News Highlights Thursday 3 April 2008

Key trends in China property sector
Despite slower economic growth and uncertainty over Beijing’s austerity measures, long-term demand outlook remains positive for China’s residential, retail and office markets. The government’s policy goal is not to lower prices in the existing market but to work hard to ensure the future availability of affordable housing in three ways: increase effective land supply by releasing new land plots or repossessing dormant land plots from developers; lower land prices by introducing more land supply and limiting the ability of developers to bring capital from offshore sources; discourage investment demand in the residential market by increasing the downpayment requirement from 30 to 40% and raise the mortgage rate for second-home buyers. On the demand side, owner-occupier demand remains strong as the population’s standard of living continues to improve.

- The Business Times, P34




Capitol Theatre slated for redevelopment
Capitol Theatre will be redeveloped along with its adjoining buildings – Stamford House, Capitol Building and Capitol Centre – next year. The buildings will be tendered out as a single integrated site, encompassing an area of about 1.45ha. Three of these buildings have been gazetted for conservation, which means that their facades will be maintained.

- The Straits Times, P3




Docs will call the shots at new Farrer Park hospital
A group of doctors planning to build a $665 million private hospital and hotel complex in Farrer Park received financial backing from wealthy patients. The new hospital and hotel is being built by Singapore HealthPartners (SHP) which bought a 1.36ha site in Race Course Road to house the complex, slated to be built above the Farrer Park MRT station. The site, with two 20-storey towers, cost $265.3 million. It will be a “mediplex”, with a hospital, hotel and specialist medical centre rolled into one. The four-star hotel will have 230 rooms.

- The Straits Times, H6




Leng Beng urges nimble feet in shifting landscape
The uncertainty surrounding the local property market will last at least another 6 months and stakeholders must stay nimble to deal with the changing tides, said CEO of City Developments Ltd (CDL) Kwek Leng Beng. He urged the government to review its current land sales programme which was fixed last year when the market was buoyant. He also said that the government had been too quick to scrap the deferred payment scheme last October. He praised the government’s handling of the office crunch. The URA’s introduction of transitional office sites – allowing temporary low-rise office blocks to be built quickly on 15-year leasehold sites – was a swift response to increase office supply.

- The Business Times, P1




Brokers’ Take: Singapore Property - Citigroup
Mass market should continue to lead the pack. While transaction volumes have waned, active participation in the recent West Coast site suggests that developers are still positive on the mass market segment.

- The Business Times, P8




Office occupancy dips for two consecutive quarters: report
Islandwide office occupancy dipped in Q1 2008, easing half a percentage point quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to 97.1%. The dip followed a 0.1 point drop in Q4 2007 from Q3. DTZ Debenham Tie Leung attributed the slight dip in occupancy in Q1 2008 partly to the completion of 2 office buildings – The Central and VisionCrest Commercial. The new buildings added 538,100 sq ft of new office space that raised islandwide office stock 1% QoQ to 56.6 million sq ft. Office rents have, however, continued to increase, with fresh record highs of $20 and $21 psf per month registered at 6 Battery Road and Republic Plaza. Cushman & Wakefield said that he reckons the outlook will remain positive until after the first half of 2009, with Grade A office rents rising a further 16.5% this year.

- The Business Times, 35




GIC RE looking to sell office building for RM300M: report
Singapore’s real estate investment arm – Government of Singapore Investment Corp Real Estate (GIC RE) - plans to sell Menara Standard Chartered at Jalan Sultan Ismail here for about S$129.7 million. They are looking for a yield of about 6% which works out to about RM950 psf. Based on a net lettable area of 321,000 sq ft, the building could be sold for between RM289 million and RM205 million.

- The Business Times, P36