Singapore Property Prices Increasing

[Agent XYZ]

I can confirm that these reported figures for Q1 are indeed correct and looks like we into an upward movement after all as we expected as we head into Q2.

[Even]

the radio this morning confirmed HDB rents would continue to rise but you know the problem......

The news also said Manufacturing was down (contributes 1/4 of the SG ecconomy), food prices would continue to increase, inflation would go up.......

Everything in the news is Bad News and eventually the perverbial sh!t hits the fan.

[You mean]

The government was lying when they released the flash estimates?
People on this board were not disputing the stats, the main discussion was whether it was a slowdown leading to eventual decline OR slowdown before it picks up steam again.
We all know you are in the second camp, so no surprises there

I can confirm that these reported figures for Q1 are indeed correct and looks like we into an upward movement after all as we expected as we head into Q2.

[Malaysian Expat]

It has been a while since my physics class, but I thought the correct term here should be decelerating, meaning a decrease in the velocity of growth

[Cracks appearing]

A SMALL property firm that snapped up enough sites to place it among the top en bloc players last year has put off completing two deals while it ties up funding.
Because of the delays, owners at one condo are still waiting to pick up cheques for well over $1 million each. They expected payment in late February but an extension put this back to March and now the due date is late this month.

The payments are pending from Bravo Building Construction, a relatively new firm on the property scene. It bought freehold Pender Court condominium in the Telok Blangah area for $80 million last July and soon after purchased Tulip Garden near Holland Road - also freehold - for $516 million.

But completion of both deals seems to have stalled.

Completion is at the final stage of the sale process and triggers the final payment - usually around 95 per cent of the purchase price - to owners. The remaining 5 per cent is paid when the owner vacates.

These headaches for the owners come amid a slowing market for collective sales. The first quarter this year saw just one relatively small deal, compared with some 25 notched up in the same period last year.

The Tulip Garden transaction is expected to be completed late next month but Bravo has already asked for two postponements - first to July 23 and then Aug 7.

It has also asked for extensions to pay an additional 5 per cent of the purchase price - $25.8 million.

This is a routine payment required once the Strata Titles Board approves a sale. An initial 5 per cent deposit was paid when the sale was done.

The deadline for the second 5 per cent payment was March 13 but Bravo won approval to move it to April 7. Then in mid-March, it again asked to move the date, this time to May 5.

However, before the sale committee could respond to the request, it is understood that Bravo asked again to have the date moved even further back, to June 7.

Tulip Garden sold for about $1,018 per sq ft. It has 164 units comprising 96 flats, 66 maisonettes and two shophouses. Flat owners stand to reap $2.5 million to $4.2 million while maisonette owners will receive about $3.4 million each. The shop units will get about $1.1 million each.

The owners are meeting this weekend to consider Bravo's requests that the completion date be pushed back to Aug 7 and the deadline for the $25.8 million payment be extended to June 7.

The Pender Court deal is even further behind schedule.

Bravo was supposed to have completed the sale on Feb 25 but had it postponed, initially to around mid-March. It then asked for a further extension to April 24, which has apparently been granted.

Pender Court's 48 owners should each get $1.6 million or so for their flats, which sold for about $872 psf.

Sources have told The Straits Times that they understand Bravo is committed to completing the two purchases and just needs more time to arrange funding.

Bravo, which was registered in 2002, reportedly picked up $824.5 million worth of en bloc sale deals last year, making it the fourth-largest buyer of en bloc sites.

Bravo's directors could not be reached for comment, despite numerous telephone calls and a visit to its office in an industrial building in Geylang Road  last Friday. A Bravo staff member said that the company directors were away on business.

[More cracks...]

Not forgetting the Makeway View purchase by Bravo (see above) that also seems to have fallen through. And then the Kuwait fund that appears to have dropped their options on Bukit Timah Rd.  Maybe Agent XYZ has been too busy having lunch to notice these?

[DPS for enbloc?]

Maybe the government needs to introduce a DPS scheme for developers, so they can afford these en blocs?   Pay 5% upfront and worry about the rest later.

 

[Kubes.SG]

I can confirm that these reported figures for Q1 are indeed correct and looks like we into an upward movement after all as we expected as we head into Q2.

Agent XYZ,  you're a talker not a thinker, right?  At school you were not one of the scholars who did really well in the "hard" subjects like mathematics, physics or science, right?  You find it easiest to look at the multitude of confusing things going on and then pick just one element (property prices) out of the many, and put all your faith and trust into that to lead you to the truth, right?  You are a devoutly religious person with deep faith, right?

You really don't understand what all these nerdy expat people are talking about because you have a piece of data that prop prices are a bit higher than last quarter - right?   You believe everything is really good in Singapore property and these expat whiners are just plain stupid, right?

Its OK, if you feel these points are correct.  My advice is use your time here to listen and learn from these discussions.

[deffered payment revived?]

Leng Beng suggests Goverment should re-introduce Deffered Payment, but at 30% this time.

Yup agreed that should help.

[outside view]

I hope you are all getting this info. Its not just about USA. It is a Global credit squeeze. This story today is one of Australia's and NZ top 3 banks.

"ANZ's Origin succumbs to credit crunch
Email Print Normal font Large font AdvertisementDanny John
April 3, 2008

THE stand-alone wholesale mortgage operation owned by ANZ Bank has become the latest casualty of the global credit crunch and will follow the likes of Macquarie Group's home loans arm and the original RAMS business in being wound down to a rump of its former self.

Yesterday ANZ announced Origin would effectively be dismantled as a "white label" provider of home loan lending. The staff employed in its Sydney offices were told their work is being moved to Melbourne and absorbed into the bank's mainstream mortgage division."


Banks in our region are having problems getting funding from the Global lending market. What chance have these small prperty companies got!!!

[OK Here]

It's ok, Singapore is different, it has no links with the globe. It has a very nice filter that only picks up all the positive global effects and keeps negative effects away.

[boo hoo]

Actually if the market is really ass strong as what the bulls on this board say it is, why would the government want to reintroduce DPS? Create an even bigger bubble?

[What?]

bubble? The growth for pte prop is 4.2% in Q108. Taking this number number as constant, we get a 16.8% per annum. Minus inflation, it's a decent sustainable rise in line with economic fundamentals.

[You what??]

Any particular reason we should take 4.2% as a constant? Or just the word of the ST and the property agents, particularly when the likes of CDL are playing it carefully?

[because its special]

Same reason around 17 percent is decent and sustainable. Because the poster is talking out of their backside.

Lots of baseless assertions, pretty much normal.