It’s all about the shoeboxes…

Over the past 2 years, shoebox units have been increasing in popularity. They usually achieved the highest psf prices compared to bigger units within any project and are also becoming more expensive.

Here are solid numbers to substantiate those claims:

Despite the continual popularity of such smallish units, here’s a caveat by Credo Real Estate executive director Ong Teck Hui: “A lot of people are buying shoebox units because they are a more bite-sized investment. However, whether these apartments can fetch the yields some of these buyers expect remains to be seen, especially in suburban locations.”

Source: The Business Times

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Project designed by world-class architect = brisker sale?

It was reported in The Straits Times yesterday that CapitaLand has hired a world renowned architect with a reputation of head-truning designs to shape their major condominium project in Bishan.

The site, near Bishan MRT station, was acquired by CapitaLand for $550 million in February this year. The winning bid, which translated to $869psf ppr, had set a new record for 99-year leasehold suburban condo site. This led some experts to predict selling prices of between $1,400psf  and $1,700psf – a new record for suburban homes.

Experts also say that enlisting a world-class architect may be a way for developer to overcome price resistance by differentiating their product.

But judging by the sales progress of several “designer projects” in the market, it is quite evident that pricing remains the primary concern with buyers. This is despite the brand name and added touch of glamour that desginer architects bring to these projects.

Reflections By The Bay (No. of units: 1,129) 

The Interlace (No. of units: 1,040)

d’Leedon (No. of units: 1,715)

In our opinion, the less than stellar sales seen at such “designer projects” can be attributed to another important factor – exclusivity. It may be appealing to live in a project designed by a world-renowned architect, even if you have to pay a premium for the apartment. However, it loses much of the shine when you have to share the “glamour” with a thousand other unit owners.

Something for developers to ponder about…?

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GLS: Lower tender bids expected?

Market watchers are observing lower tender bids for government land sales (GLS).

According to OCBC Investment research, recent GLS tenders imply breakeven prices that are as much as 26% below market prices. It said this is likely due to the policy changes in the housing market after May 2011.

Average winning tenders for recent 99-year GLS condominium sites translate to a breakeven average selling price that is on average 7% below market levels. This is based on data compiled by OCBC Investment Research, covering 24 tenders from June 2010 to June 2011.

Analysts said the lower bids are a result of developers factoring in lower expected selling prices for their units. But they said this may not necessarily translate into significantly cheaper home prices for end buyers.

Liang Thow Ming, Head of Residential Services with Credo Real Estate: “Over the last couple of GLS tenders, we’ve noticed a drop both in the number of bidders and also in the successful bidding price. What will happen over here of course, is that the developers are now buying land at a lower cost. However, I don’t think that is a major factor in deciding what the launch price is going to be.”

Launch prices of end units are dependent on demand from home buyers as well as market sentiment. As such, developers with more freehold land sites in their land bank can choose to delay their launches, in order to wait for the market to pick up. This will allow them to set higher average selling prices.

Analysts do say the lower tenders protect the developers from a crash in home prices, as it gives them more flexibility to price their units accordingly.

Chia Siew Chuin, Director of Research & Advisory at Colliers International, said: “Should the market turn, should the market soften for whatever reasons, this low bidding price would actually create a buffer for the developers, thereby giving the comfort zone to then therefore reduce the selling price of end units.”

Going forward, analysts expect the private home prices to remain flat, increasing at most 3% by the end of the year. The prices of mass market condominiums are likely to be between $900 and $1,200psf.

Source: Channel News Asia

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Project spotlight: City Square Residences & Citylights

New condominiums in the city fringe, particularly those next to MRT stations and near the heritage area of Little India, have seen prices setting new highs recently. According to caveats lodged with URA, over the week of June 28 to July 5, a seventh-floor 570sqft studio apartment at City Square Residences located at Kitchener Link was sold for $975,000, or a record at $1,709psf. Another unit in the development, this time a 840sqft two-bedroom apartment, changed hands at $1.39 million, or $1,656psf.

The 910-unit freehold City Square Residences was completed in early 2009, and sits right beside the City Square Mall. Both projects are developed by listed giant developer, City Developments Ltd. City Square Residences also contains an underground link from the mall to the Farrer Park MRT station, and is also near a bus stop.

Property agents who have sold units at City Square Residences say demand for the condo is strong because of its freehold status and convenient location. “It is one of the very few city-fringe condos close to an MRT station and more than one shopping centre, namely City Square Mall and the 24-hour Mustafa Centre,” says Brandan Lim, a team director at HSR. “The pool is large; there are ample facilities such as a snooker room and three function rooms. Some units on the high floors have unblocked views of the city, which will remain unblocked as City Square Residences is surrounded by conservation shophouses,” he adds.

First launched in April 2005, units were sold at prices ranging from $500 to $600psf. Unit types are a mix of 570sqft studio apartments, two-, three- and four-bedroom units of 1,518sqft.

Many of the owners who had bought their units at the launch have seen prices escalate in recent years. The 570sqft unit that was recently sold at record-high of $1,709psf, for instance, changed hands in a sub-sale in August 2007 at $570,000 ($999psf). The first owner had purchased it at launch in 2005 for a mere $383,680 or $673psf. Most of the owners at City Square Residences are now asking for at least $1 million for their studio apartments, says Lim.

Anecdotal evidence is that owners are holding on to their asking prices. Recently, a seller had turned down an offer of $1.42 million for his two-bedroom, 872sqft unit, as it fell short of his asking price of $1.46 million. The owner was confident of finding a buyer at his desired price. HSR’s Lim observes that most of the recent buyers are foreigners, mainly from China, Indonesia, India, Australia and Dubai.

Asking rent for units in City Square Residences range from $3,000 ($5.26psf) a month for a fully-furnished 570sqft unit to $6,800 ($6.80psf) a month for a fully-furnished 1,000sqft two-bedroom unit.

Just a short drive from City Square Residences is the 600-unit, 99-year leasehold Citylights, located next to Lavender MRT station. The most recent transaction there was for a 678sqft unit on the 33rd level that changed hands in mid-June at $1.15 million, or a record of $1,696psf for the development. This is the third time that the one-bedroom unit has changed hands. It was transacted in August 2007 when it went for $881,400, or $1,300psf, and prior to that, the previous owner had purchased it from the developer, CapitaLand, in October 2006 for just $493,000 ($728psf).

Standing 42 storeys tall, the high-floor units at Citylights offer unblocked views of the Kallang Basin, the future Sports Hub, as well as the city. When the project was first launched in late 2004, prices initially averaged $600psf.

Patrick Lai, director of residential leasing at Savills Singapore is not surprised at the recent high transaction prices and rental rates achieved at City Square Residences and Citylights. He expects prices to go up even further. “City Square Residences is newer compared with Citylights, but both are equally sought-after by expatriates, given their location right next to a MRT station,” he says. “Units there are ideal for those who want value for money, and find places in other city fringe areas such as the Novena/Newton area too expensive.”

Owners of high-floor units with views at City Square Residences and Citylights are also asking for premium on rents. “These are the two new hot city-fringe locations,” says Lai.

Source: THEEDGE SINGAPORE

For those who are interested, below are the transacted prices for both projects during the past 2 or so months. As can be expected, there is a rather big disparity in the psf prices between big and small units.

City Square Residences/Citylights (Transacted Prices)
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Woodhaven (Review)

Project Name:   Woodhaven
Tenure:   99-year leasehold wef from 7th Feb 2011
Location:   Woodgrove Avenue
District:   25
Site Area:   225,573sqft
TOP (estimated):   2015
Total Units:   337
No. of Blocks:   14
Developer:   Far East Organization

The wife and I decided to venture further up North over the weekend and found ourselves at the sales gallery of Woodhaven – a 99-year leasehold project by Far East Organization.

Woodhaven is located on a plot of about 225,600sqft at the intersection of Woodlands Ave 1 and Rosewood Drive. The sales gallery is located on the actual site itself.

Woodhaven is a low-rise development consisting of 14 blocks in total – 8 blocks of 5-Storey apartments/SOHO units and 6 blocks of 4-storey (basement + 1st + 2nd + roof terrace) townhouses. The main entrance to Woodhaven is via Woodgrove Avenue, a new access road that will be built specially for the development. There will also be a pedestrian access gate leading out to Woodlands Ave 1.

Woodhaven offers a mix of condo apartments, SOHO units and townhouses:
• 1-Bedroom Condo/SOHO (134 units):   614 – 663sqft
• 2-Bedroom Compact SOHO (45 units):   717 – 760sqft
• 2-Bedroom Condo (59 units):   878 – 1000sqft
• 3-Bedroom compact Condo (20 units):   1131 – 1191sqft
• 3-Bedroom “typical” Condo (40 units):   1179 – 1239sqft
• 4-Bedroom Townhouses (39 units):   3268 – 3314sqft

Facilities wise, you get the usual assortments of swimming pools, gym and even a tennis court located on the rooftop of one of the blocks (Block C). However, what is conspicuously missing is the clubhouse (together with the indoor function room).

Parking lots are all located in the basement – we were told that there will be at least one lot per Condo/SOHO unit, while each townhouse will get 2 private parking lots.

There are 3 showflat types being featured in the sales gallery:
• 1-Bedroom SOHO
• 2-Bedroom SOHO
• 2-Bedroom Condo

For the purpose of this review, we shall look at the 878qft, 2-bedder condo (Type B1)

Once you step through the main door, the home shelter is right in front of you. This is a narrow rectangular strip of an area and is totally enclosed – so if you choose to house your domestic helper here, she will definitely have to leave the (home shelter) door open when she is inside her “room” to avoid suffocation.

The kitchen is the next area you see. It not only houses the hob/hood, sink, fridge and oven, but also the washing machine as there is no yard space within the apartment. A small dining table that sits four is also incoporated into the kitchen area.

The living area is rectangular and quite spacious for an apartment of this size. The ceiling height is 3.6m (3.85m for ground floor units), which is quite generous. However, you only get 60cm x 60cm homogenous-tile floors (for both living & kitchen area), which is rather disappointing.

The balcony is a small rectangular space that will probably fit a small table plus 2 chairs so as to allow you to sit, relax and enjoy the view outside. However, we suspect many residents will utilize the balcony to dry clothes.

The common bathroom is decent sized and comes with homogenous-tile floors and ceramic walls. The wife and I are not particularly impressed with the bathroom (Hansa) and toilet (Ideal Standard) fittings that are provided.  

The common bedroom is quite small and definitely requires some creative use of space. Consolation is that there are no bay windows to deal with in all the bedrooms.

The master bedroom has decent space if you can make do with a Queen bed. It comes with small timber-strip floors (similar for all bedrooms) and a glass partition wall that separates the bedroom area from the attached bathroom.

The master bathroom is fairly good-sized and comes with marble floors/walls. And instead of the normal standing shower, you get a sunken bath with “rain shower”. However, we are again unimpressed with the quality of bathroom/toilet fitting provided.

Pricing wise, the average price of the condo units are $1,000psf, whereas you can expect to pay an average of $1,030psf for the SOHO units. The townhouses are going at around $800psf.

The sales gallery of Woodhaven was only opened about one and half month ago and almost 83% of the units have already found buyers:
• All the 2-Bedroom SOHO units have been sold
• Majority of the 2-Bedroom apartments have been snapped up

What we like:
• The wife and I like the layouts of the SOHO units as well as 2-bedroom condo, which make the respective units feel more spacious than what we originally expect.

• Woodhaven is located fairly close to amenities – there is an ESSO petrol station right next to development and it is also a 5-minute walk to The Woodgrove Shopping Centre, where you can find numerous F&B outlets and NTUC supermarket.

• The American School and Singapore Sports School are within 5 – 10 minutes’ drive away, which may increase the rental prospects of Woodhaven especially with American expat families.

• Several choices of primary school within 1-km of Woodhaven – Si Ling, Fu Chun, Woodgrove and Innova Primary.

What we dislike:
• The wife and I are not particularly impressed with the quality of furnishing and fittings as seen in the showflats – this is probably the worse Far East project (in terms of quality) that we have seen since we started our blog.

• Because there are so many blocks (14 in total) within Woodhaven, the development seems rather “built up” and somewhat claustrophobic.

• The facility offering is rather “run of the mill”, unless you are a big fan of swimming pools. And the absence of a clubhouse/function room, especially in a project consisting of mainly small apartments, is particularly disappointing.

• We also find it a bit strange to have the tennis court on the rooftop of an apartment block. Hopefully, the people living on the 5th floor of Block C will find the sound of bouncing tennis balls… therapeutic.

• Although we were told that Woodhaven is within walking distance to the MRT station, we reckon it is at least a 15-minute walk to the nearest station (Woodlands MRT). This can be quite laborious on a hot (or worse, stormy) day.

Our Verdict: Other than the spacious layouts, Woodhaven does little else for the two of us. So it is absolutely mind blogging to think that there are so many buyers who are willing to fork out an average of $1,000psf for units in a 99-year leasehold project located in Woodlands, which is not particularly close to an MRT station and (in our opinion at least)  far below the quality that one comes to expect with Far East projects.

As a comparison, below are the recent average transacted prices for the other condo projects next-door to Woodhaven:
• Woodgrove Condominium (TOP: 1999; 248 units):   $700+psf
• Casablanca (TOP: 2006; 478 units):   $800+psf
• Rosewood Suites (TOP: 2012; 200 units):   $700+psf

However, if SOHO unit is what you are looking for, the unit type is unavailable in the three neighboring developments.

And we leave you to decide on whether it is really value for money to pay some $200+psf more for Woodhaven over the existing (older) projects, SOHO notwithstanding…

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Woodhaven: Photos of the 2-Bedroom SOHO unit

The wife and I were at the sales gallery of Woodhaven over the weekend. This is a new project by Far East Organization located in Woodland.

Here are photos of the 2-Bedroom SOHO unit that we quite liked. It is only about 750sqft but felt much larger than its actual size.

There is a small problem though – all the 2-Bedroom SOHO are fully sold, so you will have to look at the resale market… or hope for buyer who decides to back out.

We will post our review of Woodhaven in the next day (or two).

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New Project Info: Boathouse Residences

Boathouse Residences is a new condo project in Hougang. It is located along the riverfront of Sungei Serangoon – the latest reservoir in Singapore.

The project is developed by EastHouse Properties, which is a JV between Frasers Centrepoint Homes, Far East Organization & Sekisui House.

Here are the project details:

Project Name:   Boathouse Residences
District:   19
Location:   Upper Serangoon View (see map)
Site Area:   140,000sqft
Land Tenure:   99-year wef 9th Feb 2011
No. of Units:   493
No. of Blocks/Storey:   6 Blocks of 15/18-Storey
No. of Parking Lots:   493
Estimated TOP:   4Q 2015

Unit Mix:   Boathouse Residences offer a mix of SOHO and apartment units

• SOHO – 1-Bedroom/1+Study (90 units):   635 & 715sqft
• SOHO – 2-Bedroom/2+Study (112 units):   750 & 940sqft
• 2-Bedroom/2+Study (52 units):   835 & 890sqft
• 3-Bedroom Compact (55 units):   990sqft
• 3-Bedroom Typical (122 units):   1,109sqft
• 3-Bedroom Dual-key (18 units):   1,249sqft
• 4-Bedroom (36 units):   1,432sqft

• Penthouses (8 units):   1,518 – 1,722sqft

The wife and I understand that preview will start end-July or Early-August (yes, during the Hungry Ghost Month!) and the preview price will average slightly below $1,000psf.
 

 
We will keep you posted once we have more information.
 
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Private home Prices grew 2% in Q2 2011

Private home prices in Singapore rose at a slower pace of 2% in the second quarter, according to statistics from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

This was in line with the flash estimates which showed a 1.9% increase as announced earlier.

The property price index stood at 203 points in the second quarter.

In the previous quarter, the price index grew 2.2% to 199.1 points.

URA said the rate of price increase has moderated for seven straight quarters, since the fourth quarter of 2009.

For the second quarter of this year, non-landed residential properties in the prime city area, or core central region, increased by 1.6%.

The city fringe areas, or rest of central region, posted a 1.1% increase.

Suburban areas, or outside central region, also showed an increase of 1.7%.

URA said that the supply of residential units in the pipeline continues to build up.

There was a total of 71,111 uncompleted private homes at the end of the second quarter.

This was higher compared to the 68,887 units in the first quarter.

Source: Channel News Asia

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It’s a slow slow YTD for en bloc sites above $100m…

Home owners keen to sell their property through an en bloc sale were less likely to be successful in the first half of this year as compared with the whole of 2010, with estimates going for $100 million and above the most difficult to sell.

Data published by property consultancy firm Credo Real Estate showed that plots put up for sale enjoyed a 51% successful selling rate from January to June this year, as compared to 65% for the whole of 2010.

Dragging down the overall selling rate were bigger sites, with more put up for sale this year to tepid interest.

According to Credo, 26 sites valued at $100 million and above were available for sale in the first half of this year, compared with 11 for the whole of last year.

Of the 26 sites, just six – valued from $100 million to less than $300 million – were sold, while none of those priced above $300 million were picked up. This translates to a success rate of 23.1%.

Last year, three of the 11 sites valued at $100 million and above were sold, putting the success rate at 27.3%.

In contrast, plots valued at below $50 million enjoyed 87% success rate for the first half this year, higher than the 76% garnered by sites put up for sale from January to December last year.

The different reception that big and small collective sale sites saw stem from the uncertain property market environment, and the higher supply of land available under the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme, said Credo’s deputy managing director Tan Hong Boon.

With the Singapore government intent on keeping property prices in check, developers are keen to see quicker turnaround times, especially for mega sites, he said. And collective sales – unlike plots sold under the GLS programme which are also large in size – generally take a longer time to change hands.

“For collective sales, you need to factor in the 3 -4 months that it takes for the strata title board to give the sale order”, for instance, said Mr Tan. Then there is the six-month period where the developer has to allow residents to stay rent-free before it can begin to redevelop the land.

In contrast, land available under the GLS programme has a more straightforward process, said Cushman & Wakefield Singapore vice-chairman Donald Han. “The land sale can be completed within three months, while collective sales may take a while. And there is the unknown factor: developers cannot be sure that there won’t be dissidents and appeals against the sale.”

What has added to the lack of interest in large en bloc sites is the huge land supply coming into the market under the GLS scheme, added Mr Han. In June, the Ministry of National Development (MND) released 17 residential sites on the confirmed list of the GLS programme for the second half of the year. Analysts have said that this is a bumper supply of land.

“The smaller collective sale sites are usually bought by boutique or mid-sized developers, who are not big enough to purchase land under the GLS,” said Mr Han. This explains why they are seeing a higher take-up rate.

Larges sites that have been launched for collective sale this year include Pearlbank Apartments in Outram, which carried a $750 million price tag; Pine Grove condominium in Ulu Pandan, which asked for $1.7 billion; and Tulip Garden in Farerr Road, going for $600 million.

None of the eight estates priced above $500 million that were put on the market up till June has been sold. Last year, four such plots were up for sale, and none were snapped up.

Source: The Business Times

It sure doesn’t look too ominous for the 8 estates going into the second half of 2011, especially when market sentiments are somewhat bleak and the developers a lil spooked. Try again next year, maybe..?

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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SG PropTalk is now on Ovi!

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We have added ourselves as an app on the Nokia Ovi store.

So for all the “Nokian” out there, you can now download the app by clicking on this banner or the one located at our sidebar. The app should allow you to access our latest blog feeds with just a click of the button.

Since neither the wife or I are Nokia phone users, please do let us know if the app works well for you. 

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