Grand Duchess At St Patrick’s – The Epitome of St Patrick’s Road

Saint Patrick’s Road has always been a good and serene area to stay in. I know since I’ve been living in the East for 15 years. I’ve always dreamt of how its like to be staying in a quiet area which is near to my school and the sea during my school days. St Patrick’s is a breeze, sea, food and school friendly area.

Grand Duchess at St Patrick’s

Rare 4-Bedroom Duplex
2,573 sqft
Excellent layout
Brand New!

Contact me or call 91253045

Grand Duchess At St Patrick’s (District 15)

Elegant Grand Duchess logo which is embedded almost everywhere in the project

Grand Duchess At Saint Patrick’s is sitting just next to Saint Patrick’s School, and it won’t be an understatement to say Grand Duchess at St Patrick’s would be the best condominium development as compared to Tierra Vue, St Patrick’s Residences and smaller boutique apartments such as St Patrick’s Loft. The main builder is Lian Beng.

Here are some of Grand Duchess development photos:

View of Grand Duchess from St Patrick's Road

View from the back of the conservation clubhouse with lap pool

More Grand Duchess Development photos

Grand Duchess at St Patrick’s

3-Bedroom Type B2
1,356 sqft
Excellent layout
Serious seller

Contact me or call 91253045

Realtor’s Project Information on Grand Duchess At St Patrick’s

To assist fellow realtors, I’ve uploaded a full scanned pdf of Grand Duchess At St Patrick’s. If you need a clean version of the pdfs without my watermark, feel free to email me to request what you need.

Grand Duchess At Saint Patrick’s (126 St Patrick’s Road)

Grand Duchess Receives TOP Status – Ready for Occupation
Low-Rise 3 Blocks 5-Storey, 2 Blocks 8-Storey Condominium with 2 Conservative Bungalow development by UIC
Architect, ADDP
The site area is 12251.50 sqm, 131,826 sqft
121 units only

Various Sizes

2 Bedroom (1044 sqft only)
3 Bedroom (1356 sqft – 1410 sqft)
4 Bedroom (1668 sqft – 1970 sqft)
4 Bedroom Duplexes ( 2508 sqft – 3218 sqft)
Penthouses (2766 sqft – 3875 sqft)

– Facilities – Chess Garden, Children’s Pool, Children’s Wet Play Area, Swimming Pool/ Lap Pool, Fitness Station, Gymnasium, Spa & Treatment Rooms, Reading Room, Threatre Lounge, Games Room

Download Brochure of Grand Duchess At St Patrick’s (PDF Version – 18.8MB)

This would be the most unique and classy project alongside of St Patrick’s Road.

The club house plays an important essence in the whole development. If we were to compare on household products, just think of what does your living room furniture like your sofa points to?

Yes, the television would be the focal point. The club house is exactly like the television or the heart of Grand Duchess at St Patrick’s.

The sizes for the layouts are excellent; you don’t see odd shaped layouts at all which means enough practical space.

St Patrick’s is a good living area with vicinity that’s walking distance to East Coast Parkway and good schools such as Tao Nan, St Patrick’s, CHIJ, Ngee Ann Primary, Victoria JC. Food is a bliss here with all the eateries in Tanjong Katong, Dunman Food Court, whole stretch of East Coast Road and more.

UIC is a good developer which doesn’t scrimp and save on finishings as I’ve seen some of its products like The Paterson before. You’ll be satisfied by the quality given to the new owners. ~~We’ll be looking at the end of 2009 the earliest or the mid of 2010 before Grand Duchess at St Patrick’s receives its Temporary Occupancy Permit (TOP)~~

Grand Duchess has received its TOP status and is ready for viewing. Feel free to contact me fast for any of my listings for sale or rental.

Contact Benson Koh

http://bensonkoh.com/

Interested Buyers and Tenants can contact me at +65 9125 3045 or via my contact form for a no obligation discussion on the units that I have for sale or rental

Everyone should Practice Due Diligence

Not that I’m particularly concerned, but you get articles on the news that damns our trade.

Malaysian couple shell out $4,300

Japanese expat coughs up $6,000

Conman duped would-be tenants and agents by posing as property’s manager

A MALAYSIAN couple and a Japanese expatriate have fallen prey to a rental scam run by a conman who took $10,300 from them – then went into hiding.

Neither party realised they had paid him to lease the same terrace house in Serangoon Gardens. But in a twist of fate, they ran into each another there – and discovered his scam.

The man who allegedly made off with their money – his full name is Axley Alexander Ryan Shah and he calls himself Ryan – had no legal link to the property. He pretended to be the property’s manager. It is not clear how he obtained the house keys.

…

The Straits Times, 16th January 2009

Apart from us as Realtors/ agents handling properties for rental or sale, we have to make sure we check our background of our clients and do the necessary ownership check from Inlis before starting to market for them; even if it means they might be close acquaintances to avoid any possible trouble.

Due Diligence Check-list

The best thing to do would be doing a due diligence check-list of what you should do if you are serving the owner/ or the tenant. Verifications of credentials could be done right before the marketing phase starts, which could potentially save you alot of trouble.

In such above mentioned rental scam case, the tenants were the victims and our fellow agents from ERA might have accidentally misplaced the keys, letting some anonymous guy in unintentionally.

Owners/ Landlords, Due Diligence As Well

I understand owners/ landlords usually leave their listings open for any agents to give the best possible deal of a tenancy or even a sale, and as such opens up the vulnerability of such above mentioned frauds.

One simple solution would be working with agents whom you are familiar with and have them undersign a letter of undertaking whilst they have the keys to the apartment/ house.

Another would be awarding exclusives to agents whom you’re familiar with that you know will be responsible towards the marketing of your premises. The agent could update you on the times that your premise would be viewed with other co-broking agents and you could solely hold the exclusive agent responsible should such scams happen.

Again, a check-list might be troublesome, but I suppose it could be something to protect you in case anything happens, in the long run.

DBS Eases Borrowers’ Burden for 6 to 18 Months

The people’s bank of Singapore did it again.

HOME owners with mortgages at DBS Bank can ease some of their financial burden by opting to pay only the interest on their loans for periods of up to 18 months.

The bank sees the scheme as a way of helping cash-strapped borrowers who are worried about their ability to repay their mortgages amid the deepening economic gloom.

The scheme could potentially benefit ‘tens of thousands’ of borrowers with home loans at DBS.

It can mean an immediate reduction in the monthly amount a borrower must fork out as a key portion of the payment – the loan principal – can be set aside.

Take a 25-year home loan of $500,000 pegged at an interest rate of 3.5 per cent.

A borrower will have to pay $2,504 a month – covering both interest and principal.

But by opting to pay the interest only, his monthly payment drops to $1,439, putting an extra $1,065 into his pocket.

So even if a working couple loses one income, which is a growing threat in the downturn, they can likely keep paying their mortgage – and keep their home.

… Source: The Straits Times

According to the article, other local banks are open with the idea of talking to them as well should you have any problems servicing your loan. The last thing that banks want to do is to take back your property to foreclose. So contact your bank if you have any problems and be honest with them.

They’ll listen.

Singapore Developers Gearing For Price Slash?

If you’re starting a new family or already are looking at buying a new place, this is almost the best time to do so. Forget about the high prices that you’ve seen and remembered in 2007, 2009 would be one of the better years in a 7 – 10 years recession period retraction time to get a good bargain.

It really all boils down to whether developers have the holding power to wait out and launch at the right time. According to Business Times, this year we would see whether how Deferred Payment Scheme (DPS) will be affecting buyers who hasn’t take up loans from the banks. A year ago, you could take up loan of up to 90% of the property value easily. If you haven’t secure a loan then, you would have difficulty sometimes even getting loan of up to 80%. Now assuming you have secured an 80%, your cash layout would have increased additionally to 10% to make up the difference of what you could have last year.

Weekend Today actually sent a team to developer project launches and tried to ‘purchase’ a number of units to see how much discounts they could get from the developer.

BARELY an hour into the showflat tour, the senior executive of a property consultancy firm, brokering a private condominium, decided it was time to reveal his trump card.

“Don’t say I said it,” he said, almost whispering, as he pushed across the table to us a piece of paper with a blow-by-blow breakdown of his offer. The latest scribbled figure was 15 per cent just beside the previous offer of 11 per cent.

Buyers could also be offerred freebies such as waiver of stamp duty fees and substantial furniture vouchers to even sweeten the deal.

Buyers with Cash

Ah, you’re in luck. With the falling lending rates especially with loan packages that’s packed with Singapore InterBank Offered Rate (SIBOR), you’d be saving quite substantially in the long run of 20 – 30 years of borrowing.

A UBS report says that according to URA data, four recent sub-sales have been transacted at 20 per cent below launch prices.

Two units at Ardmore II were sub-sold for $2,000 per sq ft, compared with the last-transacted price of $2,400 psf. One unit at Scotts Square was sold at $3,050 psf, compared with the last-transacted price of $3,850 psf in the second quarter of last year.

And one unit at Sky @ Eleven was sold at $880 psf, compared with the last transacted price of $1,270 psf in Q2 2007.

Business Times, 9th January 2009

Buying opportunities now are reigning especially in the Core Central Region (CCR). If you’re thinking of upgrading and shifting to a better location, this slump would be a very good time. Some older projects you can look out for in D09 would be Aspen Heights, Valley Park, Mutiara View or Mutiara Crest which is residing around River Valley for a good buy.

Flip through property listings today and start hunting ;)

Best Buy from eBay in 2009 – GPS Receiver for $1

I know it’s absurd but it’s not suppose to cause any commotion. This might be my best deal buy from eBay ever.

A Holux 236B GPS Receiver for a dollar?!

This is what I did! HTC Touch Pro has this lagging problem with their internal GPS. The problem isn’t known yet whether it’s got to do with the ROM, Radio or the hardware.. To avoid the lag, I have an ex Holux Slim 236 (Version 1) which works perfectly but always drop its Bluetooth connection with my HTC Touch pro easily.

I’ve bid a dollar from sralls and got it from him with full box and accessories. Beaming my way home with the receiver successfully working with my Touch Pro, the B version definitely holds and works better in terms of blue tooth performance.

Well, you can’t totally say that you can’t get good buys at all nowadays on the internet ;)

At least I got mine. *Scuttles for the next $1 bid in eBay.

Real Estate Tycoon Commits Suicide in the US

Recently there have been a number of high profile people committing suicide in the States, particularly tycoons which has to do with the real estate industry and are especially affected by the Madoff Ponzi scandal. Whether there is any links between the number of suicide rates to the crisis are unknown till 3 years later, the problem with statistics.

CHICAGO: – The head of one of the largest real estate auction houses
in the United States was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted
gunshot wound.

Mr Steven Good, chairman and chief executive of Sheldon Good &
Company, joined a growing list of high-profile casualties of a global
economic crisis that has already claimed the lives of executives in
Europe and the US.

…

High-profile casualties like Mr Merckle aside, there are others who
are unknown or less well known, but no less tragic.

Last October, Mr Karthik Rajaram, a 45-year-old unemployed financial
consultant in the US, shot his wife, mother-in-law and three sons
before turning the gun on himself. In a suicide note, he wrote that
he was broke, having incurred massive stock market losses in the
financial meltdown.

Mr James Altucher, a hedge fund manager and columnist, in a
thoughtful and sombre piece in the Financial Times on Tuesday, said
he had heard in the past two weeks of two people who took their
lives: One was a 27-year-old stockbroker with two children, and the
other, a cousin of a friend of his, a hedge fund manager also with
children.

Source – The Straits Times

With housing slumps and people facing foreclosures in our America counterparts, I can’t help but think especially for the elites who has never suffered such defeats in their life before (assuming crisises has at least hit them twice in their life, and this would be the worst) how mentally damning it is to accept such a big blow and carry on with their lives.

Again, people of such calibre would have thought money is everything. My condolences.

Laguna Ex-Commitee Chairman Charged in Court

Should the en bloc craze comes back, this should serve as a warning to people who’re up to mischief for capital gains.

Businessman accused of vandalising property at East Coast estate

WHEN the possibility of a collective sale for Laguna Park was announced in December 2007, some residents held back, hoping this would drive up the estate’s value.

But things turned ugly later at the East Coast area condominium, which was hit by a spate of vandalism cases after several residents opposed the sale. Cars belonging to residents known to have been against the sale were splashed with paint or scratched, while mailboxes were found with glue in their keyholes.

Still, many residents of the 667,000 square-foot estate were shocked to learn that their estate management committee chairman, Mr Lee Kok Leong, had been arrested last August on suspicion of perpetrating these acts.

During a brief appearance in court yesterday, the 62-year-old businessman, dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt and black jeans, stood emotionless as he was charged with two counts of mischief.

According to court documents, Mr Lee is accused of inserting glue into the padlock, rear gate keyholes and main wooden door of a flat at Block 5000E of Laguna Park at 12.44am on Aug 25 last year.

He also allegedly vandalised the front and rear wooden door keyholes of another flat on the same floor.

The damages amounted to $590. – Source, Today

Still, I’m quite skeptical of Laguna Park going through the sale now during this bad economy times. Given a 667,000 sqft massive size land and most developers are still stuck with their launches of new projects, I can’t shortlist any developer or developers who would be willing to come in at this time.

No verdict is out yet for Mr. Lee, but this will set the record straight for people who’re thinking of forcing their residents out in the next en bloc fever.

Digital Gold Currency Magazine – January 2009 Issue is Out

My good friend Mark Herpel has released the January 2009 issue of DGC Magazine.

What is DGC Magazine?

As the name suggests, it’s a flash-media player magazine. The circulation is done monthly with rich contents of what’s happening around in the Digital Currency World. Also, Mark Herpel was the previous blogger that brought up Digital Money World.

What is a Digital Gold Currency?

Now real physical gold are being traded and transacted almost everyday in parts of the world. Digital Gold Currency simply means that there’s a service provider providing a physical storage somewhere and allowing you to trade or buy gold electronically. It’s best explained with Wikipedia. (I’m somewhat sure Mark has got to do with this wiki as well)

This simply means that you can also invest in gold by buying it online and having it stored in strong vaults in different parts of the world such as London, Zurich and more. For businesses, you can also accept DGCs as an alternative form of payment apart from your conventional bank wires.

Why DGC Magazine?

Try flipping through the contents and you’ll get what I mean. It’s content rich, and if you are interested in the types of money/ gold that is being offered in all parts of the world, this is the magazine for you. You’ll learn more about banking regulations, the difference between fiat money and gold (often being looked just as a commodity), government policies on Anti Money Laundering (AML) and much more.

Visit DGC Magazine and flip through today! :)

Buyers and Tenants Market – Your Call Now

Well we’ve already slide into almost about 3 – 6 months of hourglass movement where the sellers’ market has eventually toppled over fully by the buyers. Inevitably this has uncannily become the same for the landlords to the tenants.

Buyers and Tenants, its yours in 2009 now :) — Buyers and Tenants, it's yours in 2009 now :) Photo courtesy of PretamRao

Buyers and Tenants are now the one with the say in the market.

We’ve seen newspaper reports on more retrenchments homing in after the Chinese New Year period which is about just 3 weeks away, which would cost more people to be distressed and worry about their mortgage loans; especially for those who have taken up Deferred Payment Scheme (DPS) for the new projects which are getting their TOP in 2009/ 2010.

Should the current crisis be affecting the buyers who bought on DPS, even if they have secured a loan with the bank, there might be still be chances these people might default. Again, those who would be in serious trouble are those who hasn’t secure a loan from the bank yet 3 months ago as local banks has taken their stances by already reducing their loan value of only up to 80% of the intended purchase property (The last I knew, UOB, OCBC and DBS is confirmed at 80% rate).

Buying/ Renting Opportunities

With property prices setting to slide further, this creates many possible opportunities of good buys as well as securing a good bargain for rental be it even for commercial or residential.

For the Residential Buyers

We’ll be seeing buying opportunities even in the prime districts like 9, 10, 11 affected. It probably would be a good time to buy for investment in Q2 of 2009 when we would see the full impact of the crisis after consumers cuts their spendings after Chinese New Year and more people losing their jobs. As gloomy as it is, those people who are in-the-money from the enbloc craze in 2006 – 2007 and hasn’t bought anything would have the last laugh.

I’ve seen good condominium units in Devonshire and Jervois going at very realistic and good price medians. Kudos to those who’re waiting.

For the Commercial Tenants

Business which are not affected badly by the crisis or are expanding could take this time to renew a decent tenancy with the landlord or look for even more bigger spaces to expand. Landlords are definitely in a softer position and would not be as skeptical as a year ago to listen to tenants’ proposals. If you have been a good tenant and punctual on your rents, they will definitely try to retain you.

Indeed the chinese phrase 危机 (the flip of two sides, the danger times and opportunities) has become imminently true for people who’re ready for the buying/renting to ride the next boom in at least 2011, 2012.

St Patrick’s Loft Receives Temporary Occupancy Permit (TOP)

St Patrick’s Loft (District 15)

I’ve been hanging around St Patrick’s area more often than not lately with the recent St Patrick’s Loft owners getting their keys just two weeks back. Here’re some photos (credits to Nicholas) to share with everyone on the whole outlook of the project. It’s a pretty small boutique project by Roxy Homes who specialises in many boutique developments around Telok Kurau area.

Project View from the Outside, Next to St Patrick's Green

Pool View of St Patrick's Loft from one of the Unit

There’re a number of units that’s putting up for sale or rental. Those who generally knows St Patrick’s area well knows that this is a good living area with vicinity that’s walking distance to East Coast Parkway and good schools such as Tao Nan, St Patrick’s, CHIJ, Ngee Ann Primary, Victoria JC. Food is a boon here with all the eateries in Tanjong Katong, Dunman Food Court, whole stretch of East Coast Road and more.

We can’t just explain totally why people who lives in this part of the east will always prefer to reside back in the east (District 15 in general).

Realtor’s Project Information on St Patrick’s Loft

To assist fellow realtors, I’ve uploaded a full scanned pdf of St Patrick’s Loft. If you need a clean version of the pdfs without my watermark, feel free to email me to request what you need.

St Patrick’s Loft (41-45 Saint Patrick’s Road)
– Dec 2008 TOP
– Low-Rise (5 floors) boutique development by Roxy Homes
– 37 Units
– Various sizes, from 2 bedrooms to 4
– Swimming Pool/ Gym
– Brochure of St Patrick’s Loft (PDF Version – 7.6MB)

This is the most affordable new project that you can find in St Patrick’s area as compared to our neighbours like Tierra Vue by MCL Land, Grand Duchess at St Patricks by UIC and St Patrick’s Residences by TG Development.

As with it’s affordability compared, it has it’s own little flaws here and there which is justifiable by the asking price (you might be able to get a unit here with the range of $600 – 650psf on average with the current market, about at least $200 – $250 cheaper psf as compared with Grand Duchess at Saint Patrick’s)

The Good

Units are surprisingly breezy despite being a low-rise. +
Freehold
Location +++
Value for money ++

The Uhm Not So Good

Finishings could be better (Grills, Sliding Doors) —
No Basement carparks –
Minimal Facilities (Swimming pool and a probable dingy gym) —

More Information?

If you’re not an agent and would like to view the development, feel free to buzz/text me at +6591253045, or if you are a fellow colleague, feel free to call me as well to arrange for viewing to some of my 2 and 3 bedroom apartments I have on my listings here in St Patrick’s Loft.

Will be updating here with photos of one of the units that I’m marketing to let everyone have a general feel of the apartment.