Grand Tower sold for S$88.5m

Grand Tower sold for S$88.5m

04:45 AM Aug 05, 2011

SINGAPORE – Grand Tower in Novena has been sold en bloc for S$88.5 million to 27MR, a wholly owned subsidiary of boutique developer New Century Real Estate, marketing agent Savills said yesterday.

Grand Tower is a freehold development with a site area of 21,742 sq ft. The site can accommodate a new high-rise residential development with a maximum permissible gross floor area of about 64,310 sq ft, or more than 70 apartments of about 800 sq ft each.

The price reflects a land rate of S$1,376 per sq ft per plot ratio based on a plot ratio of 2.958. Savills said the breakeven is estimated at S$1,900 to S$2,000 psf.

The existing development comprises 28 apartments with an area of about 1,873 sq ft each. Savills said each owner can potentially receive about S$3.16 million or S$1,688 psf on strata area. Grand Tower is the fourth collective Savills sale for the year following Newton View at S$147.6 million in March,

New Century Real Estate is also the developer of 8Rodyk condominium in Robertson Quay.

Source : TODAYonline – MediaCorp Press Ltd’s copyright

CDL’s Q2 net profit up 17% »« Retail, industrial property gaining favour

Retail, industrial property gaining favour

Retail, industrial property gaining favour

by Linette Lim 04:46 AM Aug 03, 2011

SINGAPORE – Strata units in the retail and industrial sectors are gaining popularity as property investors turn to alternative avenues following cooling measures in the residential market, analysts said at a recent seminar hosted by the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore.

Transactions for strata shops, which are generally smaller than 300 sq ft and cost between S$500,000 and S$1 million, rose 60 per cent to about 480 units last year, data from property consultancy Knight Frank shows. The total transaction value almost doubled to about S$530 million.

In the first half of this year, 241 strata shops worth a combined S$247 million were transacted.

Mr Png Poh Soon, head of consultancy and research at Knight Frank, said: “We noted that more new strata shops have been released into the market. In the past, when one talked about strata shops, one would think about Sim Lim Square, Peninsula Plaza, People’s Park Complex and older strata shopping malls.

The new supply that has been introduced in the past year includes Space@Kovan, Vibes@East Coast and Viva Vista in Pasir Panjang.”

This trend of smaller units has caught on in the industrial property sector as well.

Ms Chia Siew Chuin, director of research and advisory at property consultancy Colliers International, said: “The industrial market is not affected by the cooling measures. And we would expect non-traditional buyers of properties of industrial sector to continue to look at the industrial segment as they look for more sources, or places to park their funds.”

Based on Colliers research, sales of these industrial units grew 20 per cent on-year to about 900 units in the first half of this year. About 80 per cent of these strata transactions were priced at less than S$1 million. In the same period, more than half of all non-landed properties transacted sold for more than S$1 million.

Source : TODAYonline – MediaCorp Press Ltd’s copyright

Grand Tower sold for S$88.5m »« Bank lending up, home loans robust

Bank lending up, home loans robust

Bank lending up, home loans robust

by Linette Lim 04:46 AM Jul 30, 2011

SINGAPORE – Total bank lending in Singapore amounted to S$374.3 billion last month, up 3 per cent from the previous month, according to data released yesterday by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

On a year-on-year basis, total bank lending surged 26 per cent on the back of robust economic growth.

Housing loans rose 1.3 per cent to S$121.3 billion last month from S$119.7 billion in May. The MAS also, for the first time, provided additional data about home mortgages in its monthly statistical bulletin. The data revealed that the average loan-to-value ratio for housing loans by banks was 44.3 per cent in the second quarter, up from 44.1 per cent a quarter ago.

Commenting on the new data, Mr Song Seng Wun, regional economist of CIMB Research, said the loan-to-value ratio may look high but is “quite normal” for a country like Singapore with a high home ownership level.

He added: “Barring a severe global economic downturn, the risk of having people default on loans is small.”

Of the outstanding housing loans, about S$87.6 billion was for the purchase of owner-occupied property, compared with S$36.9 billion for investment property.

The move to provide additional data may be aimed at increasing transparency in the housing market. “This is to increase transparency not just in terms of supply (figures) but financing (in order to) make sure that banks are prudent in their lending practices,” said Mr Song.

Among the different bank lending segments, total bank loans to businesses registered an increase of 4 per cent month-on-month, rising to S$209.4 billion last month. Within business loans, lending to manufacturing businesses rose 10 per cent month-on-month to hit S$16.1 billion. In the consumer segment, bank lending grew 1.7 per cent to S$165 billion.

Source : TODAYonline – MediaCorp Press Ltd’s copyright

Retail, industrial property gaining favour »« Private home market should be left to market forces: REDAS