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Astoria Park Condominium

St Patrick's View Goes On En Bloc Sale (Business Times, 26 July 2007)

It has been sold en bloc to TG Development Pte Ltd (TGD) for $79 million.
This is 25% higher than the indicated price when the collective sale was launched three months ago.

On its bullish bid, TGD managing director Ong Boon Chuan said: 'The prices for Districts 9, 10 and 11 are quite high but there is room for more upside in the outskirts.'

At $79 million, the price works out to $682 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr), including an estimated development charge of $302,318 for the 83,013 sq ft site.

TGD plans to build a five-storey development of about 100 units with unit sizes of between 1,000 sq ft and 1,400 sq ft. The launch is targeted for mid-2008.

The breakeven cost is estimated at around $1,000 psf, which means new units have to be sold in excess of this.

Comments

Apartments in St Patrick's Row may be worth considering. Saw a unit there in 1st quarter 2006. Now a bit regret not buying.......Sigh......

MediaCorp launches interactive ad portal mocca.com

SINGAPORE: Hunting for a home will soon be more than just about trawling through pages of property listings in the newspapers, thanks to a new e-classified website.

Called mocca — which stands for MediaCorp Online Communities and Classified Advertising — the new channel raises the interactivity factor such as users search, for free, in categories from cars to fashion.

Videos and articles by MediaCorp news agencies TODAY and Channel NewsAsia about property trends as well as links to nearby amenities such as schools will also pop up with the property listing in the new MediaCorp e-classified platform.

"If you think about how classified ads work now, it's very much a one-way thing. The person advertises and you, as the potential buyer, just read about it and do not interact," said MediaCorp's vice-president (New Media Business) Timothy Goh.

"With mocca, you can watch videos of the product and then talk about it in discussion forums as we roll this out progressively. This will bring the peer-to-peer marketplace closer."

In the pipeline for mocca — launched today — are features such as discussion forums for like-minded sellers and buyers, Mr Goh said.

These features will also be available for other search categories, such as travel, education, jobs and fitness.

Posting an ad is free for all categories, except property and vehicles.

There is a charge of $15 for each seven-day listing in these two categories. The advertiser can upload up to five images and a video link with each ad.

Ads on the other categories will expire after seven days. Advertisers can edit or completely change an ad whenever they want during these seven days, after which they have to renew the listing.

The one-week time limit is to ensure that ads on mocca are current, Mr Goh said, pointing out that many online classified advertising sites have lengthy expiration periods or none at all, which create the illusion of having a high volume of ads.

However, a sweetener awaits early birds: There is no charge to post all classified ads on mocca (www.mocca.com) for its first month. - TODAY/ac

Park Connector Network

The Park Connector Network is an island-wide network of linear open spaces that link up major parks, nature sites and housing estates in Singapore. The network will be linked up in phases over the next 10 years and when the entire network is completed, it will form a green network, spanning over 300 km across the whole island, making it convenient to travel from park to park.

The park connectors vary in length, ranging from about 2 km to 10 km, making them ideal for those who like to take short walks to exercise, as well as to cater to cyclists who prefer longer distances. They are usually found alongside the many rivers and canals that flow through the island and are often used as convenient shortcuts to housing estates, MRT stations, and schools.

The park connector optimises the use of land such as drainage reserves, foreshore and road reserves by turning them into beautiful green corridors for recreation.

And green corridors they certainly are! Fringed by lush landscaping on one side, and the river on the other, the park connectors' long stretches of paved tracks make for an enjoyable and safe walk or cycling trip, away from the hustle and bustle of traffic noise and exhaust fumes. Look up among the trees and shrubs, and you would probably see colourful birds and butterflies flitting among the greenery that line the park connectors. The park connector brings one close to nature, yet it is not far from urban areas as well.

Comments

Out of the 15 park connectors in Singapore, 6 of them are located in the EAST. They are (1) Bedok Park Connector, (2) Geylang Park Connector, (3) Kallang Park Connector, (4) Kallang-Geylang Park Connector, (5) Siglap Park Connector, and (6) Tampines Park Connector. Thus a potential house hunter may take into consideration if his/her desired location is siutated near a park connector so as to take advantage of the benefits a park connector can offer.

Will property market see a repeat of 1996?

Business Times Article, 25 July 2007, Kalpana Rashiwala.

THERE'S a sense of deja vu in the air for those of us who witnessed the last residential property boom in the 1990s. Record prices being reported by developers, an en bloc sale being attempted in just about every private estate, foreign buying at record levels, and subsales again in favour.

Even the government's approach to dealing with the situation seems reminiscent of 1996, according to some market watchers.

The Ministry of National Development and Urban Redevelopment Authority have been giving assurances lately that there will be sufficient supply of homes and that they will make more sites available, if necessary. And just like over a decade ago, MND and URA have recently been making public more information on the property market to provide greater transparency.

Flashback to the mid-90s. As far back as 1994, the government raised booking and forfeiture fees to curb speculative activity. But speculation picked up again and in January 1996, URA announced that the government had set aside enough land for 100,000 private homes for the five-year period from 1997 to 2001 - more than thrice the amount necessary to meet its target of releasing land for 6,000 private homes a year.

The following month, URA revealed the sales status (as defined by options granted by developers) of individual private residential projects, and said it would do this each quarter. This was to correct any wrong impression of high take-up rates.

Fast forward to 2007. Last month MND announced the biggest Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme with enough land for about 8,000 private homes.

Earlier this month, URA said that there were about 32,700 yet-to-be-sold private homes in uncompleted projects as of Q1 2007 - possibly enough to meet demand for the next three years.

On the transparency front, URA last week released for the first time information on the number of units sold for each uncompleted private residential project by price bracket, in the month of June. Such information will henceforth be released monthly.

But what if, like in 1996, such measures fail to calm the market?

The thing with the property market is that it is primarily sentiment driven. In a bull run, people may not heed reason and logic and are driven by fear and greed instead.

When the strategy of giving assurances of adequate supply and releasing more market information failed to stem speculation in 1996, the authorities were forced to announce a slew of measures on May 14 that year.

These included taxing as income the gains made from selling properties within three years of purchase and introducing a sellers' stamp duty for those who sold residential properties within three years of purchase.

Financing was also clamped down. Banks could not make housing loans for more than 80 per cent of the purchase price or value of a property, whichever was lower. Permanent residents were limited to one Singapore dollar housing loan each while foreigners were denied such loans altogether.

All of the May 1996 anti-speculation measures were subsequently removed during the property doldrum.
To many market industry participants now, the writing is on the wall. They figure that the government may come up with measures to cool the market if the property bull run threatens Singapore's competitiveness.

However, the stakes are higher now. Many credit the current property boom to the government's efforts to promote Singapore, which have put Singapore on the radar screens of overseas property investors again, and its embrace of foreign talent and high net-worth individuals.

In short, many of the foreign investors in the local property market today were wooed by Singapore.

Slapping a set of harsh measures might send out a negative message about Singapore as an investment destination as a whole.

Also, speculation is yet to reach the heady levels seen in 1996.

Some in the industry think a 'whisper campaign' by the government to tighten financing targeted at banks and developers may be less harsh and avoid a panic crash.

For example, banks could be asked to be more careful in screening housing loan applications. 'Maybe, instead of giving loans up to the maximum 90 per cent of the value of homes, they could limit this to 80 per cent.

This will make people think twice before they pay record prices for homes,' reckons a seasoned industry observer.

Deferred payment schemes extended by developers could also be moderated or suspended, some industry players said. The ability to buy a property by making an initial payment of just 10 or 20 per cent of its value, with the next payment postponed to after the project is completed, makes things a whole lot easier for those thinking of flipping properties for a quick gain. Removing deferred payments should help take the froth from the market.

But there is a school of thought which believes that getting rid of the deferred payment, which often entails buyers paying 3 to 5 per cent more for the price of a home than under a progressive payment scheme, could crash the market.

Some suggest that taxing gains from selling properties within a short period of time may be a fairer way to contain the current exuberance. Those who make quick gains from flipping their properties should be prepared to part with a portion of their gain by paying income tax on it.

It remains to be seen if history will repeat itself.

List of Postal Districts

Comments

Ever wonder what/where the newspapers/media are referring to whenever they mentioned up class residential areas like "district 9" or "district 10"? Or do you know which district are you staying in? Hope this helps!