News Highlights Tuesday 1 April 2008

S-E Asia and China forge links with road network
Spanning thousands of kilometers, it will make its way through Malaysia, Thailand and Laos before entering China. Apart from building infrastructure, the declaration seeks to transform improved connectivity into enhanced competitiveness, accelerated livelihood improvement and reduce poverty in the region.

- The Straits Times, P1



Two en bloc sales delayed; developer asks for more time
Payments are pending from Bravo Building Construction, who bought freehold Pender Court condominium in the Telok Blangah area for $80 million last July and freehold Tulip Garden near Holland Road for $516 million. But completions of both deals have stalled. Bravo has already asked for 2 postponements for the Tulip Garden transaction and extensions to pay an additional 5% of the purchase price. Tulip Gardens sold for about $1,018 psf and has 164 units. The Pender Court deal is even further behind schedule.

- The Straits Times, P3



Sprawling hotel site in Balestier put up for sale
The Government released a sprawling hotel site for sale between Balestier Road and Ah Hood Road, in front of Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall. The developer must build and manage a park that takes up a quarter of the land right in the middle of the site – named Zhongshan Park. Other restrictions, such as a required public event space and outdoor food and beverage or retail outlets in the park, as well as an approval of hotel’s design, also apply. Property experts said the site’s large size and many restrictions mean that there are likely to be few bidders in the public tender. The 1.77ha plot is the biggest hotel site released by the URA since 2001. 60% of the site’s total gross floor area of 430,556 sq ft must be used for a hotel.

- The Straits Times, H20



Makeway View en bloc deal falls through
The $162.8 million collective sale of Makeway View at Newton to an associate of Bravo Building Construction has been rescinded. The deal fell through because the actual development charge (DC) was higher than what Bravo had been told, hence the breakeven price would be higher than expected. The $162.8 million deal for Makeway View reflected a unit land price of about $1,583 psf ppr including an estimated $21.5 million DC.

- The Business Times, P2



Rolling times for hotels and tourism
Total international arrivals rose 5.4% y-o-y to 10.3 million visitors in 2007 and hotels reported higher revenue per available room. The continued release of hotel development sites by the government to address a potential shortfall in room supply will provide opportunities for aspiring hotel owners and investors. In the medium to longer term, the Singapore market could also witness the potential entry of other accommodation concepts such as condotels or condo hotels, which involves the purchase of a right of ownership of the unit, that is, strata sub-division. – Chee Hok Yean, executive vice-president and head of corporate advisory, Asia and Doreen Goh, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels associate

- The Business Times, P31



Asia’s property market shines
Global investors are showing a lot of interest in Asia because of the region’s strong economic fundamentals and problems in other markets. According to Cushman & Wakefield (C&W), 20-30% of investors looking at Asia have dropped off but the rest are still interested. Difficulties for foreigners in developing markets may mean increasing interest in Singapore and Hong Kong, which are perceived as easier Asian cities to invest in. Relatively transparent property rights and land registration systems mean lower risk. C&W reckons the pace of collective sales will be slow, hence affecting investment sales which are boosted by active Reit-related acquisitions and buoyant collective sales. Strong fundamentals mean the investment market will continue to do well in 2008.

- The Business Times, P32



Pinetree back with lower en bloc asking price
Pinetree Condominium which was put up for collective sale in September 2007 has been relaunched at a lower indicative price of about $1,700 psf ppr – 20% lower than the previous indicative price. The property is marketed by Jones Lang LaSalle who said the site has the potential to be redeveloped into a residential development with a GFA of up to 66,178 sq ft. The 41,361 sq ft site at Balmorla Park has a 1.6 plot ratio.

- The Business Times, P33



Home Office Scheme period extended
The Home Office Scheme (HOS), introduced in June 2003 with approval periods of 3 years, has been revised to allow longer approval of 5 years. The HDB and URA has said that 20,600 HOS applications have been approved – of these, 1,100 are for private properties, mainly for IT consultancy, Web design, real estate services and advertising. A report in March 2007 put the number of people using HOS at about 21,000.

- The Business Times, P33



CapitaLand revamp to focus on China, S’pore
CapitaLand CEO Liew Mum Leong will take a more direct role in the company’s China outfit and Singapore residential business as the developer looks to those segments for growth. Chief executive of the company’s China business and head of its Singapore residential unit will report directly to Mr Liew from today. A UOB analyst said that it is a reflection of how quickly the business of China and Singapore homes have grown and how important they have become.

- The Business Times, P33