Rents and prices of Singapore industrial properties continued to rise in the first quarter of 2022, although overall occupancy rates dipped, according to JTC's quarterly market report released on Thursday (April 28). Industrial space prices rose 2.1 per cent quarter on quarter and 5.6 per cent year on year in the first quarter, while rents climbed 1 per cent quarter on quarter and 2.4 per cent year on year.

The decision by a majority of owners at the Golden Mile Complex to back a collective sale will make the modernist icon a test for conservation efforts governing buildings deemed to have historical and architectural significance. Redevelopment of the Beach Road property, which is the only strata-titled building gazetted for conservation so far, could pave the way for a rethink on the collective sale redevelopment model for other privately owned, strata-titled buildings.

A grandson of the late property magnate and hotelier Wee Thiam Siew is buying an old freehold bungalow along Olive Road for nearly S$50.24 million. The price paid by Wee Hian Nam for the property, which is part of the Caldecott Hill Good Class Bungalow (GCB) Area, works out to S$1,800 per square foot on the land area of 27,909 sq ft.

The family of the late property magnate and hotelier Wee Thiam Siew has bought a good class bungalow (GCB) in Olive Road for $50.2 million, six months after they concluded the largest residential land sale here since the July 2018 property cooling measures. The Wee family sold freehold land plots in Thiam Siew Avenue in the Katong area in November last year for $815 million.

The en bloc residential market has seen a slowdown in successful sales since December’s cooling measures as developers take a more cautious approach. Market watchers say that the gap between the reserve price and the price that developers are willing to fork out has widened as developers grapple with the latest property curbs, along with other headwinds such as elevated costs.

Around 1,600 new Housing Board flats will be built on a 10ha site in Farrer Park, and be integrated with sports and recreational facilities including a new sports centre. The Build-To-Order (BTO) projects will be launched for sale within three years, HDB, Sport Singapore and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) announced on Monday (April 25) as the agencies unveiled plans for the site.

The prices of Housing Board resale flats have increased steadily over the past two years. In 2021, the HDB resale price index jumped 12.7 per cent year on year, which was the highest annual rate of growth in the past decade. In the past two years since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the prices of public housing here have grown 18.4 per cent. This is due to the combination of a few factors.

Like many couples hoping to buy our first Housing Board flat, my partner and I have given up on getting a Build-To-Order (BTO) unit. We applied four times in 2020 and 2021 - thrice for a Sale of Balance Flat and once for a BTO - but ended up with either balloted queue numbers more than double that of the flats on offer, or no number at all.

Rents of private non-landed properties accelerated in the first quarter of 2022 - rising 4.1 per cent, compared with 2.7 per cent at the end of the fourth quarter of last year. This comes as rents in the prime and city fringe areas grew 3.8 per cent and 4.7 per cent respectively, while those in the suburbs rose 4 per cent, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday (April 22).

Some banks in Singapore have suspended fixed-rate home loan packages amid rising interest rates. While the lenders said they made these moves as fixed-rate packages have become less attractive for clients, mortgage brokers explained that the rising cost of funds may also have prompted these suspensions, especially among the foreign banks.

City Developments Ltd (CDL) and MCL Land will start marketing a 407-unit condominium Piccadilly Grand this weekend, in the first of a batch of upcoming launches that will be closely watched to gauge sentiment and demand from homebuyers.

The red-hot private residential market slowed to a crawl in the first quarter of this year as December's property cooling measures took effect amid rising interest rates and the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Private home prices managed to eke out a gain for the eighth straight quarter, rising 0.7 per cent, above the flash estimate of 0.4 per cent for the January to March quarter.

Buyer resistance could be setting in, with prices in the Housing Board resale market rising at a slower pace of 2.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year, compared with 3.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021. Last year, the HDB resale market ended on a high, as prices grew 12.7 per cent, the steepest full-year climb since 2010.

A lot is happening for the Greater Southern Waterfront creating a buzz around the island nation. The Greater Southern Waterfront is designated as a residential, commercial and recreational hub along Singapore’s southern coast as first mentioned by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in 2019, it will be a live-work-play locale.This will be done by developing more private and public housing options with waterfront promenades, more offices to provide better job opportunities and more open spaces with recreational activities and entertainment for residents.

An elevated freehold residential landed site at 5 Oxley Rise in District 9 with an enormous size of 151,205 square feet (sq ft) has been put up for sale by public tender, with offers in excess of S$300 million expected. CBRE, which is marketing the property, says it is one of the last remaining freehold residential landed sites within the prime Orchard Road district, and has the flexibility of being redeveloped into a single large mansion, strata or mixed landed developments, or multiple Good Class Bungalows (GCBs).

The price gap between new homes in the prime areas of Singapore and those outside of them continued to narrow in March, suggesting that there could be buying opportunities for those seeking properties in Districts 9, 10 and 11.

Sixth Avenue Centre, a mixed-use boutique site located at 805 Bukit Timah Road, will be relaunched for collective sale via a tender on Apr 19. The freehold site will be launched at a reserve price of S$85 million, which is unchanged from the reserve price in its previous tender in 2021, said Cushman & Wakefield on Monday (Apr 18).

En Bloc hopeful Lakepoint Condominium will be relaunched for collective sale again on Apr 19, exclusive marketing agency PropNex Realty said on Monday (Apr 18). The last tender had closed without a bid on Dec 22, 2021. Owners of the Jurong condominium development then entered into a “private treaty negotiation process”.

The recent property cooling measures have affected the sales of construction group Tiong Seng's 2 projects located in Balmoral and Orchard, due to the higher additional buyer's stamp duty rates for foreign buyers.

Factors that will help channel buyers to resale market include: long waiting time of up to 5 years for BTO completions; generous housing grants of up to S$160,000 for first-time buyers; and firm private residential property prices.

Kelvin Lim, senior marketing director at real estate agency ERA Realty Network, often advises potential homebuyers to apply for built-to-order (BTO) flats under the Housing and Development Board (HDB) if they are eligible - even if it means he loses out on sale commissions.

HOUSING Board (HDB) rents have hit a new high in March, while condominium rents rose for the 15th straight month. Although rental volumes improved on a monthly basis, they are still lower compared with the year-ago period, according to flash figures from SRX Property and 99.co on Wednesday (Apr 13).

There is every chance that property buyers, both local and foreign, will be keeping an eye on Singapore as an investment destination for homes. Since the onset of the pandemic, Singapore has been a beacon of stability.

Around 6,000 flats will be built on the redeveloped waterfront site of Keppel Club with the first Build-to-Order project at the site to be launched by 2025, National Development Minister Desmond Lee said on April 12.