Does PropertyGuru Deserves a Renewal on Premium Account After a Year?

I’ve received an email reminder from Sherlyn, PropertyGuru to inform me that my premium account is due for a renewal next month.

Let’s recap PropertyGuru’s review that I’ve done donkey months ago on how it’s affecting my review to the service it provides for both agents and consumers. Since then, PropertyGuru has massively transformed from a new player in the property market place to a veteran with a huge spike in internet traffic.

The Positive Changes So Far

All the minuses that I mentioned previously in my article was taken care of (and I wonder does the PropertyGuru team actually reads my article, and if they do, good call :))

+ AgentNet Login is being really obvious now with the big blue icon
+ Since I’m on premium, I have no complains with ~~their photos limit of 3~~ unlimited photo uploads limit.
+ New segments such as MarketPlace that allows more agent features, Wanted Leads that brings you direct clients with requirements.
+ Ask Guru still remains strong for property searchers to ask and for agents to showcase their knowledge.

Something New
+ SMS text message sent to your phone on enquiries by prospecting buyers, you get to call them right away. How’s that for customer service?
+ Listing of properties has became more friendly over the months, with new suggested search for condo listings, quality score, watermark feature and extending expire ads.

The Traffic War

First, let’s look at how much traffic it has picked up since the last review done a year ago.

PropertyGuru has breached the 100,000k rank since last year and is top 40,000 sites of the world. It's a feat. — PropertyGuru has breached the 150,000 Alexa rankings since last year and is top 40,000 sites of the world. It's a feat.

Even Alexa has changed dramatically with a facelift over the year. PropertyGuru has shed 120,000 ranks and is now at 39,000 (The lower, the better) ranked site in the world. PropertyGuru’s site penetration has one of the best for our locals, followed by South Korea, China and India.

The 3 reputated Singapore Property Portals (ST701, iProperty and PropertyGuru) showhand in Alexa’s comparison chart.

ST701, iProperty and PropertyGuru Shootout

PropertyGuru emerged the winner among the 3 sites, considering ST701 was the market leader previously (again it’s not fair to judge with ST701 being a portal which is directly competing with classified sites like 88DB and Mocca, which means PropertyGuru did considerably even better than expected)

Testimony from Benson Koh

It works, I’ve some deals that has been closed with fellow agent friends and direct buyers coming. Why do I know? I have premium accounts with most available effective portals that we’ve mentioned previously and I always do ask my leads on where did they get to know me to keep track the effectiveness Return On Investment (ROI) tool I have, PropertyGuru scores undoubtedly high in that department.

Is it worth to pay for a premium account?

Hands Down YES.

ps. Tsk, if you’re thinking that PropertyGuru is paying me for such a review, maybe that SHOULD ;)

CDL’s The Arte Sells Over 80% in Phase I

Good news for sustaining the following month’s home sales index with the numbers The Arte has helped to crunch.

City Development has sold over 80% of its Phase I released units, which is 150 units out of its total 336, 44% of the overall numbers in the project. The median sold price for The Arte during the launch is at $880 psf, a very affordable and fair range for Thomson-Balestier area.

Home Sales Figure Holds Strong In March

Home sales figure reported for March breached the 1,000 figure again with 1,220 units sold, holding up strongly with projects such as Caspian, Double Bay Residences, Mi Casa and The Quartz, all priced below the $1,000 per square foot range.

The mid-tier market is still running the numbers, with many seeing this as a good opportunity to switch between HDB and private apartments as HDB prices are still holding where the private segment has been falling significantly from November 2008 till date.

About The Arte

The Arte (District 12), a freehold 336 apartment (2 blocks of 36 storeys) development by City Development, is well situated in Thomson within minutes driving distance to Central Business District, close proximity to both Novena and Toa Payoh MRT Station.

Within the radius are good schools and upcoming overseas universities. This development has a future niche be it on rental or for parents who are planning for their kids to enrol in good schools.

The expected TOP date for the Arte is in December 2012. You can download a pdf version of the brochure from here.

Clustered Homes in Singapore In a Nutshell

The trend has been on the upscale for clustered bungalows lately with project marketing teams like Huttons, OrangeTee and also Knight Frank dealing with niche areas like Goodman Rd(D15), Dunsfold (D13) and more.

Clustered Bungalows, Matlock Residences at Matlock Rise

What is a Clustered Home?

They’re strata-titled landed housing. In short, its like your condominium which is strataed and being placed to a Management Corporation Strata Title (MCST) for maintenance of your strata area. Strata area can include anything shared between the few terraces or bungalows such as a common pool (or your own jacuzzi pool), private enclosed spaces, terraces, aircon ledges, planter boxes, so on and so forth.

They’re considered a hybrid in between landed properties and condominium since some developments do have communal and shared facilities such as a gymnasium, barbeque areas etc.

Why a Clustered Home as Compared to a Conventional Terrace or Bungalow?

Lifestyle.

You get the best of both worlds of what a condominium and a landed property enjoys. Perks include the above mentioned such as a gymnasium, a shared pool, jacuzzi pools, barbeque areas in which normal landed doesn’t get to enjoy unless land size permits for alterations, which would cost more. The cost of maintenance is spread among the project, which makes it affordable and hassle free.

Also, it seems that a foreigner has a higher chance of owning a clustered home (subjected to LDAU’s approval) since its strataed.

Some Things to Take Note

Owners of clustered homes are generally not allowed to tear down and rebuild their properties unlike their counterparts since they’re part of a strata-titled project. Cluster homes tend to have the same unision appearance.
En bloc would be treated the same as your condominium counterparts, with 90% consensus for a less than 10 year clustered project and 80% for more than a 10 year clustered project.
Unlike full landed properties which transaction is based mostly on land area, clustered homes pricing are calculated with its built-in size as they are part of a Strata.

Singapore Auctions – Knight Frank Upcoming Property Auction on 23rd April 2009

Here’s another upcoming auction from Knight Frank’s auction team for April 2009 head by Ms. Mary Sai.

Venue: Amara Hotel, Connection Room 1, Level 3
Date: 23rd April 2009, Thursday
Time: 2.30 PM

There’s a D15 Grand Duchess at St Patrick’s on the list (#04-03, 1970sqft), a Penthouse Sentosa Cove’s The Azure.

Most on the list are for sale by owners, 2 are for sale from IRAS and just one mortgagee sale from the bank. For the full list, you can have it downloaded here.

IRAS Reduces Annual Value for Over 150,000 Homes

Great news for property owners who will be having their AV(annual value) reduced for Q1 of 2009.

SINGAPORE : The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has reduced the Annual Values of over 115,000 private properties in the first quarter of this year.

That is almost 100 per cent of the total number of properties reviewed.

With the reduction and the 40 per cent property tax rebate announced in this year’s Budget, owners of these properties will pay between 45 per cent and 60 per cent less in terms of property taxes…

Channel News Asia

Oh and yes, have you file your income tax for 2008 yet? Deadline is 15th April 2009 for your normal filing and 18th for E-filing, don’t miss it!

Property Agents – Ethics Please

image credit: arboltsef

The Case

Awhile ago I was with my client who has give me exclusive to market her place in Sunny Palms (D15 – Telok Kurau) and also to find and secure her a new place.

She was mentioning about this rogue agent (name not mentioned) who actually has an expatriate couple who might be interested in the place;

The agent mentioned to my home owner his interest to go directly to her and advised her how to go about nullifying my exclusive by writing in to Knight Frank. Fortunately my client is very responsible to me and told him that unless he’s able to fetch even higher price to pay the both of us, else undercutting is totally out of scope.

Well, this happens from time to time with the cut throat business’s risks that we have to bear.

Which Reminds Me of Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching!

There’s a chapter in Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching on Competition means prepare to be your best which damns people like these and yet it reminds me to be always at my best while I’m at my job.

Principle 27 of Cha Ching (abstract from Jeffrey Gitomer’s Book)

1) Going over the competition

The ideal way to win. It assumes that you take the high ground. It doesn’t mean sit back and wait. It means rise above in such a way that the competition has to respond or lose. Here are a few “over” ways: e-zine, seminars, and referrals. Building value by building profit. Earn testimonials and using them to get “over” again.

2) Ignore competition

I go for “best”, not “beat.” It’s a better, cleaner win.

Do I always win? No. But I always feel I should have. And I have a self confidence that keeps me ready for the next opportunity. I wake up the next day and go to work sharpening my skills.

Ethics Please

While I work on my code of conduct and bringing the best to my customers, it still fumes me a little with such scum being in our industry.

Play fair if you’re in this for the long run, else we’re sure to cross each others path one day and should you need any help, I’m sure it will backfire with one or another fellow agent some days.

Horizon Towers gets a No Go for En Bloc

After a tormenting two years en bloc legal pursuit, the highest court, the Court of Appeal finally gave its verdict on Horizon Towers, the 199 unit condominium lying on Leonie Hill. The enbloc sales was halted, a judgment that surprised many owners.

The judgement based mostly on the sales committee established for the enbloc by Horizon Towers not performing its fiduciary duties as it’s suppose to. I think the deciding blow was on two owners who bought additional units before being appointed to the sales committee.

SINGAPORE: A group of homeowners has finally won the fight to keep their condominiums, ending a two-year legal saga.

In an unprecedented move, the Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of owners who objected to the S$500 million en bloc sale of Horizon Towers.

The Leonie Road condominium was to have been sold in 2007 to Hotel Properties and its partners.

Had the en bloc sale gone through, owners of its 199 units would have earned S$2.3 million each, while 11 penthouse owners would have received about S$4 million each.

… Channel News Asia

This is a ugly case of enbloc which got blown out of proportion that coughed up much legal costs along the way. Again, that would means more transparency in the future as people would be using this case to benchmark on the type of treatments they could get from the law.

For owners of Horizon Towers, it’s a 50/50 case in benefits as we do see a climb in land pricing with its next door neighbour Leonie Hill Residences (2005) by Tiong Aik with recent transactions hover the 1,800psf mark (freehold). Horizon Towers is a 99 year leasehold apartment which should command about 800psf at this current market rate. HPL and partner’s plan of 253-unit condo and eight detached houses on the site effectively was halted by the decisions from the Supreme Court.

Again that would call for another round of en-bloc, which I’m not sure whether any developers are willing to take the bite with the tarnished reputation the sales commitee have left in the near future. Horizon Towers definitely had a good deal in the climbing 2007 market from Hotel Properties.

It’s amazing also with 1.5 million incurred in legal costs, they could have done something better with the money.

Progress Photos of One Amber on 31st March 2009

UIC’s One Amber looks set to TOP in time as they’re already mounting their glass panels. Looking good.

One Amber Block 3 Taken from across Mountbatten Road

For more information visit this blog entry of One Amber.

Homeowners who are looking for a Property Agent to market your One Amber apartment or Homeseekers who’re looking for One Amber apartments can also contact me.

Rent Protection Insurance in Singapore by Jardine Llyod Thompson and QBE

Rent Protection Insurance in Singapore by QBE and Jardine Lloyd Thompson

It’s confirmed.

I was attending to a introduction session in our office by a lady from Jardine Lloyd Thompson on their new rent protection insurance product produced by their company and QBE. The launch will be on April’s Fool (1st April 2009) opening only to Real Estate agents to sell to their Landlords.

Cost of the premium is 15% of one month of rental (excluding GST), coverage of up to 24 months of the tenancy, which sounds alot more affordable than I thought. I had the misconception that this will be a premium cut from the rental every month.

Benefit kicks in when the policy is in effect when you have a loss of rental income with the following:-

Tenant defaulting
Tenant absconding
Eviction and/or Failure to surrender vacant possession
Loss or damage to property
Prevention of access
Murder or suicide
Death of tenant under sole tenancy
Loss of rental income due to real estate agent absconding with rent paid by tenant (you’re extremely unlucky if you’re that guy)
Legal costs
Agents commission for replacement tenancy agreement.

It seems and sounds really good, with some catches here and there.You can only get the insurance with a new tenancy term with your property and not when your current tenancy term is in effect.

Remember, you can only get this policy through property agents, so contact your usual leasing agent for more details.

I’d advice you to visit their site (the site is down for me, try it on 1st April 2009) and download the PDFs on their policies to understand the product further. If you need any clarification, you can also contact me questions on how it works.

Smart Expo 2009 on 28th and 29th March

There will be a free exhibition and loads of seminar talks on real estate investments this weekend as Smart Expo 2009 hits town.

Speakers include Christopher Tan from Provident Ltd, Getty Goh from Ascendant Assets, Mark Smith from KPWG, Eric Cheng from HSR and more. For the full list and the details of their covered topics, feel free to refer to this list.

Venue: Hall 401, SUNTEC Singapore International
Start Date: Saturday, 28th Mar 2009
End Date: Sunday, 29th Mar 2009
Opening Times: 10am – 7pm

I’ll be there to visit a friend and to listen to some speakers. Feel free to pop by anytime. It’s free anyway!