Eunosville HUDB Estate Privatised

Press release from HDB with regards to the privatisation of Eunosville,

The Eunosville HUDC Estate has been converted into a strata-titled property under the Land Titles (Strata) Act, with effect from 1 June 2011.

The Marine Parade Town Council will therefore cease its responsibility in the management and maintenance of the common properties of the estate with effect from 1 Jun 2011. The Management Corporation Strata Plan No. 3642 is also constituted on the same day to manage and maintain the common property of the estate.

Eunosville estate comprises 330 units of flats at Blocks 822, 824, 826, 828, 830, 832, 834, 836, 838 and 840 Sims Avenue. With the privatisation, the individual owners in the estate now own their respective strata units, as well as the common property such as the car parks and open landscaped areas, as tenants-in-common.

Privatisation of HUDC estates was announced in 1995 as part of the Government’s effort to meet the rising aspirations of Singaporeans to own private housing. It also enables the lessees to have better control over the management of their estate. Privatisation will proceed if lessees of at least 75% of the flats support it.

News of privatisation for Eunosville has been ongoing for a couple of years with some residents citing difficulty in coughing out $30,000 privatisation fees previously.

I suppose its one of the best time for them to get into the position since the big developers are low on their land banks. Another en bloc move underway?

Prepare for Changes in Housing Policies

Newly sworn in Minister for National Development Mr. Khaw Boon Wan, former Health Minister who has replaced Mr. Mah Bow Tan has pledged in his final outgoing blog post as a Health Minister to make housing and HDB Singaporeans popular icon again.

I am only driven by one thought: housing is one of the greatest achievements of Singapore, and our pride. It is very sad to see it being hammered left, right and centre in the lead up to and during GE.

I am determined to make housing and HDB Singaporeans’ popular icon again.

Please help me, my friends.

It is going to be interesting to see what kind of policies will Mr. Khaw introduce since HDB forms up 80% of heartlander’s stay. It’s quite safe to say that any new changes that is going to be introduced into the system will be tough to adjust the current prices. Mr. Mah Bow Tan has tried increasing the supplies of flats, introduced harsher seller’s stamp duty rates during his course, but the median Cash Over Valuation (COV) hasn’t seem to revise downwards too much.

Of course supplies that has been introduced will take time on the system on the price action since they’re just in the pipes which hasn’t been built yet. Any changes done now will fiscally alter the prices once the supplies are in the market.

Also, should the policies be too drastic, foreign investors would probably slow or halt their investment portfolio in Singapore. If Mr. Khaw could just tilt his policies more to adjust the public housing woes for the mid-tier families instead of affecting the free market on private housing, it would be perfect.

HDB Introduces New Resale Checklists For Both Buyers and Sellers

I thought it’ll be good if HDB actually announces this as part of their press release.

On the 18th of May, HDB has revised the checklist for both buyers and sellers. For practicing agents, please use these forms with immediate effect.

For the seller’s portion, you’ll have to go through the enhance resale checklist which was introduced awhile ago. The gist is that you have to definitely download it from their site so that they’ll generate a unique code for you to deposit it into their depository.

You can read more about the Seller’s enhanced resale checklist here.

The Marq on Paterson Hill Achieves Highest Sale PSF

The news is out.

The Marq on Paterson by SC Global has achieved the highest ever done pricing on per square foot level (psf) at $5,842, crossing the figure of $5,600 done by The Orchard Residences (Capitaland and Sun Hong Kai) in October 2007.

The record breaking apartment in The Marq is a 4-bedroom that was sold for a whooping $17.5m.

Only three ultra-luxury projects has achieved a benchmark price of over $5,000psf this far, namely The Ritz-Carlton Residences, The Orchard Residences and The Marq on Paterson Hill.

These news could spark interests in a comeback on the luxury segment since the prices hasn’t been able to achieve a new height since 2007.

Upcoming projects that luxury segment investors could look into are The Orange Grove, Nassim Park Residences which are going to TOP this year, and pre-TOP projects such as Scotts Square, The Hamilton Scotts, Alba, Hilltops.

URA Development Charges Revised Upwards For Most Groups

The development charges has been revised for the period of 1st March 2011 to 31st August 2011.

The DC rates for Group A (Commercial) have increased by an average of 13%, with the largest increase of 29% in Sector 9 (Peck Seah Street / Maxwell Road / Anson Road area).

For Group B1 {Residential (landed)} the DC rates have on average increased by 18%, with the largest increase of 25% in Sector 108 (Holland Road / Sixth Avenue / Eng Neo Avenue / Adam Road / Farrer Road area).

The DC rates for Group B2 {Residential (non-landed)} have also increased by an average of 11%. The largest increase is 17% in Sector 100 (Upper Serangoon Road / Punggol Area).

For Group C (Hotel/Hospital), the DC rates have an average increase of 27% with the largest increase of 39% in Sectors 1, 2 & 7 (Church Street / Boon Tat Street / Cecil Street / Robinson Road / Shenton Way area), Sectors 19, 20 & 21 (Clemenceau Avenue / Havelock Road area), Sector 41 (Somerset Road area) and Sector 43 (Tanglin Road / Cuscaden Road area).

The DC rates for Group D (Industrial / Warehousing Use) have increased by 8% on average, with the largest increase of 20% in Sector 114 (Tuas / Jurong / Woodlands area).

Official Source: URA on the 28th February 2011

What it means:

Developers will have to pay a higher charge as compared to the previous term. It becomes more expensive for developers to develop new projects in this instance and should there be any, the cost will be passed down to consumers.

With those revised groups, you can see where most of the Real Estate activities are intensifying in. Both commercial and industrial has seem to caught our Government’s interest.

Boonview Condo – Value Buy for Property Investors

Despite cooling measures, investors are still hunting for the best possible Real Estate deals in the market. And most investors would agree with me that during good times or bad times, there will always be good buys if you search hard enough.

Boonview is a rare freehold condominium that is situated of 1 Marymount Terrace. I’d leave the judgment of the rarity for you to call with the following reasons,

Freehold Condominium in Bishan/ Pemimpin Area

Sitting on a very decent piece of land size, it is a full facilities condominium that sits right in between the 99 year leasehold Seasons View (by Far East) and next to a brand new freehold Tresalveo (by the same developer as Boon View, Soon Lian). Continue reading “Boonview Condo – Value Buy for Property Investors” →

New Cooling Measures Yet Again – Seller Stamp Duty and Loan to Value Adjusted

With the introduction of Seller’s Stamp Duty and lowering of Loan-to-Value ratio last year and being enhanced before, the Singapore Government steps in further to adjust the already heavy measures to cool down the property market by introducing the following:-

Increasing the holding period for imposition of Seller’s Stamp Duty(SSD) from three to four years
Raise the SSD rates to 16%, 12%, 8% and 4% of consideration for residential properties which are bought on or after 14 January 2011, and are sold in the first, second, third and fourth year of purchase respectively. You can see an example of the computation here.
Lower the Loan-To-Value (LTV) limit to 50% on housing loans granted by financial institutions regulated by MAS for property purchasers who are not individuals
Lower the LTV limit on housing loans granted by financial institutions regulated by MAS from 70% to 60% for property purchasers who are individuals with one or more outstanding housing loans at the time of the new housing purchase

The measures will take effect tomorrow on the 14th of January 2011. Continue reading “New Cooling Measures Yet Again – Seller Stamp Duty and Loan to Value Adjusted” →

SRI5000 Microsites – The Trillium & Belle Vue Residences

Many of you would know, I have move on from Knight Frank to SLP Empire (as with most) for an exciting career partnership with Bruce Lye of Team 5000. Together we’ve formed a fantastic synergy team called the SRI5000.

Our model of competency for SRI5000 will go in the form of GTA (geographical targeted area) where we could give our clients the most out from every district area that a client could be looking for a property (bang for their bucks)

Here are two micro-sites (with many more to come) that we have done this far,

The Belle Vue Residences

Belle Vue Residences is a District 9 (Orchard/ Oxley) project that has recently TOP-ed. With its unique designs, you have over 150 different layouts in just a mere 175 unit condominium that is spanning over 250,000 sqft of land.

Visit The Belle Vue Residences for more information on the project as well as view the existing photos of Belle Vue and apartment.

The Trillium

The Trillium is another District 9 (Orchard/ Kim Seng) project that should have already TOP. Spot the 3 blocks of condominium from afar with its classy facade. The Trillium is a highly anticipated TOP project because of its prime locality and with the full fledged condominium facilities it offers.

Visit The Trillium for more information on the project to find out more facts as well as the different layouts The Trillium offers.

With such micro-sites, the scalability doesn’t stop there. There will be more interesting roll outs in which I will explain as they are implemented, both for my SRI5000 team as well as even for clients and consumers like you to check any properties for sale.

So if you are considering Real Estate as your career. have you considered joining us at SLP’s SRI5000 yet?

HDB Minimum Occupation Period Revised to Five Years

With the latest measures in-lieu of the Government’s way to deal with cooling down the property market, more new flats has been introduced into the supply pipeline which gives more choices to first-time home buyers.

The reason given for the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) revision is to dampen HDB buying speculations. The measures as follow:-

The MOP of non-subsidised flats for reslae and subletting of flat will be increased from three to five years.
Buyers of non-subsidised flats will be disallowed from concurrently owning both an HDB flat and private residential property within the MOP. Private property owners who buy a non-subsidised HDB flat must now dispose of their private residential property within six month from the date of flat purchase. Ownership of private properties by HDB lesees will be allowed after the MOP

The official press release from HDB.

New Cooling Measures – Seller Stamp Duty Holding Period, Lower LTV, Minimum Cash Revised

The Singapore Government has recently released further measures today to curb the possibly speculative hot property market which will be in effect immediately (30th August 2010) as follows:-

Seller’s Stamp Duty Holding period extended from 1 year to 3 years

For residential properties bought4 on or after 30 August 2010, SSD will be imposed if these properties are sold within three years of purchase. Specifically, the SSD levied on residential properties will be revised to as follows:

1. Sold within the first year of purchase, i.e. the property is held for 1 year or less from its purchase date – The full SSD rate (1% for the first $180,000 of the consideration, 2% for the next $180,000, and 3% for the balance) will be imposed.

2. Sold within the second year of purchase, i.e. the property is held for more than 1 year and up to 2 years – 2/3 of the full SSD rate.

3. Sold within the third year of purchase, i.e. the property is held for more than 2 years and up to 3 years – 1/3 of the full SSD rate.

No SSD will be payable by the vendor if the property is sold more than 3 years after it was bought. Please see Annex for examples of how the SSD will be computed.

Cash Component Revised from Minimum 5% to 10% Loan to Value Limit for Property Owners with More Than One Outstanding Loan
Loan to Value revised from 80% to 70% for Property Owners with More Than One Outstanding Loan

The LTV limit is lowered from 80% to 70% with effect from 30 Aug 20108 for borrowers who have one or more outstanding housing loans (whether from HDB or a financial institution regulated by MAS) at the time of applying for a housing loan for the new property purchase. Borrowers who do not have any outstanding housing loans continue to have an LTV cap of 80%. These rules apply to housing loans granted by financial institutions for private residential properties, Executive Condominiums, HUDC flats and HDB flats (including DBSS flats).

Loans granted by HDB for HDB flats (including DBSS flats) will still have an LTV cap of 90%. HDB loans are offered to eligible first-time flat buyers and second-timers who are right-sizing their flats to meet their housing needs. They are required to utilise all of their CPF Ordinary Account balance before HDB loans will be granted. Furthermore, those taking a second concessionary HDB loan must use the CPF refund and 50% of the cash proceeds from the sale of their previous flat before they are granted an HDB loan. This is in line with HDB’s home ownership policy of helping eligible buyers, especially first-time buyers, purchase public housing in a financially prudent manner.

Financial institutions’ lending standards have remained prudent and the asset quality of housing loans has stayed robust, with the non-performing loans ratio at less than 1% as at Q2 2010. Nonetheless, there are signs that more housing loans are originating at higher LTV bands of above 70%. In line with the objective of ensuring a stable and sustainable property market, lowering the LTV limit sends a clear signal to financial institutions to maintain credit standards, and encourages greater financial prudence among property purchasers already servicing one or more outstanding housing loans.

The reasons as exact given by Ministry of National Development,

While Singapore has enjoyed strong economic growth in the first half of 2010, our economic growth is expected to moderate in the second half of the year. There are also still uncertainties in the global economy. Should economic growth falter and the market corrects, property buyers could face capital losses, with implications on their own finances and the economy as a whole. Moreover, the current low global interest rate environment will not continue indefinitely, and higher interest rates could have severe implications for buyers who have overextended themselves. Therefore, the Government has decided to introduce additional measures now to temper sentiments and encourage greater financial prudence among property purchasers.

Huge impact should follow with such, and we could very likely see the property transactions drop drastically.

We’ll have to wait out for more details from each relevant government agencies on how the changes should impact your usual property transactions.