Singapore Property Weekly Issue 158

8/12/2019 Singapore Property Weekly Issue 158

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Issue 158Copyright 2011-2014 www.Propwise.sg. All Rights Reserved.
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CONTENTS

p2 [Reader Story] From HDB Flat to Landed

Property on an Average Salary

p6 Singapore Property News This Week

p11 Resale Property Transactions

(May 13 May 20 )

Welcome to the 158th edition of the

Singapore Property Weekly.

Hope you like it!

Mr. Propwise

FROM THE

EDITOR
mailto:[email protected]://www.propwise.sg/advertise/http://www.propwise.sg/advertise/mailto:[email protected]


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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 158

Page | 2Back to Contents

By Mr. Propwise

This post is part of a series where I share

reader stories about their experiences (both

good and bad) buying, selling and investing in

property. I hope to share the lessons that can

be drawn from their stories, and will

intersperse my comments throughout on

points I think are noteworthy. If you have a

story to share (whether yours or of someone

you know), please email it to me at

[email protected].

This weeks story is from KH, who shareshow he managed to end up living in a landed

property despite knowing little about investing

and earning just an average salary.

[Reader Story] From HDB Flat to Landed Property on an Average Salary
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Enter KH:

I bought my first property, an HDB flat in

Taman Jurong in 1994. In 2003, I was looking

for a cheap landed property even though Icould only afford a condo. When I saw a bank

sale, I went to take a look.

Mr. Propwise (PW): When times are bad,

bank sales can often be a good source of

deals. These deals are a result of the

previous owner being unable to pay themonthly mortgage to the bank, often due to

unexpected unemployment or if the mortgage

payments balloon as interest rates rise. In the

period of very low interest rates that were

currently in, many people assume that this is

the natural state of things, only to be caught

off-guard when rates normalize. If mortgage

rates rise to a more normal level of 4%,

many peoples mortgages can go up by

around 50%. If this coincides with an

unexpected loss of employment during a

downturn, you can be sure the number of

bank sales will go up. Banks are primarily

concerned with getting back their principle, so

they are often willing to sell the property at a

price that is 20 to 40 percent below what the

owner paid for it.

The house being sold was so run-down: there

was no door, and the glass sliding doors andall the windows were smashed to pieces.

PW: Properties in poor condition often offer

the best deals as most people cannot be

bothered to invest the time and money

needed to repair it.

But what caught me was the house number.

Combined with the Lorong number, the house

number was exactly my car plate number! I

was sure this house was for me.


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PW: What can I say? Sometimes fate does

play a part

The bank sale was an urgent one as they

were not able to sell it for some time due tothe bad condition of the house. So when I

asked for the discount I was surprised they

offered the huge amount. I haggled over the

price and the bank gave me a $100,000

discount! The entire process took me less

than a week.PW: Always negotiate you never know how

much lower the price can go. Especially in the

case of a bank sale, where the person

making the decision to sell is a bank

employee and not the owner, they dontreally

care what the price is as long as they can

recoup the outstanding loan amount.

I bought the house but decided to continue

living in my flat. I rented the house out for 9

years.

PW: Here we can see how KH delayed

gratification by renting out the house instead

of upgradinghis lifestyle and living in it. Bychoosing to live in his flat he managed to

collect 9 years of rental (likely in the hundreds

of thousands of dollars), building up his

savings to make his next purchase. This is

how wealth snowballs.

I sold it for a profit of $850,000 at end 2011and used the proceeds to buy an inter-terrace

in early 2012.

PW: After making huge capital gains on his

first landed property KH finally sells it to

realize those gains and then rollsit into his

second landed property.

My HDB flat is rented out for $2800 which I

use to help pay my house installment.


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The flat is valued at $700 thousand and my

landed house is valued at $2.8 million (based

on the sale of older houses around my area).

PW: 20 years from the purchase of his first

HDB flat, KH now lives in a landed property of

his dreams and is sitting on very large

property gains, as well as receiving a steady

stream of rental income from his HDB flat.

Because he has two properties, he can

choose to cash in one if he needs the moneyfor medical emergencies, investment etc. Id

say that he is very well prepared for a

comfortable and stress-free retirement.

Congratulations KH!

Thatsour reader story for this week. Please

do share any interesting stories you haveabout buying, selling and investing in property

(both good and bad experiences are

welcome) so we can all learn from them just

email them to me [email protected].
mailto:[email protected]://www.moneymatters.sg/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Singapore Property This Week


Residential

E C i n S em b a w a n g A v e l a u n c h e d f o r t e n d er

Under the Confirmed List of the Government

Land Sales programme in the first half 2014,

a 99-year leasehold executive condominium

(EC) at Sembawang Avenue is up for tendertill July 10. The 22,189.7 square metres land,

which has a maximum gross floor area of

62,131.2 square metres, is most likely to

consist of 620 residential units. Last week,

two other EC sites in Yishun were closed for

tender. Following the winning bids of thosesites, Eugene Lim from ERA Realty predicts

that the site will be moderately popular. He

predicts that there would be around 5 bidders,

and the winning bid would be between $320and $380 per square foot per plot ratio. Lim

said that bid prices are not expected to be

high due to the tight property market.

(Source: Business Times)

40,000 new H D B f lat s in t he pip el ine

As part of the Draft Master Plan 2013, the

Housing & Development Board (HDB) will be

launching 40,000 new units in three new

towns, namely in Tampines North, Punggol

Matilda and Bidadari. The former two towns

will be launched in the second half of 2014;

while the latter is expected to be launched in

the second half of 2015. Four new housing

districts will be launched in Tampines North.

SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY I 158


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The first parcel, Park West District, will

include 1,500 units. Designed for multi-

generation families, 50 of the units in this

district are 3Gen flats. In Punggol Matilda,

two Build-To-Order housing projects, Matilda

Edge and The Verandah@Matilda, were

launched in September 2013 and are

expected to be completed in 2017. Another

BTO project comprising of 1,000 units, will be

launched in July this year. The 1,000 units will

range from two-room to five-room flats.

Subsequently, a total of 8,000 units are

expected to be built in Punggol Matilda, a

waterfront home area. Lastly, Bidadari Estate

will consist of a 10-hectare park, public

housing and a commercial development.


P r iv a te h o u s i n g l an d s u p p l y e x p ec t ed t o

fall

Property consultants expect the government

to cut land supply for private homes evenfurther in the second half of 2014 as home

sales have plunged and as there are still

private housing developments to be released.

However, to aid commercial hub

development, commercial sites at Paya Lebar

and Woodlands are expected to be releasedunder the Confirmed List and/or Reserve List

of the upcoming Government Land Sales

(GLS) programme. On the other hand, no

hotel sites were offered on the list in H1.

Property watchers believe that there is

sufficient supply, contrary to ChestertonSingapores concerns over a shortage of

hotel rooms in the future.

SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY I 158


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Furthermore, it is believe that a majority of

the sites that will be launched for tender will

be put on the Reserve List of the GLS

programme in H2 2014. In H1 this year,

through the Reserve List, the Ministry ofNational Development will launch 7,000

residential units, including 605 executive

condominium units.


H D B f lat values f el l in 2014

The value of HDB flats held by households

have fallen 0.7% year-on-year to $412.8

billion in 2013, according to the Department

of Statistics (DOS). According to the data

from DOS, the value of HDB flats may be

tapering off as it rose 14.5% year-on-year in

2010, then 11.5% year-on-year in 2011 and

6.5% year-on-year in 2012 before its recent

fall in 2013. The fall in HDB value came at the

same time as a 2.4% increase in HDB flats to

961,800 units last year. This is likely to be

due to an increase in build-to-order flats,

tighter mortgage rules and a three-year

waiting period for new PRs to buy resale flats,said Nicholas Mak, the executive director

from SLP International.


Aprilsp r i v a t e h o m e p r i c e s f a ll 1 %

According to Singapore Residential Price

Index (SPRI) estimates that were released on

May 28, resale prices of private homes have

fallen by another 1% in April as compared to

March. Also, in March, prices dipped 1.4%

from February. The data which was collected

by the National University of Singapores

Institute of Real Estate Studies excludes

prices of small units measuring less than 506

square feet.



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Prices of those units fell 0.4% in April from

March. According to the SPRI, home prices in

the suburban region suffered a 2% decline in

April as compared to Marchthe sharpest fall

among all regions. Nonetheless, prices in thecentral region remained stable.

(Source: Channel NewsAsia)

First -t imer BTO appl icat ion rat es dipped in

May

Demand for Build-To-Order (BTO) flats

among first-timers has slowed as application

rates fell from 1.4 in April to 0.9 in the May.

Property consultants believe that this was due

to the clearing of backlog units. Also, as

buyers opt for units from the Sale of Balance

Flats, there was a fall in demand for BTO

flats. Overall application rates of BTO flats

from singles fell from 19.4 in May to 14.9 in

April. However, Eugene Lim from ERA

believes that demand from singles is

expected to be high for subsequent BTO

exercises.

(Source: Channel NewsAsia)

Commercial

New St at e Co u r ts c o m plex w il l b e

complet ed in 2019

In a ground-breaking ceremony that was

graced by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon,

plans for the new States Courts wererevealed. The new complex will comprise of

110,000 square metres of space with twin

towers that are 150 metres high and linked by

sky bridges. The new building will hold more

than 60 courtrooms and over 50 hearings

chambers. This is in comparison to the 40courtrooms and 28 hearings chambers that it

currently holds. The complex will be fully

completed in 2019.




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One R af f les Place reopens af t er f acel i f t

Following a major renovation, One Raffles

Place, which is located above Raffles Place

MRT station, has reopened for business. The

six-storey complex, which has a net lettable

area of 98,500 square feet, has a committed

occupancy of more than 90%. It major

tenants include clothing retailers, H&M,

Uniqlo and Victorias Secret. Besides the

retail mall, the complex which is managed by

OUB Centre Limited has two Grade-A office

towers. Tower One is 62 storeys high while

the other tower is 38 storeys high.


Eas t Co as t b u il di ng s o ld f or $43m to

A u t o m o b i l e A s s o c i a t i o n

A freehold five-storey commercial building at

East Coast Road was sold for $43 million to

Automobile Association of Singapore. This

price reflected a 4.5% gross yield based on

current rental generated by the building which

is named Tides. The building is fully leased

with food and beverages outlets on its first

level, shops on its second level and offices onthe remaining levels. The net lettable area of

Tides, which is located at District 15, is

22,927 square feet.


http://propertymarketinsights.com/


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Non-Landed Residential Resale Property Transactions for the Week of May 13 May 20

NOTE: This data only covers non-landed residential resale propertytransactions with caveats lodged with the Singapore Land Authority.Typically, caveats are lodged at least 2-3 weeks after a purchasersigns an OTP, hence the lagged nature of the data.

Postal

DistrictProject Name

Area

(sqft)

Transacted

Price ($)

Price

($ psf)Tenure

3 TWIN REGENCY 1,442 2,350,000 1,629 FH

5 DOVER PARKVIEW 1,249 1,460,000 1,169 99

5 THE SPECTRUM 1,389 1,500,000 1,080 FH

5 THE PARC CONDOMINIUM 1,302 1,353,000 1,039 FH

5 THE ESTIVA 1,808 1,750,000 968 FH

8 CITYLIGHTS 689 1,050,000 1,524 99

9 THE CLAYMORE 3,348 9,000,000 2,688 FH

10 BELMOND GREEN 1,055 1,850,000 1,754 FH

10 SPANISH VILLAGE 1,539 2,250,000 1,462 FH

10 VIZ AT HOLLAND 2,648 3,300,000 1,246 FH

11 THOMSON EURO-ASIA 1,292 2,100,000 1,626 FH

11 TREVOSE PARK 1,345 1,800,000 1,338 FH

11 THE TREVOSE 1,733 2,250,000 1,298 99

13 LEICESTER LODGE 1,335 1,430,000 1,071 FH

14 THE SUNNY SPRING 1,195 1,180,000 988 FH

14 WING FONG MANSIONS 1,227 933,000 760 FH

15 ONE AMBER 1,302 1,865,000 1,432 FH

15 THE WATERSIDE 2,400 3,315,000 1,381 FH

15 VERSILIA ON HAIG 1,206 1,518,000 1,259 FH

15 COSTA RHU 1,012 1,263,000 1,248 99

15 VILLA MARTIA 1,259 1,481,000 1,176 FH

16 BAYSHORE PARK 1,292 1,320,000 1,022 99

16 AQUARIUS BY THE PARK 1,410 1,005,000 713 99

18 SAVANNAH CONDOPARK 1,023 970,000 949 99

Postal

DistrictProject Name

Area

(sqft)

Transacted

Price ($)

Price

($ psf)Tenure

18 MELVILLE PARK 1,345 995,000 740 99

18 MELVILLE PARK 1,378 1,000,000 726 99

18 TAMPINES COURT 1,679 900,000 536 101

19 CHILTERN PARK 936 1,070,000 1,143 99

19 THE QUARTZ 1,141 1,242,000 1,089 99

19 SANCTUARY @ 813 893 950,000 1,063 FH

19 CHILTERN PARK 1,098 1,000,000 911 99

19 REGENTVILLE 1,152 912,000 792 99

21 THE CASCADIA 1,184 2,012,800 1,700 FH

21 THE BLOSSOMVALE 1,399 1,912,800 1,367 999

21 GARDENVISTA 872 1,080,000 1,239 99

21 PARC PALAIS 1,550 1,520,000 981 FH

22 PARC OASIS 1,227 1,090,000 888 99

22 PARC OASIS 1,378 1,200,000 871 99

23 HILLTOP GROVE 1,324 1,160,000 876 99

25 CASABLANCA 1,130 940,800 832 99

26 MEADOWS @ PEIRCE 2,669 2,320,000 869 FH

27 EUPHONY GARDENS 1,195 820,000 686 99

Singapore Property Weekly Issue 158

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