Firm marketing shares in apartments; industry watchers still wary

By EMILYN YAP

(SINGAPORE) A new way of selling condominium units here has emerged amid the recent resurgence in the property market.

Registered three months ago, Primespace Investments Pte Ltd is marketing ’shares’ in apartments to investors with at least $62,000 to spare.

It has two studio units available - one at One-North Residences in Buona Vista and the other at One Shenton near Raffles Place.

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Another site at Meyer Road offers bite-size option, with $65m price tag

By KALPANA RASHIWALA

DEVELOPERS hungry for land were offered two plum residential sites yesterday. One is a 99-year leasehold plot at Upper Thomson Road, opposite the Singapore Island Country Club’s Island Golf Course, which boasts views of Lower Peirce Reservoir.

The 224,303 square foot plot, which was triggered for release from the government’s reserve list, can be developed into a condo of up to 20 storeys with about 400 units.

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MNCs’ investment return here, at 18% last year, among highest worldwide

By CHUANG PECK MING

(SINGAPORE) American direct investments in Singapore crossed the US$100 billion mark last year, making Singapore the biggest investment destination for US multinational corporations in Asia.

And no wonder. The latest figures released by the United States Department of Commerce also show that despite the global recession, the returns on the MNCs’ investments here remained among the highest worldwide.

The US posted US$19 billion in income from its investment in Singapore last year, or an 18 per cent return, according to calculations based on the Department of Commerce numbers.

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More than 80% of owners consent to sale at a reserve price of $1.2b

(SINGAPORE) Laguna Park, a 528-unit ex-HUDC estate in Marine Parade, has just been officially put up for collective sale. More than 80 per cent of the owners have inked their consent to the collective sale agreement at a reserve price of $1.2 billion

The price works out to $844 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), including an estimated total cost of about $400 million payable to the state for the increase in intensity of the site to the plot ratio of 2.8 and the topping up of the lease term to fresh 99 years.

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Citi’s Chua upbeat, but others remain more cautious

By ANNA TEO

(SINGAPORE) So much for cautious optimism. One of the more bullish forecasters in town now says that GDP growth of more than 8 per cent is ‘achievable’ for Singapore in 2010, even if exports expand only modestly.

Officially, Citigroup is looking at a 2.7 per cent GDP contraction here in 2009, and a 6.2 per cent growth rebound next year - already at the high end of market forecasts.

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Deals stay hot on bungalow fever
Record year in the offing for good class bungalow sales

By KALPANA RASHIWALA

(SINGAPORE) Good times continue to roll for the Good Class Bungalow (GCB) market, with some high-profile business personalities involved in the latest transactions. They include palm oil giant Wilmar International’s chairman and CEO, Kuok Khoon Hong, and Prima Group boss Bernard Cheng.

The latest deals have boosted the volume of GCB transactions between January and August this year to about 60 deals with a total value of around $900 million, surpassing the $830 million transacted in the whole of last year, latest figures from CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) show. The actual year-to-date numbers could be higher if caveats for some deals done in August have still not been lodged, suggest property market watchers.

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Singaporeans make up 87% of buyers; even Swiss nationals among purchasers

NTUC Choice Homes has sold 410 of the total 460 units it released for the preview of its Trevista condo in Toa Payoh last week. The co-operative is expected to release more units in the 590-unit project this weekend when it does an official launch, accompanied by an advertising campaign, for the project.

Singaporeans picked up 87 per cent of the total 410 units. Permanent residents made up 7 per cent and non-PR foreigners, 6 per cent, of buyers.

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GDP may shrink just 3.6% this year, grow 4.5% in 2010: survey

By TEH SHI NING

(SINGAPORE) Things are looking up for Singapore’s economy, which may shrink far less than was feared until recently.

The median forecast by economy watchers for this year is now a 3.6 per cent contraction in GDP, which suggests a much brighter outlook than the 6.5 per cent decline forecast in June. This also exceeds the government’s official expectation of a 4-6 per cent contraction.

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SALES of existing US homes jumped more than forecast in July to the highest level in almost two years, signalling that the housing crisis that crippled the world’s largest economy is easing.

Purchases climbed 7.2 per cent to a 5.24 million annual rate, the most since August 2007, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said yesterday. The gain was the biggest since records began in 1999. The median price fell 15 per cent.

‘More and more buyers are becoming convinced that there is not a lot of downside left in the housing market,’ said Ellen Zentner, a senior economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York. ‘We can count on housing no longer being a drag.’

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