years when table tennis player Gao Ning had to compete without a coach on the side.

The saga ended with the Table Tennis Association’s president, Lee Bee Wah, making a public apology, after she had earlier warned about firing the team manager and terminating the head coach.

While the incident has left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth, there is a silver lining to the episode, said some National Sports Associations that Channel NewsAsia spoke to.

Jeffery Leow, president, Singapore Swimming, said: “The public is not aware of the full information and full background, so they often shoot from the hip. So we all have to be sensitive to public perception and how the public will take any decision that we make. This has been reinforced by this particular incident.”

Others said the Table Tennis Association should consider adopting certain best practices that were not adhered to in this case. These include management interference with those tasked to do their job.

And with the resolution, members of the public said it is time to move on.

Leon Overee, said: “We should think before we do anything and we shouldn’t be too rash in our decision.”

Channel NewsAsia understands that the new president who took office a month before the Olympics, has big plans to improve the sport, but remains mum for now.

Mdm Lee, who is in the middle of this entire controversy, once again declined to be interviewed.

She said that she would prefer for the whole episode to cool off before she talks to the media. But she has also given the assurance that over the next one to two weeks, she will be revealing the future plans for the association. - CNA/vm

 
Source : Channel NewsAsia - 02 Sept 2008

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Upcoming Singapore malls to offer Japanese food concepts

Upcoming Singapore malls to offer Japanese food concepts 

By Joyce Teo 
  
Scheduled to open late next year in Little India, City Square Mall will feature three foodcourts, one of which will have a Japanese theme. PHOTO: CDL

SUBURBAN and city fringe malls are usually dull on the food front but they are being forced to spice up their menus to lure a new generation who know their sashimi from their satay.
What were once treats found mainly in Orchard Road outlets are now being served from Tampines to Jurong as malls fight to give themselves an edge.

City Square Mall, which is slated to open late next year in the Little India area, will have three foodcourts, including one that is Japanese-themed.

Called ishi mura, the Japanese foodcourt by the firm behind the Suki Sushi and Sakura buffet restaurants will take up about 7,000sq ft of the mall.

Another mall to put its culinary cards on the table is the upcoming Tampines 1, which has signed a Japanese food hall as an anchor tenant.

The mall, which is expected to open in March, will be offering authentic Japanese cuisine in a gourmet street setting, said a statement from AsiaMalls Management, which will run the centre.

Its deputy general manager, Ms Stephanie Ho, said suburban malls have to offer more food choices to meet the higher expectations of shoppers.

‘Competition is fierce in Tampines. There are a lot of foodcourts and in the HDB areas, there are a lot of food places. So having just another foodcourt in Tampines 1 does not make sense,’ said Ms Ho.

Knight Frank deputy managing director Danny Yeo said suburban malls are hedging their bets, boasting trendier restaurants and more higher-priced options while retaining the usual fast food eateries and other low-priced outlets.

‘Generally, in Singapore, more and more food and beverage tenants are going into the shopping malls,’ said Mr Yeo.

‘Around 10 to 15 years ago, when you went into a shopping mall, you would have found 10 to 15 per cent of the space allocated for food outlets. Nowadays, that has increased to as much as 20 per cent of the space.’

Or more. City Square Mall, which is aimed at the mid-income shopper, will devote 25 per cent of its 450,000 sq ft of net lettable area to more than 50 food and beverage outlets.

City Developments yesterday announced that close to 70 per cent of the eco-themed mall, which is twice the size of Junction 8, has been taken up.

Nearly half of the space will be taken up by nine anchor tenants, including a 23,000 sq ft Kopitiam foodcourt and an 11,000 sq ft Banquet foodcourt.

‘We want to ensure that it’s a food haven,’ said City Square Mall’s senior manager, Ms May Then.

Much of the demand is coming from young people and families who are eating out more often as they work late and have no time to cook, said Mr Yeo. Naturally, more food outlets will spring up in malls to cater to them.

Ms Ho agreed: ‘People want to be able to hang out at a nice cafe near their place and not have to go to Orchard Road.’

She said Coffee Club and Toast Box have recently set up shop at Tiong Bahru Plaza and even Hougang Mall boasts a Cafe Cartel.

Japanese cuisine is clearly seen as a crowd-puller. Jurong Point, which opened last month, has an Osaka food street in the basement.

The food hall in Tampines 1 will have 10 counters of Japanese food, with some taken up by established restaurant names such as Botejyu, Yoshimi, Hokkyokusei, Aoba and Toku Toku Tei. These are traditional food establishments set up in Japan as early as the 1920s.

Their fare is mostly familiar to local Japanese food fans. Botejyu, for example, is famous for its Osaka okonomiyaki, or Japanese pancake, while Yoshimi from Hokkaido serves soup curry. Hokkyokusei, set up in 1923, serves Japanese omelette rice.

Japan Foods Holdings, which is behind the chain of 14 Ajisen Ramen stores here, is bringing these operators in and will be operating the food hall.

With people becoming more affluent, increasing numbers are willing to spend more on food, said market watchers.

Customers welcome new concepts and for retailers, they offer them the chance to generate more revenue if done well, said Mr Yeo.

‘Over the years, with asset enhancement in the major malls, you see more new retail concepts and they are mostly food and beverage ones,’ said Ms Then.

 
Source : Straits Times - 02 Sept 2008

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Developers starting to preview Singapore projects

Developers starting to preview Singapore projects 

With Hungry Ghost month over, condo projects being launched to test market 

By Fiona Chan, Property Reporter 
  
An artist’s impression of Reflections at Keppel Bay. Units in a new tower block there were released for sale over the weekend. — PHOTO: KEPPEL CORP

NOW that Hungry Ghost month is over, property developers are starting to line up project previews and launches to test the market.
Keppel Land released a new high-rise tower block at its Reflections at Keppel Bay on the weekend, putting up a third of the block’s 83 units for sale in Singapore and Hong Kong.

About 10 apartments have been sold since Saturday, at an average of just over $2,000 per sq ft (psf). Prices range from $1,500 to $2,300 psf, depending on the floor and the view.

A two-bedroom apartment on a low floor would cost about $1.5 million, according to property agents. Reflections has a total of 1,129 units in six high-rise tower blocks and 11 low-rise villa blocks.

Also on the weekend, Far East Organization invited interested buyers to its showflat for Miro in Lincoln Road, which sources say will be launched in about two weeks.

The freehold 85-unit development is priced at around $1,700 per sq ft (psf) on average, they said. Prices start at about $1.6 million for a one-bedroom studio loft of 990 sq ft.

Also available in the 32-storey tower are two-bedroom units of 1,302 sq ft and three-bedroom lofts at more than 1,600 sq ft.

A boutique project at nearby Moulmein Road starts previews this weekend with plans for a launch next Monday.

Mulberry Tree has 32 freehold units and a ‘retro-style’ facade, said an agent marketing the development. Indicative prices have been set at $1,300 to $1,500 psf. They start at less than $700,000 for the smallest apartment.

Agents said the two-bedroom flats, of about 710 sq ft each, would cost around $900,000. The project is forecast to be completed at the end of 2011.

Developer Hong Fok is expected to preview its Concourse Skyline in Beach Road later this month. Prices are likely to range from $1,600 to $2,000 psf, with two-bedroom units priced upwards of $1.8 million, The Straits Times understands.

The 360-unit development is slated to be completed in 2013.

Tat Aik Group has also started to preview its Nathan Residences, which will be developed on the former Nathan Court in Nathan Road.

Sales are expected to start this week, with prices in the region of $2,000 psf, said marketing agents. One-bedroom units will start at $1.2 million and two-bedroom apartments are likely to go for $1.6 million.

Source : Straits Times - 02 Sept 2008

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Some 70% of space let out at Singapore City Square Mall

Some 70% of space let out at Singapore City Square Mall

It has also secured nine anchor tenants and will open in Q4 of next year
By UMA SHANKARI

SINGAPORE’S first eco- friendly mall - City Developments’ City Square Mall - is close to 70 per cent let and has secured nine anchor tenants.
 
City Square Mall: It will have more than 250 shops and is touted as the first eco-friendly mall in S’pore 
The mall will open in the fourth quarter of 2009.

The developer yesterday disclosed the anchor tenants which together will occupy about half of the total lettable space in the 700,000 square foot mall.

They are Metro, NTUC FairPrice, Best Denki, Kopitiam, MindChamps PreSchool, Amore Fitness & Boutique Spa, home furnishings company V.Hive, Popular bookstore, and halal food court operator Banquet.

Another 20 per cent of space has also been let out. CityDev said it will unveil these non-anchor tenants later.

Rents at the mall are close to market rates, said CityDev’s group general manager Chia Ngiang Hong. In general, suburban malls fetch about $8-$15 per square foot per month (psf pm) on average, although rents at some prime suburban malls can hit $40 psf pm.

Mr Chia said CityDev is optimistic that it will achieve its target of attracting at least 1.3 million visitors a month to the mall.

‘We believe that the buying sentiment of the heartland population will always be there (even in an economic slowdown),’ he said.

The mall is targeting both Singapore and middle-income tourist shoppers.

With over 250 shops, the $200 million City Square Mall will be one of the largest malls in Singapore. It is also touted as the Republic’s first eco-friendly mall and will boast ‘green’ features such as eco-restrooms that save water and electricity and an eco-roof that will harness solar power and rainwater.

It is projected to reduce its energy usage by about 39 per cent compared with designs using standard industry codes.

In line with this, anchor tenants will also be encouraged to look at green features.

Metro, the largest anchor tenant with some 56,000 sq ft of space, will run a ‘family-friendly store in the suburbs for suburban shoppers’, said Wong Sioe Hong, managing director of Metro (Private) Limited.

NTUC FairPrice - the second-largest tenant with some 26,000 sq ft of space - will open its pilot eco-friendly supermarket with a host of green features. These include dedicated checkout lanes for shoppers with reusable bags and motion-sensor lighting in the store office and storeroom.

While most mall operators are moving away from signing up anchor tenants, City Square Mall is sticking to the format, said Corinne Yap, CityDev’s deputy general manager for marketing and leasing.

‘We feel very strongly that the mall needs to be anchored with strong tenants,’ she said. This allows the developer to get better rentals from the rest of the tenants, she added.

Source : Business Times - 02 Sept 2008

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Now, Singapore deferred payments with a twist

Now, Singapore deferred payments with a twist

Credit-worthy buyers offered loans with no interest and instalment payment until TOP
By SIOW LI SEN

(SINGAPORE) The deferred payment scheme may have been banned, but something strikingly similar is doing the rounds to help developers sell their properties.
The interest absorption scheme (IAS) and the zero instalment scheme allow the buyer to make a 20 per cent downpayment - and then pay nothing until the temporary occupation permit, which may still be up to three years down the road.

Maybank, OCBC Bank and United Overseas Bank (UOB) are currently offering the scheme. Standard Chartered Bank is launching it soon, according to Dennis Khoo, its general manager of lending. Interestingly, DBS Bank has decided to stop offering such schemes.

The deferred payment scheme was banned by the government last October to dampen excessive speculation. It was offered by buyers and you did not even have to qualify as a borrower to buy property worth millions of dollars - as long as you had funds for the downpayment.

Under the new schemes, the buyers have to sign up to a bank loan for the property. ‘The buyer has to be credit-worthy,’ said Nicholas Mak, Knight Frank’s director of research and consultancy. Once the creditworthiness is established, the buyer pays nothing more till TOP. During that period, it is the developer that pays interest to the bank, under the IAS.

 
 
Some small projects such as Chepstow Ville and Lynwood Grove are practically sold out after resorting to the IAS. However, the developer of another project who asked not to be named said the IAS has not helped his sales and he thinks it is the pricing that could be critical.

DBS Bank used to offer a zero instalment home loan scheme until TOP to buyers. The results were not always clear-cut. At the preview period of the 724-unit Livia, 160 units were sold in early July when DBS Bank offered a zero instalment home loan scheme. Subsequently, sales at the Livia slowed down and by end-July, it had sold 301 units, according to the latest data from the URA.

DBS said that the bank no longer offers the scheme. ‘We had targeted the HDB upgraders on a project-by-project basis,’ said Koh Kar Siong, DBS’ head of deposits and secured loans. Some observers say such schemes could come back to bite the banks if the value of the properties fall. Last month, Citi analyst Wendy Koh said she expects a 20-30 per cent price correction for high-end properties from their recent peak, and reckons the mid-tier is likely to decline 10-20 per cent.

Said Helen Neo, Maybank Singapore head of consumer banking: ‘Our credit assessment policy has always been to ensure that the buyer has the capacity to repay. It boils down to repayment capability.’

Kevin Lam, UOB head of loans, said the assessment of the customer is key. ‘If the profile of the customer is good for a regular loan, he is good enough for this.’ He also noted that the risks to the developer is lower with the IAS because the bank will disburse the loan to the developer according to the progressive payment schedule during construction. ‘Unlike the deferred payment scheme, the developer gets no money from the buyers during the construction period.’

Gregory Chan, OCBC Bank head of secured lending, noted: ‘Under the interest absorption scheme, the bank will not be exposed to additional risk as loan applicants are assessed based on their ability to repay both the principal and the subsequent instalments.’
Source : Business Times - 02 Sept 2008

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