Double Bay At Simei is going to launch this coming Friday (6th of March) jointly marketed by ERA and Knight Frank.
IAS (Interest Absorption Scheme) will be offered to this project by both local banks UOB and OCBC. You can find out more details exactly about Double Bay here.
Interested parties can drop me a message and I’ll arrange the VIP preview for you :)
Here’re some more photos of Grand Duchess at St Patrick’s in progress on 28th of February 2009.
Continue reading “Grand Duchess Photo Updates on 28th February 2009”
Singapore government board Ministry of National Development (MND) has dropped its development charge for the following sites with this current revision:-
- Reduction of 15% of DC for non-landed residential use
- Reduction of 10% of DC for hotel and hospital use
- Reduction of 4% of DC for commercial use
- No changes to landed residential and industrial use.
The actual revision and press release can be found in URA’s Press Release on 27th February 2009.
MND reviews its DC rates after consulting with the Chief Valuer, taking into account of the current market values.
What is Development Charge? The Actual Principle of DC
Land value can be enhanced with the Government approve its change of rezoning or adjustment of its plot ratio to a higher value. Development charge actually allows the government to tax on the profit gained from the enhancement of the land upon approval of the proposed plan. Continue reading “MND Lowers Development Charge (DC) by 4% to 15%”
Taking the advantage to ride the success of recent new launches (Alexis & Caspian) and relaunches (The Quartz), developers are moving their projects to their pre-sales and launches. Among them are Double Bay, joint by UOL & Kheng Leong, The Arte by CDL and The Beverly by Hiap Hoe.
Double Bay At Simei (99 Yrs)
Continue reading “Double Bay, The Arte and The Beverly Launches”
Mid Tier Developments Moving After Chinese New Year
Over the recent two weeks, we’ve heard Fraser’s Centrepoint Jurong Lake District Caspian condo selling well (over 60% sold of their 712 units) and Alexis @ Alexandra (of 293 units) by Yi Kai and Fision Group sold out in 3 days.
This shows our HDB upgraders and property speculators are still around despite the midst of the worst economy crisis that has ever happened to Singapore. While it’s a relief that the cash is still there, some of the buyers of Alexis has been seen trying to flip their just bought options for profit (Interest Absorption Scheme was offered and the owners are allowed to have 3 weeks to decide whether to take up loans from the exclusive bank)
With the successful launch momentum that Alexis and Caspian enjoys, Guocoland grabs the opportunity to re-launch its remaining units at The Quartz with a 10% discount on its tag (around 595psf). The Quartz is a 625 unit strong condominium residing near Buangkok MRT Station and has a balance of 182 units till date.
Continue reading “Caspian & Alexis Sells Well – Singapore Property Mid Tier Market Still Strong”
Here are some of the current progress shots of One Amber by UIC which should TOP in a few months time taken on 15th of February 2009 on Mountbatten Road and Amber Gardens.
The progress is fast.
One Amber Project Details
Continue reading “One Amber – Progress Photo Shoots on 15th February 2009”
There’re 3 main segments with brand new projects in District 15 to look at, namely the St Patrick’s Area, the Maryland Park/ Seaview Area and the Fort Road Area.
I’d be touching the middle one which has sprung a couple of building and just completed projects in the past 2 – 3 years (Maryland Park/ Seaview)
In this particular segment of East Coast, we have The Seaview by Wheelock Properties, which has already TOPed in 2008, The Esta by MCL Land which recently gotten its TOP status and One Amber by UIC which is still in construction phase.
Realtor’s Project Information on One Amber
To assist fellow property agents on One Amber, I have uploaded a full copy of the One Amber catalogue to share with agent friends as well as potential buyers. If you need a clean version without the watermark, contact me.
The verdict is out for the property flipping incident involving the marketing agent friend we’ve mentioned about few days ago.
REAL estate agency ERA has been ordered by the High Court to cough up $257,000 and other expenses to a married couple whose property agent had acted in conflict of interest.
…
When a property agent is engaged to sell or buy property, he has a responsibility to act in the interests of the person who hired him – not his own, or his friends’, or his relatives’ or his boss’, said the judge.
This is a huge tarnish to the real estate brand name and I’m sure clients who engages the affected firm in the near future would be asking about this case and be more cautious. Again to be fair, one black sheep doesn’t mean the whole herd is of the same type.
I was standing on top of my car to take these photos when Nicholas demonstrated a way just to snap some of these by the fence. Well, THANKS :| Anyway, here’s a closer look of how the club house is looking at the moment.
Continue reading “More Grand Duchess Progress Shots on 3rd February 2009”
Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam unveiled the Budget for the fiscal year 2009 two days ago at 3.30pm; Among are the highlights of it’s 20.5 billion dollar Resilience package.
Here’re the highlights and perks for the property segment:
Bigger HDB Grants for Buyers
Additional Housing Grant (AHG) has been raised from $30,000 to $40,000. And more new families will definitely qualify for AHG since the income ceiling has been raised from previously $4,000 to $5,000.
This is the government way of letting us know that ahead of tough times, they still want people to own their own HDB flats to start a family, though I wish that they could raise the income ceiling higher for AHG. Any families that earns $5,000 or lesser could get the grant, but that doesn’t mean a new family would be able to enjoy the full grant of $40,000 as AHG is being tiered to your income. The higher your income that qualifies you in the criterion, the lesser you get.
A typical $4,900 income family would probably get $5,000.00 in the new AHG grant (my estimation)
The current AHG grant is still not being updated with the new stats, but can be found here in HDB’s website.
40% Property Tax Rebates for Industrial and Commercial Properties
Nada for residential. The government hopes that some of these savings will be passed down from landlords to tenants to sustain businesses. We’ll see rounds of negotiations coughing up on rental after this budget I’m sure.
The sad part is for residential property investors; No savings.
15% Rental Rebate For Government Tenants
This is a strong sign that governments are trying to save as much businesses as they can to sustain jobs. Government boards tenants from National Environment Agency (NEA), Housing Development Board (HDB), JTC Corporation and Singapore Land Authority (SLA) tenants will get the rebates. Yes, hawker stalls too!
HDB has already put up press releases on the rental rebates of 15% to their existing commercial tenants. Again, I’m not sure whether they did enough since the price on rentals and properties has inflated drastically in 2006/2007.
Allowing One Year Of Project Completion Period For Developers
To assist property developers during this slowdown, the government is allowing Developers with Qualifying Certificate (QC) to delay their project completion, by allowing more flexibility for them to stage their construction and sales to the market condition, as well as easing their cashflow.
Usually, QC holders are allowed to hold their projects for 6 years and with the above mentioned measure, developers are allowed to write in to Controller of Residential Property (SLA).
Developers of uncompleted Government residential projects awarded before 22 January 2009 will be allowed to apply for extention of Project Completion without extention premium.
Developers are allowed to re-assign of Government sale sites and private land
Should the re-assignments be not of speculative nature, the Government will be allowing it on case to case basis. Developers who wish to re-assign their land will have to have a written approval from Controller of Residential Property.
Four Years, Not Two From TOP To Dispose All Private Residential Properties/ And Allowing Developers to Rent Out Unsold Units for Maximum of 4 Years
The previous 2 years rule for QC holders to dispose their residential properties have been eased. Developers can now stage according to the market conditions and that would ease them in terms of their planning and execution of marketing plans. 4 years would be a fair duration given that the property cycle might pick up from 2011 – 2012.
Developers Can Pay Tax Later For Land Approved Sites
The Government is allowing developers to defer their property tax for up to 2 years. The sites must come with a valid Provisional Permission (PP) or Written Permission (WP) to qualify for such deferment.
Well we couldn’t say that there’s nothing done to aid our market, given that there’s alot of consideration in all sectors apart from the property segment.
We’ll see if it helps in curbing the credit crunch with the Resilience Package this year (especially after Chinese New Year).