Sales of new private homes up 37% on-month in May

Sales of new private homes up 37% on-month in May

By Irene Chan,

SINGAPORE: Sales of uncompleted private homes climbed 37 per cent on-month in May as improving market sentiments spurred more home buyers to snap up properties.

A total of 1,668 units were sold last month, up from 1,214 in April.

Home sales in the mid-tier market picked up pace in May. The developments that sold the most units last month were Martin Place, The Wharf, The Arte and The Mezzo.

These four projects, which are in the prime districts and the city fringe areas, made up more than 30 per cent of the sales.

The median price for these developments ranged between S$903 and S$1,423 per square foot.

Sales of mid-tier and mass-market developments remained strong.

Projects that had a median price of less than S$900 per square foot made up 45.9 per cent of the total units sold.

Developers launched a total of 1,161 units in May, up seven per cent compared to April.

- CNA/yt

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 15 June 2009

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Town council report reflects residents too

Town council report reflects residents too

Aim is to get HDB dwellers more involved in estates

By Zakir Hussain, Political Correspondent

HDB residents, not just their town councils, will be under the spotlight when the Government launches its assessment of town councils later this year.

This is because the exercise aims to make HDB residents more aware of what is going on in their towns and to do something about it, says National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan.

Citing the example of estate cleanliness, he said it would measure not just ‘how fast the cleaners work, but also how much care the residents take in keeping their town clean’.

It would be ‘a way to get residents to take care of their town and make sure that it is not dirty’, he noted.

Mr Mah made this point yesterday, three days after his ministry announced the impending move to assess the 16 town councils managing Housing Board estates in Singapore. The ministry will produce a report card by next year on how they fare in areas like cleanliness, facilities management and financial management.

It will be consulting residents, town councils and industry professionals on the criteria to use.

Mr Mah noted that when the report is published, comparisons across towns would be ‘inevitable’, but this was not the aim of the exercise.

‘Some towns are older, some younger, some more spread out, some more compact. Each town has its own special characteristics. So it is not appropriate to take one set of numbers and compare them.

‘I hope that when we finally publish the result, people will take note of this point. It is not a ranking exercise in the absolute sense of the word. It is certainly not meant to be a ranking exercise,’ he said, reiterating a point made by his Senior Minister of State Grace Fu on Friday.

‘It is meant to make residents aware of what is going on in their town and do something about it,’ he added.

Asked if some residents might make use of the report to raise asking prices for their flats, or avoid dirtier towns, Mr Mah said this would be ‘quite understandable’, as Singaporeans like to live in clean, well-maintained towns with a lot of facilities.

‘That is one of the probable outcomes of this exercise, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that,’ he added.

What if town councils were not performing up to par in certain areas? Mr Mah said it would be for residents ‘to make their views known to the councils’.

He hoped town councils would work with residents to explain that if they dirtied their town, more resources would be needed for cleaning up, and service and conservancy (S&C) charges may not be enough.

‘If you keep the town clean, on the other hand, you don’t need to spend so much in cleaning up, and S&C charges may be more than sufficient,’ he said.

The People’s Action Party runs 14 town councils, the Workers’ Party runs Hougang and the Singapore People’s Party runs Potong Pasir.

Asked about opposition councils potentially claiming that they may not have enough resources, Mr Mah said: ‘All town councils will have to look at the resources available to them - S&C grants and government grants - and see how best they can make use of them.’

This would be a challenge for all town councils, whether PAP- or opposition-run, he said.

Yesterday morning, Mr Mah, an MP for Tampines GRC, attended a community sports festival for the North East district at Tampines Stadium.

Source : Business Times - 15 June 2009

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US stocks find a floor but run into a wall

US stocks find a floor but run into a wall

By ANDREW MARKS
NEW YORK CORRESPONDENT

THE Dow Jones Industrial Average is in positive territory for the first time this year, but opinion is split on whether the blue-chip index will be able to build on its gains much beyond the next week or two.

‘I see some technical drivers and the end of the quarter window-dressing giving stocks a positive boost heading into what will be a pretty volatile week of trading, especially by the last couple of days, with quadruple witching on Friday,’ said John O’Donoghue, head equities trader at SG Cowen, referring to the quadruple expiration of futures and options, which often leads to big swings in the market.

Big swings this week are unlikely in a market that hasn’t seen a move of as much as one per cent for the last ten trading days.

‘I have the sense that the market’s forward momentum has really slowed after a rally that has already gone on now for three-and-a-half months, and has brought us back from the brink. We’re about to hit the traditional summer doldrum months, and then there’s a couple of big obstacles in the way of equities - bond yields and oil prices - that are only getting bigger and more difficult to overcome,’ Mr O’Donoghue said.

Indeed, over the past two weeks, the two biggest topics of conversation among Wall Street traders have been the steady climb in the 10-year Treasury note to 4 per cent, and the weakening dollar and the corresponding moves in commodities.

‘The issue of the chances of having an economic recovery this year has been pushed a little into the background the last couple of weeks by worries over bond yields and commodity prices - which is a remarkable thing unto itself, considering that we are still a long ways from being able to definitively say a recovery is going to happen by year-end,’ noted Marc Pado, chief investment strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.

‘In a sense, it’s a positive that investors are focusing their attention elsewhere, because it’s a good indicator to me that we have established a pretty solid floor at this level for equities. I think the chances of a serious dip are becoming pretty small,’ he said.

At the same time, money managers like Jim Earle, a managing director at Lancer Capital Advisors, observed that the weakening appetite for government bonds that investors showed in last week’s Treasury auctions, combined with the rise in oil prices, could very well put a crimp on the nascent economic recovery that has underpinned the rally.

‘You can’t take the economy for granted at this point. The signs of recovery are still fragile ones, and oil over US$70 per barrel is a threat to economic growth. At the same time, the 10-year note at 4 per cent is a threat to the equity market,’ he said.

The price of a barrel of crude rose 5.3 per cent in the past week, ending the week at US$72.04. The 10-year Treasury note slid last Friday to a yield of 3.78 per cent, after hitting 4 per cent the day before.

Last Friday, the decline in bond yields helped the Dow eke out a 28-point, 0.3 per cent advance, to 8,799. The S&P 500 Index edged up one point, or 0.14 per cent, to 946, while the Nasdaq Composite Index did the opposite, slipping three points, or 0.19 per cent, to a close of 1,858.

For the week, the Dow added 0.4 per cent, while the S&P 500 added 0.65 per cent. The Nasdaq rose 0.5 per cent for the week.

This week is a busy but not momentous one for economic data, leaving the stage to the G-8 meeting in Italy where finance ministers will gather on Friday, and oil prices, which investors will be keeping an eye on as crude approaches the US$75 per barrel mark.

On today’s data docket is a manufacturing survey for the New York region, followed by the housing index from the National Association of Home Builders.

Tomorrow features May producer prices, housing starts and industrial production numbers, while Wednesday’s highlight is the May consumer-price index.

On Thursday, investors will be hoping for another dip in weekly jobless claims following last week’s encouraging numbers. There’s also another regional manufacturing survey, this one from the Philadelphia region, as well as the scheduled release of the latest read on leading economic indicators.

Source : Business Times - 15 June 2009

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