Top Stories Number of new BTO flats to drop in 2015, but supply will be ‘adequate’: MND About 16,900 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats will be launched next year, down from this year’s 22,400 units.Source: Channel News Asia / Singapore SINGAPORE: The Housing and Development Board (HDB) will launch 16,900 new Build-To-Order (BTO) flats next year – down from 22,400 units in 2014 – but supply will be “adequate” given that an estimated 15,000 Singaporean families are formed each year, the Ministry of National Development (MND) said in a written Parliamentary reply on Tuesday (Nov 4). The new flats will include about 4,000 two-room flats to cater to demand from singles and low-income families. To augment the BTO supply, HDB will also conduct Sale of Balance Flat (SBF) exercises involving several thousand unsold balance flats. “As resale prices continue to moderate, we can expect more buyers to return to the resale market rather than await the building of BTO flats,” MND said. Addressing a query from MP Gan Thiam Poh on whether HDB will carry extra stock of BTO flats, the ministry said there is no reason to hold empty blocks of completed flats to await a surge in demand, as “buffer stock is not cost free”. “What we can do is to try to project and build ahead of demand as closely as it is possible. There are bound to be temporary shortfalls or surpluses, as our market is also subject to external events which are beyond our control,” it said. “At this point, our focus is on ensuring a smooth transition from the ramp-up to a more sustainable phase, as the supply and demand for BTO flats achieve a better balance.” - CNA/cy http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/number-of-new-bto-flats/1453826.html Singapore Economy SkillsFuture Council lists ways to develop citizens Sector-focused skills frameworks and career guidance in schools among early initiativesSource: Business Times / Government & Economy SINGAPORE'S future lies not only in having a competitive economy, but also in creating a society in which citizens achieve their fullest potential, said Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Wednesday. To this end, the 25-member SkillsFuture Council - a new panel he chairs - will develop an integrated system of education, training and career progression for Singaporeans; it will also promote industry support for individuals to advance based on skills, and foster a culture of life-long learning. Speaking to reporters after the council's first meeting, which lasted 31/2 hours, Mr Tharman said: "This is not just about the economy. It's about our society. We can only succeed if we have competitive firms, but if we achieve competitiveness by sticking to average competencies and average wages, then we are not achieving our social objectives. "The only way in which we can stay competitive, as well as help Singaporeans develop themselves to the fullest and achieve their aspirations, is by developing mastery in every field. That's not just the way companies can stay competitive globally, but how we enable individuals to flower. "So SkillsFuture is about that combination of economic and social objectives. And it's ultimately about becoming an advanced society." Announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally in August, the SkillsFuture Council comprises representatives from the government, industry, unions, employers and educational and training institutions. Apart from government ministers, members of the inaugural team include Singapore Business Federation chairman Teo Siong Seng, BreadTalk Group chairman George Quek and Singapore National Employers Federation president Robert Yap. The council members have been appointed to a two-year term. At its maiden meeting, the council identified four key thrusts in the national drive to imbue in the people relevant skills for the future. These are:
Even as Mr Tharman acknowledged the "long journey" ahead and said it was too early to put a dollar value to what this skills-development drive will cost the government, he disclosed details on the first initiatives to be rolled out next year. First, sector-focused frameworks for skill advancement and career development will be introduced. The council declined to say which "key sectors" would be targeted first. Mr Tharman said: "(This will involve) very deep collaboration with the employers because it has to be relevant to their needs. It can't be something imposed by a skills bureaucracy ... It has to allow for some free play for each employer, because they've got very specific needs and you don't just want to force them to meet a classification for a whole industry or the whole economy ... "But neither can we just leave it to the market, leave it to individual employers to do their own thing. There has to be some degree of coordination. And that's a balance that has to be struck." Second, education and career guidance officers will be placed in some secondary schools in the second half of 2015. Council member Aziz Amirali Merchant, the executive director of engineering in Keppel FELS, said this is crucial and added: "These counsellors will advise students on what is out there and what the real skills required are, so they can make informed choices - rather than train for something that will make finding a job difficult later." Third, enhanced internships for polytechnic students and "place-and-train" programmes for fresh polytechnic and ITE graduates will be rolled out. Council member Bernard How, the Premier Services director for Asia-Pacific Services in Microsoft Operations, said this would help to level the playing field for fresh hires: "Not everyone comes from a well-connected family. So the more we create paths for individuals (early on), the more they're connected with potential employers." Companies which participate in such "place-and-train" initiatives will stand to gain from a package of support measures now being finalised. Mr Tharman said: "Employers are critical to what we want to achieve. SkillsFuture is not just about boosting skills supply, but boosting skills demand and employer recognition of workers' skills and mastery. "It is inevitable in a tight labour market that you lose some of your people as you develop them. (But) if a large core of employers in each sector gets on to this journey, agrees on skills standards and invests in their people, what goes around comes around." -By Kelly Tay Singapore Real Estate Reits band together to form new industry body Reitas will help to grow the S-Reit sector internationally and engage regulators, educate investorsSource: Business Times / Real Estate SEVERAL real estate investment trusts (Reits) have banded together to form an association - the Reit Association of Singapore (Reitas) - to promote the growth of Singapore's Reit sector. It will be headed by a nine-member executive committee, comprising representatives from some of the major Reits and sponsors such as Mapletree, CapitaLand, Frasers and Keppel. Mapletree Investments group chief investment officer Chua Tiow Chye is president of the association, while Sonny Tan, a former general manager at Fraser & Neave, is CEO. There are three vice-presidents, each of whom will head a separate sub-committee. ARA Asset Management (Fortune) CEO Anthony Ang will be responsible for engaging the authorities with the aim of improving the regulatory environment; CapitaLand group chief financial officer Arthur Lang will head education and research; while Keppel Reit CEO Ng Hsueh Ling will oversee promotion of Reitas initiatives. The others in the committee include Ascendas Reit CEO Tan Ser Ping (treasurer) and Frasers Centrepoint Asset Management CEO Christopher Tang (member). Legal, trustee and banking representatives fill the other three spots. Reitas has its first task cut out already - amassing feedback from Reits on the latest Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) consultation paper. Mr Chua said that he understood the good intentions behind the proposal, but cautioned against the "slippery slope" of over-regulation. Blanket regulations should not be thrown onto the whole industry just because of "some black sheep", he said. "Some of the proposals requiring independent directors (IDs) to do beyond what is required of a listed company are quite excessive." For instance, for interested party transactions, MAS proposes having the Reit manager's audit committee (comprising non-executive directors, mostly independent) certify that it is not aware of any other offer with better terms for any property divestments to a Reit. "This is one part which I think is quite uncomfortable for IDs. While we agree with the principle that we should get the best price, we don't want to pass the onus to IDs," he said. He is also against a prescriptive one-size-fits-all fee formula across all the Reits, as well as the doing away with acquisition fees for Reit managers, which would remove incentives for them to scout for deals, he said. There has also been debate about whether Singapore Reits (S-Reits) should consider internal management - that is, absorbing the management team into the Reit, instead of having Reits externally managed by a sponsor-owned team. The belief is that internal managers' interests are more aligned with investors', given that they are not motivated to earn huge fees from the Reit for the sponsor. On this, Mr Chua, Mr Lang and Mr Ang say that they prefer to just let the market evolve naturally. Singapore's Reit market started from an externally managed model because its first Reits were all backed by strong developer-based sponsors. Interestingly, recently listed independent Reits such as IReit Global still choose an externally managed structure. Of course, this may change in future. What is important is that Reits should be allowed that flexibility to choose, Mr Chua said. Singapore is at a crucial point now in its race to boost its standing as an international Reit market. It is currently the third-largest market in the Asia-Pacific, after Australia and Japan, but can be considered more international than both, which are more domestic-oriented. At the same time, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand and India are implementing aggressive policies to try to overtake Singapore's Reit market. And capital is now borderless. "If S-Reits do not keep at the forefront of things, we will disappear from the map," Mr Lang said. Reitas has also been engaging MAS, and through it, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and the finance ministry, on issues such as tax exemptions for foreign-sourced income as well as stamp duty remission for properties sold to S-Reits. Both benefits have so far been renewed every five years and will next end on March 31, 2015. The association hopes these will be made permanent or renewed, as it will give more certainty to Reits aspiring to list here. Reitas also does not plan to be dominated just by the big boys, but welcomes the membership of small Reits, as well as trustees, trustee-managers, investment banks, lawyers, accountants, tax advisers, property consultants, private property fund managers and academia. Already, the Singapore Exchange has agreed to be its corporate patron and will support it in its research and education work, which incidentally ties in with the exchange's own efforts on investor education. Reitas is to be officially launched on Nov 17. Soon after, mom and pop investors can expect courses and seminars that help to "de-mystify" Reits. Separate courses will be made available to industry practitioners to help upgrade their skillsets in tandem with the advancement of the Reit industry. -By Lee Meixian http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/reits-band-together-to-form-new-industry-body Reit group formulating response to MAS plansCentral bank says investor interests must come ahead of trust's sponsor Source: Straits Times / Money AN ORGANISATION of real estate investment trusts (Reits) and other firms in related sectors is formulating its response to moves by the central bank to shake up the sector. The Reit Association of Singapore is concerned that the reforms could leave the industry over-regulated. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said early last month that it wants new rules for the $63 billion Reit sector, which is the biggest in Asia after Japan. Its proposals include making Reit managers liable for jail if they are judged to have failed to prioritise investor interests over those of the trust's sponsor. Association president Chua Tiow Chye told The Straits Times yesterday that its immediate priority is to respond to the MAS proposals. Mr Chua, who is also Mapletree's group chief investment officer, made it clear that "we are not a lobby group". He said that if the Reit industry becomes over-regulated it could detract from Singapore's attractiveness as a financial centre and hub for property trusts. "The environment is already very attractive and we are trying to make it even more conducive, bearing in mind that there are now more cross-border listings," he added. The association was registered last December but launched officially only this week. It aims to promote the industry and help Singapore remain an attractive place for listings. Mr Chua said it is seeking to attract more high-quality foreign Reit listings, pointing out that Singapore's domestic property market is limited. Recent foreign listings here include IReit Global Group, which owns offices in Germany, and Japan's Accordia Golf Trust. Mr Chua added that he hopes Singapore would surpass Japan within a decade in terms of attracting foreign Reit listings. The association also plans to conduct more research on the sector, possibly in collaboration with academia, while aiming to educate more retail investors through events such as seminars. "For the investing public, Reit investment in Singapore is still relatively new and we want to make it more transparent for mom- and-pop investors," he added. The association has nine members in its executive committee, including representatives from large sponsors such as Mapletree, CapitaLand, Keppel and Ascendas, as well as law firm Allen and Gledhill and banks like Citi. At least 16 of the 33 Singapore- listed Reits, mostly linked to those three big sponsors, are members, with efforts underway to attract more participants.
It costs up to $20,000 a year for a Reit manager to join the association and up to $10,000 a year for other categories of members. -By Melissa Tan http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/money/story/reit-group-formulating-response-mas-plans-20141106 Singapore REITs plan industry body to engage regulators, educate investorsSource: Channel News Asia / Business SINGAPORE: The managers of Singapore's largest real estate investment trusts (REITs) have set up an association to promote greater awareness among investors as well as to represent the REIT industry in their dealings with authorities. Called the REIT Association Singapore (REITAS), the industry grouping is headed by Mr Chua Tiow Chye, the Group Chief Investment Officer and Regional Chief Executive Officer of North Asia and New Markets at Mapletree Investments. Mapletree Investments, a unit of Temasek Holdings, manages several Singapore-listed REITs including Mapletree Commercial Trust and Mapletree Logistics Trust. Other executive committee members include representatives from property giants such as CapitaLand, Keppel Land and Frasers Centrepoint as well as property fund management firm ARA, Citigroup and HSBC, the association's website said. According to the website, the key objectives of REITAS include promoting the Singapore REIT industry to greater market prominence in regional and global capital markets, as well as creating a better understanding of REITs listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). REITAS – whose official launch date is scheduled for Nov 17 – also intends to represent the Singapore REIT industry "in engaging the various relevant authorities with the aim of improving the operating, legal, commercial and regulatory environment for S-REITs". News of REITAS' creation comes just a month after the launch of the Small and Middle Capitalisation Companies Association (SMCCA), a grouping of small and mid-capitalisation companies listed on SGX. SMCCA has already started to engage the SGX on behalf of members by submitting written responses on proposed regulatory changes such as the imposition of a minimum trading price as well as the enforcement frameworks that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and SGX first proposed in February this year. - CNA/cy http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/singapore/singapore-reits-plan/1454226.html Oxley Hotel up for sale by auction Source: Business Times / Real Estate Oxley Hotel, a freehold eight-storey boutique hotel sitting on a 3,725 sq ft plot of land in Lorong 6 Geylang, has been put up by its owner for sale by auction. The hotel has 56 guest rooms, seven car park lots and a total gross floor area of 12,238 sq ft. -By Lee Meixian http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/oxley-hotel-up-for-sale-by-auction Billionaire Enclave Prices Plunge on Singapore Property Curbs Source: Bloomberg / Luxury Australian hedge-fund manager Stephen Fisher says he was lucky to have bought his luxury home on Sentosa, a Singapore resort island that has attracted the wealthy, in 2005, before property curbs kicked in. “I would be very wary of buying a second property in Singapore as I would have to pay higher taxes, which makes it less attractive,” Fisher, 50, chairman of First Degree Global Asset Management, said in a phone interview. Sentosa, where Australia’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, and telecommunications billionaire Bhupendra Kumar Modi have homes, is losing its appeal. Taxes as high as 18 percent on foreigners purchasing property introduced in 2013 have depressed prices and sales. Condominium prices in the residential enclaves that line the seafront with sweeping views across the Singapore Strait are near their lowest levels since the end of 2006 based on 15 transactions, according to Maybank Kim Eng Securities Pte. Some bungalows are being sold for more than 50 percent below the peak in 2012, Urban Redevelopment Authority, or URA, data show. Singapore has been trying to rein in the property market since 2009, with the toughest measures, including stricter lending, introduced last year. The island-state is unlikely to ease the curbs until “a meaningful correction” takes place, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said Oct. 28. “The way prices have fallen is like during the crisis time” in 2008, Alan Cheong, a Singapore-based director at broker Savills Plc, said, referring to values on Sentosa Island. “The measures have impacted demand and we are seeing a diversion of interest by foreigners away from here.” Home prices on Sentosa have fallen about 40 percent since 2012, compared with a 28 percent drop in 2008, Cheong said. Luring ForeignersAmong the government’s curbs have been a cap on debt at 60 percent of a borrower’s income and higher stamp duties on home purchases. Additional taxes for foreigners buying residential property were raised to 15 percent in 2013 from 10 percent, on top of the basic buyer’s stamp duty rate of about 3 percent. All home sellers need to pay 16 percent in levies if they sell within the first year. Singapore home prices reached a record high in the third quarter last year amid low interest rates. They have fallen every quarter since, sliding 3.8 percent in the longest stretch of declines since the global financial crisis in 2008. In 2004, the island-state eased rules to allow foreigners to buy land for development on Sentosa, luring buyers from Australia to Russia. Sentosa Cove, home to marinas and sprawling houses, became the first location where foreigners were allowed to own stand-alone homes with easy approval from the Singapore Land Authority. Modi, Rinehart“The curbs were to help the Singaporeans, but in the process they are also curtailing the growth prospects of the country,” Modi, who estimates his net worth at $2 billion, said in a phone interview. “The government needs to differentiate between global and local citizens.” Modi owns two properties in Sentosa, which means peace and tranquility in Malay. Rinehart, Australia’s richest person in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, owns two apartments in the Seven Palms Sentosa Cove project, Rinehart’s closely held Hancock Prospecting Pty confirmed. A company associated with Rinehart bought the apartments for S$57.2 million ($44 million), The Business Times reported in July 2012. Tourism AttractionSentosa, connected to Singapore by a 710-meter (0.5 mile) causeway, was once a military base and housed a prisoners-of-war camp during the Japanese occupation in World War II. In the 1970s, the Singapore government decided to develop the 500-hectare (1,236-acre) island into a holiday resort to boost tourism. Resorts World Sentosa, built by Genting Singapore Plc for S$7 billion in 2010, houses one of the city-state’s two casinos and Southeast Asia’s only Universal Studios theme park. The curbs have made home buying prohibitive for foreign investors, said Donald Han, managing director of Chestertons, a real estate broker in Singapore. Homes larger than 2,000 square feet that cost between S$4 million and S$5 million have been hit the hardest by the stamp duties on purchases and sales, Han said. Prices SlumpingPrices of some condominiums slumped as much as 45 percent from 2007, when they were first sold, at auctions earlier this year by banks that repossessed them, according to Maybank Kim Eng. A bungalow on 11,280 square feet of land on Treasure Island in Sentosa Cove was sold for 53 percent below the peak this year, while a 7,341-square-foot property on Paradise Island was priced 39 percent below the record S$3,214 per square foot, URA data showed. Homes purchased after 2006 and sold in the last 12 months lost between 5 percent and 21 percent of their value, Ng Wee Siang, a Singapore-based analyst at Maybank Kim Eng estimates. “It’s now taking two to three months longer to sell,” Mok Sze Sze, head of auctions in Singapore at broker Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., said. Sentosa has nine condominium projects. The first four sold during the early recovery of Singapore’s property market in 2004 and 2005 for an average price of about S$1,600 per square foot, according to the Maybank Kim Eng report. The remaining five were sold later for more than S$2,600 per square foot. Higher-priced projects are at a greater risk of a correction, according to Maybank’s Kim Eng Ng. Wait, PickApartment prices on Sentosa have dropped about 43 percent from two years ago, data compiled by real estate research firm StreetSine Pte showed. Two units at Turquoise, a high-end condominium on the south side of the island developed by Ho Bee Land Ltd., changed hands at 45 percent discounts to their initial prices in the second quarter, as banks sold them off in auctions, Maybank Kim Eng said. Shares (HOBEE) of Ho Bee slid 1 percent at the close of trading in Singapore, extending declines this year to 6.6 percent. The benchmark Straits Times Index added 3.9 percent this year. A couple of units at the Marina Collection, a premium project, were put up for auction earlier this year by banks which repossessed the properties after the owners couldn’t make the mortgage payments, Jones Lang LaSalle’s Mok said. Secondary home sales in Singapore have been slowing, hitting the lowest since 2003 in the first quarter, before recovering, according to the URA. High-net-worth buyers “will wait and pick and choose the right time to enter the market,” Mok said. “They have other alternatives overseas, so that’s pulling away funds.” Fisher the hedge-fund manager questions the need for the property curbs. “I don’t think there was a bubble so there was no need for such measures,” Fisher said. “It’s rational pricing for real estate in Singapore because the country is getting richer and their isn’t much land around.” -By Pooja Thakur Push to get building owners to tap Accessibility Fund 70 out of 120 buildings in the CBD were built before 1990 and thus lack barrier- free accessibility featuresSource: Business Times / Real Estate When Singapore-based architecture firm Woha decided in 2012 to employ Richard Kuppusamy, a wheelchair-bound Singaporean architect who had worked and studied in the UK for the past 16 years, it was clear that their five-storey shophouse office on Hong Kong Street had to be modified to accommodate his special needs. -By Chan Yi Wen http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/push-to-get-building-owners-to-tap-accessibility-fund Mobility-impaired 'shut out' of about half of CBD buildings Source: Straits Times / Singapore ACCESS within the Central Business District (CBD) for the disabled, elderly and others with impaired mobility needs to be improved, said the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) yesterday, and it may consider rules to compel building owners to do so. The BCA said about 70 out of 150 CBD buildings - nearly half - do not have features such as ramps for the wheelchair-bound. This is despite a $40 million Government fund launched in 2007 that co-pays up to 80 per cent of the construction cost of basic accessibility features. This compares unfavourably with, for example, the Orchard Road shopping belt, where nine in 10 buildings have such features. "Even with funding support, they are still slow to take this up," said BCA's chief executive John Keung. "That's why we are studying whether we should look at some regulatory requirements." Many CBD building owners say they do not see the need to improve accessibility, said BCA's director of universal design Goh Siam Imm. "But we see this need coming as we have an ageing population," she said, adding that the BCA will first try persuasion. They were speaking at the inaugural Singapore Universal Design Week, organised by the BCA and held at Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre. The BCA also announced that it is extending its Universal Design Mark certification scheme to parks and other public spaces, in collaboration with the National Parks Board. In addition, it has launched a smartphone app for the public to access information about the accessibility of more than 2,800 buildings. Singapore, said Dr Keung, is moving towards universal design - where everybody can enjoy the built and natural environment. This means having not just ramps and wheelchair-friendly toilets for the disabled or Braille signs for the blind, but also nursing areas for mothers, play areas for young children and comfortable seating for the elderly. Senior Minister of State for National Development and Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan, who opened the event, said universal design is becoming increasingly important for Singapore, because it depends on people as its key resource, yet its population is ageing and has a low birth rate.
Mr Richard Kuppusamy, 37, a wheelchair-bound architectural designer who recently returned to Singapore after 16 years in Britain, said: "This is not about charity... we have a duty to... treat everyone equally." -By David Ee More buildings in CBD to improve workplace accessibility Source: Channel News Asia / Singapore SINGAPORE: More buildings in the Central Business District (CBD) area will be modified to make workplaces more accessible to people with various mobility needs. Under new initiatives announced by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) on Wednesday (Nov 5), owners of existing commercial buildings in the area will be offered incentives to meet the minimum barrier-free accessibility requirements, such as installing ramps and accessible toilets, or even go a step further to include wider passageways and hearing enhancement systems at information counters or auditoriums for people with hearing aids. Speaking to the media at the launch of the first Singapore Universal Design Week yesterday (Nov 5), BCA chief executive officer John Keung said: “Governing all these changes is our belief that going forward, if we want to build an inclusive society in Singapore, our built environment must be inclusive.” Through its initial focus on Orchard Road, the BCA has already made significant improvements to the shopping district, with almost nine in 10 buildings installed with basic barrier-free accessibility features, said Dr Keung. The BCA will now be turning its focus to older buildings in the CBD area, where 70 out of 150 buildings still lack basic accessibility features. ATTITUDE CHANGE IS BIGGEST BARRIER To encourage more building owners to implement basic accessibility features in their buildings, the BCA introduced a S$40 million Accessibility Fund in 2007 to co-pay up to 80 per cent of construction costs. With about S$9.8 million disbursed so far and another S$2.6 million committed to ongoing projects, the BCA noted that the take-up rate has been slow as building owners face structural constraints or are wary of disruption to business. Senior architectural designer and wheelchair-bound Richard Kuppusamy from architecture firm WOHA noted that while Singapore had made progress, attitude change remains the biggest barrier. He said businesses and building owners need to recognise the value of Universal Design, a concept that takes into consideration the physical, social and psychological needs of all age groups and people of different abilities. “There are still people who are effectively owning public buildings – hotels, shopping malls – and because they are old buildings, use that as an excuse not to go one step further to improve them,” said the 37-year-old, who moved back to Singapore after living in the United Kingdom for 16 years. Mr Kuppusamy added that bad design could also have an impact on employment opportunities for people with disabilities. “It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how skilled you are. If you can’t get into the building, you won’t get that job,” he said. Meanwhile, the BCA, in collaboration with the National Parks Board, will also be expanding its Universal Design Mark Certification Scheme – originally for buildings – to parks and public spaces. The design process, user-friendly features, operations and maintenance of these places, among other things, will be taken into consideration before they are awarded the BCA Universal Design Mark for Parks and Public Spaces.
-TODAY/cy http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/more-buildings-in-cbd-to/1456002.html BCA moves to further improve workplace accessibility in CBD Source: Today Online / Singapore SINGAPORE — More buildings in the Central Business District (CBD) area will be modified to make workplaces more accessible to people with various mobility needs. Under new initiatives announced by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) yesterday, owners of existing commercial buildings in the area will be offered incentives to meet the minimum barrier-free accessibility requirements, such as installing ramps and accessible toilets, or even go a step further to include wider passageways and hearing enhancement systems at information counters or auditoriums for people with hearing aids. Speaking to the media at the launch of the first Singapore Universal Design Week yesterday (Nov 5), BCA chief executive officer John Keung said: “Governing all these changes is our belief that going forward, if we want to build an inclusive society in Singapore, our built environment must be inclusive.” Through its initial focus on Orchard Road, the BCA has already made significant improvements to the shopping district, with almost nine in 10 buildings installed with basic barrier-free accessibility features, said Dr Keung. The BCA will now be turning its focus to older buildings in the CBD area, where 70 out of 150 buildings still lack basic accessibility features. To encourage more building owners to implement basic accessibility features in their buildings, the BCA introduced a S$40 million Accessibility Fund in 2007 to co-pay up to 80 per cent of construction costs. With about S$9.8 million disbursed so far and another S$2.6 million committed to ongoing projects, the BCA noted that the take-up rate has been slow as building owners face structural constraints or are wary of disruption to business. Senior architectural designer and wheelchair-bound Richard Kuppusamy from architecture firm WOHA noted that while Singapore had made progress, attitude change remains the biggest barrier. He said businesses and building owners need to recognise the value of Universal Design, a concept that takes into consideration the physical, social and psychological needs of all age groups and people of different abilities. “There are still people who are effectively owning public buildings — hotels, shopping malls — and because they are old buildings, use that as an excuse not to go one step further to improve them,” said the 37-year-old, who moved back to Singapore after living in the United Kingdom for 16 years. Mr Kuppusamy added that bad design could also have an impact on employment opportunities for people with disabilities. “It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how skilled you are. If you can’t get into the building, you won’t get that job,” he said.
Meanwhile, the BCA, in collaboration with the National Parks Board, will also be expanding its Universal Design Mark Certification Scheme — originally for buildings — to parks and public spaces. The design process, user-friendly features, operations and maintenance of these places, among other things, will be taken into consideration before they are awarded the BCA Universal Design Mark for Parks and Public Spaces. -By Laura Elizabeth Philomin http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/bca-moves-further-improve-workplace-accessibility-cbd Singapore Productivity Awards 2014 Source: Business Times http://epaper.businesstimes.com.sg/jr/jrpc.php?param=2014-11-06 (Pg 20 – 24) Companies' Brief OUE Source: Business Times / Stocks Following Q3 results, we maintain our "buy" recommendation on OUE. Valuations remain attractive at a 40 per cent discount to our RNAV (revalued net asset value) of S$4.06 and 0.52x P/B (price to book). Our target price is pegged to a 40 per cent discount to RNAV, on par with long term averages, reflecting the lack of visibility on the redeployment of capital which would help offset the hollowing out of the company's asset base. The key catalyst for OUE will be the redeployment of capital, such as its JV (joint venture) in South Korea. Risks include execution risk and acquisition risk. http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/stocks/brokers-take-11 Roxy-Pacific Holdings Source: Business Times / Stocks Roxy-Pacific's Q3 FY14 net profit dipped 23 per cent year on year to S$12.4 million mostly due to lower contributions from the property development segment, which fell S$9.7 million year on year as recognition from Spottiswoode 18 slowed and Treescape obtained TOP (temporary occupation permit) status over the quarter. http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/stocks/brokers-take-11 Views, Reviews & Forum HDB flats designed to capitalise on wind flow Source: Today Online / Voices We refer to Mr Edmund Loh’s letter “Design HDB flats such that households can save energy” (Oct 28). With Singapore located in the tropics, the thermal comfort of residents’ living environment has always been a key consideration in the design of Housing and Development Board flats. Our designs seek to improve natural ventilation and lighting, reduce heat gain and minimise the reliance on mechanical cooling from air conditioners and electric fans. The majority of HDB blocks are designed to be north- and south-facing, to avoid the western sun. In some projects, to let as many residents as possible enjoy the surrounding views, the block orientation may place some units facing slightly east or west. For such units, extended canopies or sun breakers are provided. Many new flats now have wider and larger windows, so that residents can enjoy wider views, natural ventilation and maximum lighting. To promote cross-ventilation, windows are also orientated in the north-south direction as much as possible, to capitalise on the wind direction and maximise air flow. Within the precinct, void spaces such as void decks help to draw wind onto the ground plane and improve wind flow. This makes the precinct airier and breezier. More recently, we have implemented wind-flow analysis and modelling in our planning, to better understand local wind conditions. The findings are then incorporated into the design of the flats.
We thank Mr Loh for his feedback and will continue to pursue fresh designs to create a quality living environment for all. -By Brian Low Lip Chee Director (Landscape And Design), Housing & Development Board http://www.todayonline.com/voices/hdb-flats-designed-capitalise-wind-flow Global Economy & Global Real Estate Eurozone business growth remains weak despite steep price cuts Source: Business Times / Government & Economy China homebuyers rush online to finance downpayments Peer-to-peer lenders help buyers struggling to make a deposit after a tripling of home prices since 2000 Source: Business Times / Real Estate http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/china-homebuyers-rush-online-to-finance-downpayments China Home Buyers Rushing Online to Finance Down Payments Source: Bloomberg / Personal Finance Qian Kaishen and his wife almost gave up in August on buying a bigger home. As apartments at Shanghai Villa, a project they liked near the city’s Hongqiao Airport, started selling, the money they had saved for the deposit was tied up in a 5 percent-return investment. Then property agency E-House China Holdings Ltd. offered the couple a 280,000 yuan ($45,546) one-year bridge loan at zero interest. The loan came from online investors through E-House’s Internet finance website. It covered about half the down payment and was just enough to make up the shortfall. “Now we’re good both on our investment and home purchase plan,” Qian, 31, who works for a local logistics company, said by phone from Shanghai. “We would’ve given up if it weren’t for the loan. I don’t like borrowing from my parents or relatives, especially because we have the money.” E-House is joining peer-to-peer lenders to finance down payments for buyers struggling to scrape together a deposit after home prices had tripled since 2000. Mortgage lending remains tight, even after the central bank eased its policy in September, as banks anticipate an extended property market decline because of a high supply of housing, according to Standard Chartered Plc. Home prices in China are now equivalent to 40 years’ average income for a 100-square-meter (1,076-square-foot) apartment. That compares with 26 years’ median income in New York for an apartment of the same size. The average price of a typical 900-square-foot home in Singapore is 11 times the median household income, while that for a 50-square-meter flat in Hong Kong is 14 times, according to local official data. Government RestrictionsIn China, homebuyers need to pay a minimum down payment of 30 percent of the purchase price for a first home, and at least 60 percent for a second before they can take out a mortgage. The limits are the result of a four-year campaign to stem property speculation. Those restrictions have helped drive demand for the down payment loans. “The phenomenon emerged in the past year or two largely because of mortgage restrictions and high down-payment requirements,” said Zhang Haiqing, a Shanghai-based research director at Centaline Group, China’s biggest property agency. The central bank on Sept. 30 eased some mortgage rules to make it easier to purchase second properties in a bid to revive the market. “We can’t exclude the possibility that as the market recovers, more people will want to buy and some of them will still have to use this channel because they don’t have the money,” Zhang said. Sales FallingNew-home sales slumped 11 percent in the first nine months of the year and prices fell in all but one of the 70 cities monitored by the government in September from August. Being able to borrow for a down payment means unqualified borrowers are getting mortgages, a practice that led to the U.S. housing crash in 2007, according to Standard & Poor’s. “The pressure on the borrowers to repay the down payment in a year together with the mortgage is fairly high,” Bei Fu, S&P’s Hong Kong-based property analyst, said by phone. If this becomes a trend, “investors will be bearing the brunt of the default risks when the market or economy makes a negative turn.” Low down payment lending to subprime borrowers, those with poor credit and limited cash, also contributed to the surge in foreclosures in the U.S. “The less of the homeowner’s own money is put into the payment, the more likely he or she will default” when asset prices plunge, Centaline’s Zhang said. “The risk is brewing slowly.” Relatives HelpIn China, most of those who borrow for down payments have money invested elsewhere, according to E-House Deputy Chief Financial Officer Ma Weijie. Buyers who want to purchase homes and don’t have the money often turn to relatives or take out consumer loans from banks to use as deposits, a practice the banking regulator has banned, Centaline’s Zhang said. E-House, based in Shanghai, has helped more than 70 homebuyers seeking deposits raise almost 20 million yuan through online finance platform fangjs.com, which it set up in July with web portal operator Sina Corp. It caps lending for deposits at 15 percent of the price of a buyer’s first home and 20 percent for second properties, and only lends to owner-occupiers. The company collects a 1 percent fee from borrowers like Qian, E-House’s Ma said. Developers who want to boost sales subsidize the interest payments to investors and provide guarantees or deposits to E-House against potential defaults by the borrowers. Homebuilders JoinChina Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. (688) and Poly Real Estate Group Co. (600048)are among 22 homebuilders that have signed up with E-House to provide the service at some of their projects, Ma said. Online property lending may rise to 20 billion yuan this year and has the potential to grow to about 1.2 trillion yuan a year assuming 15 percent of home sales are financed by peer-to-peer investors, E-House’s Ma estimates. “That’s a huge market,” he said in a Sept. 10 interview in Beijing. The central bank’s easing may spur borrowing demand as the market recovers even if buyers don’t have the money, he added later. Peer-to-peer lending has taken off in China since 2011 as traditional methods of private lending among family and acquaintances, part of the country’s unregulated $6 trillion shadow-banking system, move online. Peer-to-peer lending refers to borrowers bypassing banks by connecting directly to lenders via the Internet. Investors through peer-to-peer websites have helped drive a 50-fold increase in online financing to 64.6 billion yuan as of Sept. 30, for anything from weddings to personal medical expenses, according to wangdaizhijia.com, which tracks more than 1,000 of such little-supervised sites in China. The country has no regulations governing Internet finance. Micro CreditShenzhen World Union Properties Consultancy Inc. (002285), based in the southern Chinese city that borders Hong Kong, granted 551 million yuan in similar loans through a micro-credit unit in the first half of this year, after introducing the service in July 2013 for clients who didn’t have a down payment. Shenzhen World Union charges interest of more than 20 percent on some of its loans. Financial-services’ income jumped 139 percent in the first half, driven mostly by the 60 million yuan from the loan service, according to company filings. The trend gained momentum in September when Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. (601318), China’s second-largest insurer, began offering loans to buyers of 121 residential projects by Shimao Group and Greenland Group at interest rates as low as zero. Ping An, based in Shenzhen, is ready to extend 10 billion yuan each in Beijing and Shanghai for down payments, and as much as 8 billion yuan in the southern city of Guangzhou, Zhuang Nuo, chief executive officer of Ping An’s real estate e-commerce unit, said. Online InvestorsPing An pools the money to finance the deposits mainly from online investors at its peer-to-peer lending unit, said Zhuang. Developers subsidize the returns to the investors. The insurer is targeting people who buy homes to live in, not property speculators. It doesn’t charge borrowers a fee. “Since traditional banks can’t finance down payments and aren’t doing it, can we use Internet finance to support those people?” said Zhuang. “The default risk is not big. They see their home as a necessity.” Requests have so far exceeded 1 billion yuan for Ping An’s service, the company said. Lending to finance down payments is hard to regulate, said Johnson Hu, Hong Kong-based property analyst at CIMB Securities Research. “As long as the money is in the account, you can simply say you borrowed it from a friend,” Hu said. Not RecordedBorrowing from peer-to-peer websites is not recorded in the central bank’s credit information database, which banks rely on for borrowers’ credit history, said Ping An’s Zhuang. Ping An controls Shenzhen-listed Ping An Bank Co. The Qians’ investment through the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. matures in June and their E-House loan becomes due two months later. They borrowed 600,000 yuan from the local housing providence fund, which pools money from urban residents and their employers for housing needs. The couple is also selling their 40-square-meter current home for about 1 million yuan to finance the new one that’s double the size. Although home prices are still falling, Qian said he didn’t want to wait. “If our living conditionsimproved, that price difference doesn’t matter,” Qian said. -By Bloomberg News Mumbai 'Times Square' proposal draws criticism The plan hits all the right economic notes, but some say it may violate building codes in historic areas Source: Business Times / Real Estate http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/mumbai-times-square-proposal-draws-criticism Gulf investors spending more on US property Source: Business Times / Real Estate http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/gulf-investors-spending-more-on-us-property Piramal plans to invest US$2b in Indian property It will help revive stalled commercial and residential projects; expects demand to rise as economy picks up Source: Business Times / Real Estate http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/piramal-plans-to-invest-us2b-in-indian-property Colony Capital to merge with Colony Financial Source: Business Times / Real Estate http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/colony-capital-to-merge-with-colony-financial London Shard developer wins approval for tower nearby Source: Business Times / Real Estate http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/london-shard-developer-wins-approval-for-tower-nearby London Shard Developer Wins Approval for Tower Nearby Source: Bloomberg / Luxury Sellar Property Group, developer of the Shard in London, won local government approval to build a 26-story residential tower close to the skyscraper on the south bank of the River Thames. The council for the Southwark borough voted in favor of the 148-apartment project, which also includes a 16-story tower, at a meeting yesterday, Sellar spokesman Baron Phillips said by e-mail. The project, like the Shard, will be developed in a partnership with the state of Qatar. Developers plan to construct more than 25,000 luxury properties in London worth more than 60 billion pounds ($96 billion) over the next decade, EC Harris said in an Oct. 7 report. The homes approved yesterday at the Fielden House site are expected to sell for about 800,000 pounds each, according to a filing by the borough. The project “is vital to the urban regeneration of London Bridge that was started with The Shard. The mixed-use high density tower provided the catalyst for the regeneration of the station,” architecture firm Renzo Piano Building Workshop wrote in an April filing to the borough. The buildings on London Bridge Street and St. Thomas Street “will complete the transformation.” Sellar and Qatar also developed The Place office building at London Bridge station. -By Neil Callanan http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-04/london-shard-developer-wins-approval-for-tower-nearby.html France proposes new tax for second homes in 30 cities Source: Business Times / Real Estate http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/france-proposes-new-tax-for-second-homes-in-30-cities Pine River’s Two Harbors Now Targets Non-Prime Mortgages Source: Bloomberg / Luxury Count Two Harbors Investment Corp. (TWO) among investors looking for profits in riskier home loans -- and expecting a market for bonds backed by them to re-emerge even with safer issuance showing limited signs of life. The real-estate investment trust, whose 74 percent total return over the past three years is almost double that of peers, recently told the lenders that have been selling it big, high-quality mortgages that it’s now also seeking to purchase non-prime loans and those with low down payments, Chief Investment Officer Bill Roth said today during a conference call for analysts and investors. “Our expectation and certainly hope would be as this market opens up and becomes fairly meaningful that a securitization market would develop,” he said. Of course, he sees the timeline as “probably measured in years, not months.” After firms such as Two Harbors and its manager Pine River Capital Management LP made a killing gobbling up at distressed values the bonds backed by subprime and other risky mortgages that fueled the 2008 financial crisis, higher prices for those so-called legacy non-agency securities are reducing potential returns on additional purchases, pushing the companies to look this year for ways to put money to work in riskier new loans. ‘Extra Care’Others targeting the debt include Lone Star Funds, Western Asset Management Co. and Macquarie Group Ltd., which are each partnering with one or more originators. Another option is to wait for the loans to get made and bid on packages offered for sale by lenders, which a mortgage REIT managed by Apollo Global Management LLC said yesterday has started in small sizes. Like the others, Two Harbors sees potential untapped demand among borrowers who represent acceptable risks and just “need extra care” in underwriting amid the “tight credit standards that exist today,” Roth said. “We obviously want to make loans where the borrowers can afford the house and can make the payment,” he said. “If that is accomplished we’re going to have happy borrowers and good loans.” Packaging such mortgages into bonds would expand the amount of capital available and create leverage that amplifies returns for those taking the most risk. Still, issuance of non-agency bonds tied to new loans totals only about $7 billion this year, down from $1.2 trillion in each of 2005 and 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Bank CompetitionHefty demand from banks for the so-called jumbo prime mortgages used to create the recent bonds has pushed sales down from $13.4 billion last year. Two Harbors’s own growing issuance of bonds backed by jumbo mortgages too big for the government-backed programs that dominate the mortgage market shows that investor appetite also remains a hurdle. The REIT, which would prefer to retain just the higher-yielding junior portions of the deals, was holding about $390 million of the top-rated slices as of Sept. 30, up from about $180 million, according to its disclosures. Its two deals completed last quarter were backed by $642 million of loans, Bloomberg data show. The membership that the REIT gained last year in the government-chartered Federal Home Loan Bank system gives it flexibility, Chief Executive Officer Thomas Siering said on the call. While the FHLBs’ regulator has proposed changes that could end up kicking out REITs such as Two Harbors, the company said it expanded its borrowing capacity by $1 billion to $2.5 billion last quarter. Being able to finance the securities with an FHLB “gives us the ability to wait for what we consider to be a sunnier day for the AAA space,” said Siering. He added that he believes “our mission aligns well’ with the system’s and poses no risk to it. -By Jody Shenn Record Manila Land Sale Stokes Frothy Valuations: Southeast Asia Source: Bloomberg / News Record bids for two plots of land in a Manila business district have lifted prices to a 17-year high, raising concerns that a property bubble is forming. The 1,600-square-meter (17,200-square-foot) site in the former military camp of Bonifacio fetched 732.8 million pesos ($16.3 million) and 800 million pesos each at a government auction in September. That was a record half-a-million pesos per square meter, about 80 percent higher than the previous government land sale in the area, according to the local associate of Savills Plc. The “Philippines is at risk for an asset bubble,” said Antton Nordberg, a property analyst at KMC MAG Group Inc., Savills’s associate in the country. “The price of the land is just too high.” Land prices in the Philippine capital’s five major business districts have surged to the highest since the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998 as accelerating economic growth, rising remittances from more than 10 million Filipinos overseas and low borrowing costs fuel demand. The boom is spreading outside Manila, prompting the central bank to cap the value of property that can be used as loan collateral in part to cool real estate lending and investment that breached 1 trillion pesos as of the end of June. The record bid “has an effect on property prices and rents,” Kash Salvador, a Manila-based investment manager at broker CBRE Group Inc., said in a telephone interview on Oct. 15. “It could create the belief that anyone is able to lock in value seen usually in top-tier property.” Rising ValuesLand values in at least seven cities tracked by Colliers International UK Plc climbed in the last quarter to the highest since the 1997-1998 Asian crisis, property analyst Romeo Arahan said. Manila home prices have surpassed 2008 levels and office space is near a six-year high, according to Colliers, as the Philippine economy expanded more than 6 percent in nine of the last 10 quarters to the end of June. Closely held Goldenwill Inc. and Focus Palantir Inc. outbid a unit of Robinsons Land Corp., the second-largest operator of shopping malls in the Philippines, at the Sept. 23 auction of the land sold by the Government Service Insurance System in Bonifacio. The Social Security System sold a Bonifacio property for 277,000 pesos per square meter a year earlier. Based on the maximum of 12-story building height allowed in the area, average construction cost of about 60,000 pesos per square meter and an average profit margin of 40 percent, the developers may fetch 170,000 pesos per square meter, KMC MAG’s Nordberg said. Higher PricesThat will be 21 percent higher than current prices for office space and 30 percent more than apartments in Bonifacio, KMC MAG said in a note. The developers didn’t give details about their buildings plans. At 170,000 pesos per square meter, investors must be ready to accept yields closer to 5 percent, Nordberg said. Yields are 9 percent for office space in Manila and 7 percent for residential, according to CBRE data. Residential condominium prices and rents increased about 5.7 percent and 5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, respectively, according to Colliers. Office rents added 7.1 percent in the three months through September, while capital values rose about 7.4 percent, the broker said. Manila’s property stock index gained 1.2 percent at the noon break, outperforming the benchmark index’s 0.3 percent advance. Megaworld Corp. increased 2.3 percent, while SM Prime Holdings Inc. gained 1 percent and Robinsons Land added 0.8 percent. Banks’ exposure to real estate jumped 22 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, climbing the most since the central bank first began tracking the investments in 2012. Lending CurbsWhile prices may be rising too fast in some parts of the property market, overall “you don’t see any clear evidence of a real estate bubble,” central bank Governor Amando Tetangco said on Oct. 29. Tighter lending measures should help prevent a “sharp and abrupt” correction, Tetangco said. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas raised its benchmark interest rate twice this year, to 4 percent, from a record-low 3.5 percent. The central bank said last month it will release an index to better gauge how real estate prices affect the economy. Property loans will moderate in the next two years after Bangko Sentral last month ordered lenders to cap the collateral value of real estate mortgages at 60 percent, said Michael Wan, a Singapore-based economist at Credit Suisse Group AG. A correction in the housing market is overdue, said Jose Sio, chief financial officer at SM Investments Corp., which controls one of the nation’s biggest builder. Sales at Megaworld (MEG), the nation’s largest provider of space for outsourcing companies, continue to do well, Jericho Go, a senior vice president, said on Oct. 27. Megaworld shares rose to an all-time high the day after the Bonifacio sale. The company is the top landlord in the area, where it is developing 105 hectares (259 acres) into four different township projects. “The central bank has been proactive, so I wouldn’t say that the market is in a bubble,” Go said. -By Siegfrid Alegado Candlebrook Adds Dormitories With $230 Million Purchase Source: Bloomberg / Luxury Candlebrook Properties LLC, a closely held company with about 5,000 apartments in the eastern U.S., is diversifying into student housing with the $230 million acquisition of five off-campus properties. Candlebrook joined with Lubert-Adler Partners on the purchase of buildings with about 3,400 beds near colleges in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky and Virginia. Formerly known as Vantage Properties LLC, Candlebrook began as an investor in New York City apartments in 2005 and later expanded to New Jersey and the Philadelphia area. “Student housing is a natural extension of our pre-existing business line,” Neil Rubler, president of New York-based Candlebrook, said in a telephone interview. It’s “a business that’s far less crowded than multifamily, which has been our core business.” Capitalization rates on apartments, a measure of profitability, have dropped as investors drive up property prices. Student housing has become an attractive alternative, luring homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL) and private-equity firm Colony Capital LLC to an industry already home to real estate investment trusts American Campus Communities Inc. (ACC), Campus Crest Communities Inc. (CCG) and Educational Realty Trust Inc. (EDR) “Industry participants argue that student-housing cap rates should be in line with or lower than those of traditional multifamily,” Dave Bragg and Ryan Burke, analysts at Green Street Advisors LLC in Newport Beach, California, wrote in an Oct. 8 research note. “But student housing is more operationally intensive and offers inferior long-term growth prospects.” Aging PopulationThe student population will decline as more people study online and the large number of Americans in their teens and early 20s outgrows their college years, Bragg and Burke said. Campus Crest said yesterday that it will stop building student housing and that its chairman and chief executive officer, Ted Rollins, resigned. Shares of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company dropped 36 percent in 12 months before gaining 15 percent after the changes were announced. Rubler said he expects demand to increase for Candlebrook’s housing, which is close to established universities with more than 20,000 students each that attract foreign pupils as well as Americans. The properties are near Indiana University, Kennesaw State University in Georgia, the University of Kentucky and Virginia Commonwealth University. Unlike traditional college dormitories with shared bedrooms and bathrooms, Candlebrook’s housing features amenities such as one bathroom per bedroom along with swimming pools, hot tubs, fitness centers, game rooms and high-speed Internet. Educational Enhancement“Our focus is on providing a product that’s very, very finely tuned to the needs and wants of this particular demographic,” Rubler said. “One could argue that the set-up of these properties enhances the educational experience.” Candlebrook bought the residences from Trinitas, a closely held developer of student housing based in Lafayette, Indiana, that continues to own properties in Indiana, Illinois and North Carolina, and has five projects with 3,000 beds under development. “We determined that the time was opportune to harvest profits,” Alie Hrabe, a spokeswoman for the company, said in an e-mail. “Trinitas remains extremely bullish on the student-housing sector, and we expect that additional capital from the portfolio sale to Candlebrook will be reinvested into Trinitas’s future student-housing development projects.” -By John Gittelsohn http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-05/candlebrook-adds-dormitories-with-230-million-purchase.html Additional Articles of Interests - Local & Overseas Real Estate |