Singapore Real Estate Market largely unaffected by subletting caps Source: Straits Times Six months after the start of quotas on subletting public flats to foreigners, the fear that they would hurt the rental market does not seem to have come true. As of June, only about 1 per cent of Housing Board neighbourhoods and blocks have reached the quota limits, the HDB told The Straits Times.
New private home sales nearly double in May The improved sales volume came as developers launched 1,790 new units in May, nearly three times more than the 600 homes in the previous month. Source: Today Online / Singapore SINGAPORE: The private residential property market sprang to life in May after months of remaining in the doldrums, with developers’ sales surging 96 per cent as buyers snapped up units at the slew of new launches last month. Developers sold 1,470 new private homes last month, nearly
doubling the 749 units that they moved in April, latest data by the Urban
Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed on Monday (June 16). Including executive
condominiums (ECs), new developer sales rose to 1,528 units in May from 797
units in April. "It is a function of supply, and supply that was with good attributes and good locations, as well as projects that were priced very attractively," Mr Desmond Sim, the Head of CBRE Research Singapore said of the rise. Two projects by City Developments topped the best-selling list for the month. Coco Palms at Pasir Ris Grove moved 590 of the 600 condominium units launched at a median price of S$1,018 per square foot (psf), while Commonwealth Towers at Commonwealth Avenue sold 275 of 400 homes at S$1,626 psf. Analysts note the higher sales volume last month is a sign that underlying demand is strong, but some say it may be too early to rejoice. "The statistics in May do show that buyers did come back
(to the market), but that is after five months of drought, of very low
sales," said Mr Nicholas Mak, the Executive Director of Research and
Consultancy at SLP International Property Consultants. Observers say attractive prices will continue to be the key consideration for buyers against the backdrop of existing cooling measures. For instance, the 100 units sold last month at The Panorama at Ang Mo Kio were transacted at a median price of $1,241 psf. This is about eight per cent lower than what units were going for at the project's launch in January this year. Another project in the vicinity also achieved similar results after it slashed prices. Developers of The Sky Habitat in Bishan trimmed prices by some 13 percent when the project was re-launched last month. It then sold 130 units at a median price of $1,377 per square foot. "Projects like Panorama and Sky Habitat, they have turned in very good numbers after they have relaunched at better pricings. With the success of this, I am not surprised that developers out there will consider that as an option to move units," said Mr Sim. For the whole of 2014, analysts expect developers to sell about
9,500 to about 12,000 units. That is about 20 per cent shy of some 15,000 units
sold in 2013.
-TODAY/cy New private home sales surge 96% in MaySlew of new launches brings private residential property market back to life Source: Today Online / Business SINGAPORE — The private residential property market sprang to life in May after months of remaining in the doldrums, with developers’ sales surging 96 per cent as buyers snapped up units at the slew of new launches last month. Developers sold 1,470 new private homes last month, nearly doubling the 749 units that they moved in April, latest data by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed today (June 16). The improved sales volume came as developers launched 1,790 new units into the market in May, nearly three times more than the 600 homes recorded in the previous month. Two projects by City Developments Ltd (CDL) topped the best-selling list for the month. Coco Palms at Pasir Ris Grove moved 590 of the 600 condominium units launched at a median price of S$1,018 per square foot (psf), while Commonwealth Towers at Commonwealth Avenue sold 275 of 400 homes at S$1,626 psf.
Besides the successes of new launches, May also saw another re-launch that did well: Wheelock Properties’ The Panorama at Ang Mo Kio sold 100 of the 126 units offered last month at a median of S$1,241 psf. -By Lee Yen Nee http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/new-private-home-sales/1165100.html
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/new-private-home-sales-surge-96-may Ex-investment banker finds success with property venture Source: Straits Times Property fortunes move in cycles, a fact that real estate investor Zain Fancy knows all too well. The 40-year-old former high- flying investment banker has already been through more professional ups and downs than most people experience in a lifetime.
Global Economy & Global Real Estate Jury is still out on China's property bubble Analysts divided on whether it has burst and likely spillover effects Source: Business Times / China IT'S the million-dollar question no one agrees on. As China data continues to weaken and the property sector shows clear signs of cooling, analysts are questioning whether the real estate bubble (if indeed there was ever one) has finally burst and what could be the possible spillover effects. A recent Bloomberg survey showed there is no one answer to the puzzle. Twelve of the economists interviewed said there is oversupply. Seven said there is a nationwide bubble. Property sales in the first five months to May dropped 10.2 per cent year-on-year by value, while property investment grew 14.7 per cent against 16.4 per cent last year during the same period. And this despite other indicators pointing to a stabilisation of growth for May.
Central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan himself said China may indeed have a housing bubble, but only in certain cities. -By Virginie Mangin in Beijinng, China http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/china/jury-still-out-chinas-property-bubble-20140616 UBS Plans China Property Expansion With New Commercial Funds Source: Bloomberg / News UBS AG (UBSN), Switzerland’s biggest bank, is planning to expand its Chinese property investment business with a move into commercial real estate. Office, retail and industrial properties are “where investor demand is certainly moving to” in China, Trevor Cooke, head of global real estate for Asia-Pacific at UBS Global Asset Management, said in an interview in Sydney. “The stock of investment grade assets in China is growing at about 35 percent per year.” The bank would either partner with a developer or a company with an ability to source existing assets, he said. Several cities in China are expected to experience improving rental demand for commercial space on the back of recent regulatory changes, including policies to boost growth in certain areas, CBRE Group Inc. said in its Asia Pacific Office MarketView report. China was among the five most sought-after markets for retailers looking to open stores this year, a separate report by the broker, released in March, showed. UBS already invests directly in Chinese residential property through a joint venture formed in 2008 with Shenzhen-based developer Gemdale Corp. The bank is planning a second residential fund, with an initial close of about $100 million and a total of at least $350 million, Cooke said. “It’s hard not to acknowledge the macro sentiment around residential property in China right now, the concerns about a Chinese bubble,” Cooke said. “But that just puts the emphasis on the asset management credentials.” China’s home sales fell 11 percent in May from a year earlier. The value of homes sold declined to 446.1 billion yuan ($72 billion) from 503 billion yuan in the same month in 2013, according to the difference between National Statistics Bureau data for the first half of the year and the first five months. UBS plans to offer clients the option of investing in Chinese property using either U.S. dollars or yuan, Cooke said. Australia VentureThe bank, which has about $66.4 billion of real estate under management globally, is also expanding in Australia through a joint venture with Melbourne-based developer Grocon Pty. and through an agricultural partnership announced last week with closely held agricultural advisory company Bydand Global Agriculture. UBS Grocon Real Estate is targeting as much as A$750 million of assets under management by the end of this year, including Grocon developments, Cooke said. The joint venture, which plans to have A$10 billion under management in five years, hasn’t announced any investments yet. UBS Grocon gives the bank the first right of refusal on the builder’s A$2 billion ($1.9 billion) pipeline, the latest addition to which is the Commonwealth Games village on Queensland state’s Gold Coast. Grocon won the right to be preferred developer of that project in December. UBS will team up with Bydand to help match investor demand with farms in need of equity capital. “The Australian agricultural sector is carrying too much debt, and a significant amount of farmers are subscale and need an exit,” Cooke said. “Farmland provides a great portfolio diversifier and, structured right, it damps volatility and initial demand from clients in all parts of the world seems very strong.” -By Nichola Saminather N.J. Senior Home Offers Investors Unrated Debt: Muni Deal Source: Bloomberg / Luxury A retirement center in Voorhees, New Jersey, that’s lost money for three years is selling unrated municipal bonds this week as returns on high-yield debt reach almost double the overall market. SJF-CCRC Inc., an affiliate of the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey, runs Lions Gate, a continuing-care retirement community about 17 miles (27 kilometers) southeast of Philadelphia. Through the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, the nonprofit is offering $61.7 million in tax-exempt securities, principally to refinance debt on 152 apartments, 12 cottages, a 78-bed nursing facility, a 32-bed rehabilitation unit and a 70-bed assisted living center, according to bond documents. Yields could go as high as 5.5 percent on the 30-year portion, said Andrew Nesi, executive vice president at the underwriter, Herbert J. Sims & Co. Inc., in Fairfield, Connecticut. That would be 2 percentage points higher than benchmark munis, data compiled by Bloomberg show. “There are people who are looking for investments in this area,” Nesi said. “There’s not a lot of high-yield supply.” High-yield debt is earning 9.9 percent this year, compared with 5.7 percent for the $3.7 trillion municipal market, S&P Dow Jones Indices show. High-yield funds have added cash for 23 straight weeks, Lipper US Fund Flows data show. Yield-hungry investors would have to digest some risk. The Voorhees center has posted operating losses every year since 2011 and for the first three months of this year, deal documents show. Opening the rehabilitation facility last year drove expenses higher than revenue, as not all beds were filled all the time, said Douglas Hacker, Lions Gate’s chief financial officer. Operating losses for such facilities are common for the first 10 years, Hacker said. Finances have stabilized for Lions Gate, which opened its first beds in 2006, he said. “We have met our debt covenants,” Hacker said. “We’re a solid organization now and into the long-term future.” The center is joining issuers offering $4.7 billion in bonds this week, down from $9.5 billion last week. -By Romy Varghese |