Singapore Property Weekly Issue 157

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CONTENTS

p2 5 Tips for Dealing with Repairs in

Rental Properties

p6 Singapore Property News This Week

p11 Resale Property Transactions

(May 7 – May 12 )

Welcome to the 157th edition of the Singapore Property Weekly.

Hope you like it!

Mr. Propwise

FROM THE

EDITOR

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 157

Page | 2Back to Contents

By Property Soul (guest contributor)

I parked my car outside the house. A neighbor

accidentally kissed it and damaged the

license plate. It was replaced after a week so

I drove it to an 8 a.m. meeting on Monday.

Unfortunately, I was stuck on the highway for

an hour. When I reached the carpark, the

agitated vehicle was already complaining with

strange noises. It waited till I was on the way

back that it finally broke down on the left lane.

Three nice guys volunteered to push the

grumpy fellow to a side road. But somehow it

ended up outside a Singapore Pools outlet.

Patrons took the hint from the license number

to buy lottery. I was totally amused by the

embarrassment!

5 Tips for Dealing with Repairs in Rental Properties



Breakdowns are sometimes unavoidable in

the lifespan of cars. Similarly, breakdowns are

also commonplace in rental properties.

What do you expect to fix?

After a decade as a landlord, I have

experienced countless incidents of different

things not working in my tenanted units. From

the date of TOP to a few years down the

road, sooner or later things will start giving

you problems. It can be the air-conditioners,

water heaters, home appliances, fixtures and

fittings, or water leaks and seepage.

The developer may have installed something

substandard. Or a fixture is reaching almost

the end of its lifespan. Depending on your

luck, defects can range from wear and tear,

out of order, to damage beyond repair.

If you look around, you may notice that your

neighbor may be having the same fate. Talk

to the neighbors or the management office.

Most probably another unit has recently done

similar repair work. They can share the

contacts of any reliable contractor or

repairman with you.

Why don't things last?

When you visit sales galleries of property new

launches, the showflats usually showcase

top-of-the-line branded fixtures and

appliances. However, you will soon realize

that ‘looking good’ and ‘working fine’ are two

different things.

The air-conditioners, water heaters and built-

in home appliances may be from prestigious

European or Japanese brands. But the

developers are buying them in bulk from the

manufacturers. Developers are looking for

models that offer the biggest discount, not the

latest models selling at a premium.



Anyway, with concealed air-conditioning, no

one will check the model number of the air-

conditioners. And it is rare that anyone will

open the false ceiling of the bathrooms to

check the models of water heaters.

There is also considerable time lap between

orders placed by developers, to building

construction to project completion. By the

time your tenant moves in, chances are those

models installed at your unit have long been

discontinued.

How to make your life easier as a

landlord?

As a landlord, it is your responsibility to give

your tenant a one month’s warranty for

everything in your unit, except for damages

done by the tenant. You are also responsible

to keep all the home appliances you put in the

unit in good and working condition.

Nonetheless, there are a few tips that can

make your life as a landlord much easier:

1. File the operation manuals of all the

appliances and leave the file with your tenant

for easy reference. Ask your tenant to check

the operation manual for any machine

malfunction before contacting you or your

property agent.

2. Specify in the tenancy agreement that the

tenant is responsible for any repairs not

exceeding $100 or $150. This can save you

the hassles of going there to do all the minor

repairs, such as repairing a blown fuse or

changing a light bulb.

3. For the convenience of arranging repair

work, the tenancy agreement should state

that your tenant has to allow you or your

agents to enter the unit to inspect and do any

repair at a time agreeable by both parties.



4. Request your tenant to sign up for a

maintenance contract that services the air-

conditioners every quarter at the expense of

the tenant. Before the handover of the unit

back to you, your tenant has to service the

air-conditioners again and provide a copy of

the receipt that shows the last service date.

5. Avoid having any built-in home appliances

such as a fridge, oven, washing machine,

dryer, etc. at the unit. They only look neat and

nice at the showflat. Once anything breaks

down, it is difficult to repair. When it is beyond

repair, you can hardly find the same model or

model with exact measurements that can fit

perfectly. And even if space allows, having a

duplicate appliance next to the faulty one

looks odd.

By guest contributor Property Soul, a

successful property investor, blogger, and

author of the newly released No B.S. Guide to

Property Investment.

http://propertysoul.com/

http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/














http://www.moneymatters.sg/


Singapore Property This Week


Residential

9,707 BTO flats to be released by HDB this

year

A total of 9,707 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats will

be released by the Housing Development

Board (HDB) this year. Out of the 6,454 flats

that are put on sale this month, 3,383 are

balance flats that are offered under the Sale

of Balance Flat exercise, while the remaining

flats are offered under the BTO scheme.

Subsequently, another 3,071 BTO flats will be

released in non-mature estates such as Bukit

Batok and Woodlands. According to Nicholas

Mak from SLP International, two-room flats

are most popular among singles at the last

BTO launch. Flats in Woodlands are expected

to a hot favourite among buyers as the

Woodlands Regional Centre is slated to be

constructed as part of the draft Master Plan

2013. Eugene Lim from ERA Realty predicts

that HDB prices will smoothen as demand for

resale flats stabilises.

(Source: Business Times)

Sale of Coco Palms driven by price cuts

Price cuts at the launch of Coco Palms

helped to drive sales. According to the

developer, 490 out of the 600 units available

at its weekend launch have been sold for an

average of $980 per square foot.



This was marked down from its initial pricing

of $1,100 to $1,200 per square foot. Located

at Pasir Ris Grove neighbourhood, the joint

venture between City Development and Hong

Realty (Pte) Ltd consisted of a total of 944

units which are between 463 square feet for a

one-bedroom unit to 3,111 square feet for a

penthouse.


Hougang HUDC: 15th to be privatised

Joining 14 other Housing and Urban

Development Co (HUDC) estates, 336 flats at

Hougang Avenue 2 have been privatised after

obtaining support from at least 75 per cent of

the owners. The Aljunied- Hougang- Punggol

East Town Council will cease managing the

estate’s common properties as it will be

converted into a strata-titled property. While

the estate is the 15th estate to be privatised

out of the 18 HUDC estates, Ong Kah Seng,

R’ST Research Director, predicts that in the

short run, developers may not be willing to

offer a high price for the Hougang estate, due

to the tight property market.


Buyer and investor interests in dual-key

units remain undiluted

According to global consultancy Knight Frank,

demand in dual-key units will persist as buyer

and investor interests remain undiluted. Alice

Tan, director and head of consultancy and

research at Knight Frank claimed that dual-

key units are popular among developers as

they are easier to market as compared to

similar sized non-dual key units. Introduced in

1986 to promote multi-generational living, the

dual-key unit comprises of 2 sub units with

two separate keys and entrances.



In January and February this year, four

projects were launched with dual-key units.

This reflected developers’ continued interest

in the dual-key model. Also, according to Ms

Tan, dual-key units are popular among young

families who want to stay near their parents.

Nonetheless according to Ms Tan, demand

for dual-key units has dipped from 100 per

cent in 2011, to 84 per cent in 2012, and

eventually to 58 per cent in 2013 following the

implementation of the total debt servicing

ratio framework.


Changes in ruling affected EC tender bids

New rules for executive condominium (EC)

buyers have affected bidding for EC land. A

pair of 99-year sites at Yishun Street 51 has

been tendered to different developers—a first

since the introduction of the system of

simultaneous tender closings for adjacent

residential sites in 2013. Parcel A at Yishun

Street 51 has been sold to a City

Developments Ltd-TID joint venture for

$330.13 per square foot per plot ratio, while

the neighbouring Parcel B is sold for $334.57

per square foot per plot ratio to JBE Holdings

which is run by Patrick Lam from Hong Kong.

Six bids were placed for Parcel A while Parcel

B had two more bidders. According to Eugene

Lim from ERA, Parcel B had more bidders as

it was located nearer to Lower Seletar

Reservoir.


Commercial

MTI: Rental hikes due to inflation

The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI)

revealed in the latest Economic Survey of

Singapore that the recent increase in rent



prices observed is in line with inflation over

retailers’ lease period. Not only so, for 25 per

cent of retailers who renewed their leases last

year, there was no increase in rents; in fact,

some even renewed their leases at a lower

rent. MTI refuted speculations that retail rents

have been pushed up by real estate

investment trusts. However, property market

watchers and small and medium sized

enterprises that The Business Times spoke to

were unconvinced. The median cumulative

increase in rental in 2013 was 5.5 per cent

and 75 per cent of the leases were renewed

at rental increases of 14 per cent or less. On

average, rents doubled or more than doubled

in one per cent of the 2,100 leases renewed

each year, according to MTI.


Irving Industrial Building on sale for

$220m

Irving Industrial Building, a 30-years-old, six-

storey property near Tai Seng MRT is on sale

for $220 million. Tender for the collective sale

will close on July 15. The freehold building

which comprises of 65,309 square foot, is

selling for $1,164 per square foot of potential

gross floor area (GFA) including an estimated

$46 million development charge. It is

expected to be redeveloped into 228,581

square feet maximum GFA, with a 3.5

maximum gross plot ratio that is zoned for

Business 1- White use. Of this, 163,272

square feet GFA have been reserved for

Business 1 use while the remaining 65,309

square feet is zoned for white uses.



Christina Sim from Cushman & Wakefield

claimed that the substantial white component

of the project justifies the steep asking price.


Two new hotels to be run by Accor

Two hotels located along Stevens Road,

which were developed by Oxley Holdings, will

be run by Accor, thus bringing the hotel

operator’s portfolio to nine hotels in

Singapore. The hotels which are under the

Novotel and Ibis brand names are expected

to open by the end of 2016. The land which

was acquired last March by Oxley is about

198,000 square feet and has a gross

permissible floor area of about 318,000

square feet and a 103-year leasehold tenure.

The new hotel, Novotel Singapore will have

254 rooms while the Ibis Singapore hotel will

have 528 rooms.


Next generation industrial facility will be

launched by JTC

JTC will be launching next generation

industrial buildings that are designed to

integrate land-based facilities with high-rise,

multi-user factories at Tampines North. Such

buildings, which are targeted to appeal to

small and medium sized enterprises that are

involved in heavier manufacturing, will feature

higher ceilings and wide corridors. The JTC

Space @ Tampines North will be a nine-

storey complex that comprises of five land-

based units between 1,200 and 1,900 square

meter; and 105 high rise units from 160 to

260 square meter. The industrial space is

expected to be completed by 2016 and will

begin construction by the end of this year.




Non-Landed Residential Resale Property Transactions for the Week of May 7 – May 12

Postal

DistrictProject Name

Area

(sqft)

Transacted

Price ($)

Price

($ psf)Tenure

3 THE ANCHORAGE 1,163 1,630,000 1,402 FH

4 THE PEARL @ MOUNT FABER 1,604 1,850,000 1,153 99

4 THE PEARL @ MOUNT FABER 1,389 1,540,000 1,109 99

5 VARSITY PARK CONDOMINIUM 1,033 1,280,000 1,239 99

5 THE MAYLEA 1,249 1,500,000 1,201 FH

5 DOVER PARKVIEW 1,249 1,500,000 1,201 99

8 URBAN LOFTS 420 620,000 1,477 FH

8 KENTISH GREEN 1,324 1,309,770 989 99

9 THE PATERSON 1,313 2,650,000 2,018 FH

9 CAIRNHILL RESIDENCES 904 1,820,000 2,013 FH

9 2 RVG 893 1,638,000 1,833 FH

9 THE PIER AT ROBERTSON 743 1,320,000 1,777 FH

9 MIRAGE TOWER 1,227 2,000,000 1,630 FH

9 WILKIE 80 635 1,030,000 1,622 FH

9 HIGH POINT 2,928 4,350,000 1,486 FH

13 THE ACACIAS 1,378 1,430,000 1,038 FH

14 LA BRISA 431 628,000 1,459 FH

14 SIMSVILLE 980 928,000 947 99

14 THE ALCOVE 1,378 1,100,000 798 99

15 PEBBLE BAY 1,894 2,280,000 1,204 99

16 CASA MERAH 1,238 1,430,000 1,155 99

16 CHANGI GREEN 1,216 1,120,000 921 FH

18 NV RESIDENCES 797 913,000 1,146 99

18 CHANGI RISE CONDOMINIUM 1,281 1,200,000 937 99

Postal

DistrictProject Name

Area

(sqft)

Transacted

Price ($)

Price

($ psf)Tenure

18 MELVILLE PARK 936 840,000 897 99

18 THE TROPICA 1,238 1,008,000 814 99

19 KOVAN MELODY 1,292 1,480,000 1,146 99

19 THE QUARTZ 1,130 1,180,000 1,044 99

19 RIO VISTA 1,249 1,020,000 817 99

21 SYMPHONY HEIGHTS 969 1,030,000 1,063 FH

21 PARC PALAIS 1,528 1,530,000 1,001 FH

21 SOUTHAVEN II 1,539 1,500,000 974 999

22 THE CENTRIS 1,313 1,400,000 1,066 99

22 THE LAKESHORE 1,109 1,175,888 1,061 99

22 PARC VISTA 1,076 1,008,888 937 99

22 LAKEPOINT CONDOMINIUM 1,033 870,000 842 99

23 HAZEL PARK CONDOMINIUM 1,550 1,538,000 992 999

23 HILLVIEW PARK 1,238 1,104,300 892 FH

26 SEASONS PARK 1,292 1,200,000 929 99

28 SERENITY PARK 1,324 1,348,000 1,018 FH

28 GRANDE VISTA 1,367 1,190,000 871 999

28 SELETAR SPRINGS CONDOMINIUM 1,636 1,020,000 623 99

NOTE: This data only covers non-landed residential resale property

transactions with caveats lodged with the Singapore Land Authority.

Typically, caveats are lodged at least 2-3 weeks after a purchaser

signs an OTP, hence the lagged nature of the data.

Documents

Singapore Property Weekly Issue 157