Some developers have raised prices as a result

DEVELOPERS continued to report encouraging private home sales last week, and some have upped prices on firmer demand.

BelleRive on Keng Chin Road and Martin Place Residences on Kim Yam Road are among the projects where prices have been raised. BelleRive’s average price is now 13 per cent higher than when it was previewed in mid-April.

Frasers Centrepoint sold 60 more units last week at Martin Place Residences; new units were released over the weekend at prices that were about 5-7 per cent higher.

Chia Boon Kuah, Far East Organization chief operating officer, property sales, told BT that ‘in recent weeks, we’re seeing growing broad-based demand for our products across our portfolio in every price bracket, from upgrader market to the upper-middle segments to high-end luxury projects’.

Last week, the property giant sold more than 40 units, up from the 30 a week earlier. Far East’s home sales for the May 18-24 week include two units at Vida on Peck Hay Road which fetched an average price of $2,030 psf; the buyers did not take up the rental guarantee offered by Far East for the recently completed condo. The developer also sold nine units at Floridian in Bukit Timah at an average price of $1,220 psf.

In the upgrader housing segment, it sold seven units at Mi Casa in Choa Chu Kang, nine units each at Lakeshore near Jurong Lake and Waterfront Waves near Bedok Reservoir. Waterfront Waves is a joint development with Frasers Centrepoint.

Frasers Centrepoint also sold four units each at its Caspian condo in the Jurong Lake location and Woodsville 28 last week.

At Martin Place Residences, the developer released fresh units below the 14th floor sky terrace in the second and final block in the 33-storey condo.

Prices of the freshly released units start from $1,350 psf, higher than the $1,260 psf starting price in the earlier block during the preceding weekend’s marketing campaign.

However, the latest pricing is still below the $1,700 psf starting price for the 33-storey freehold project when it was previewed last year. Inclusive of the units sold last week, 168 units in the 302-unit condo are now sold.

Frasers Centrepoint is offering an interest absorption scheme (IAS) for all its four projects on the market – in exchange for a 3 per cent price premium for Caspian and a 2 per cent premium for the rest.

Over in Bukit Timah, a Sing Holdings subsidiary is understood to have sold five units last weekend at BelleRive, taking total sales to 39 units in the 51-unit freehold project. BelleRive was initially priced at $1,350 psf average when it was previewed in mid-April; this was raised to $1,430 psf last week and upped further to $1,530 psf this week. This translates to a 13 per cent price hike in about six weeks.

The average pricing is for the apartments in the 15-storey project, and excludes the two penthouses. About 75 per cent of BelleRive buyers have taken up the IAS offered by the developer at no extra cost.

The units were picked up predominantly by Singaporeans. BelleRive’s draws include its proximity to Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) on Barker Road and Singapore Chinese Girls’ School along Dunearn Road.

In the Balestier area, Soilbuild is understood to have sold another 25 units at Mezzo over the weekend. The project is priced at about $850-900 psf on average; the cost is 2 per cent more for IAS.

Property giant City Developments also sold 14 units last week for The Arte at Thomson condo. The average price in the project is now $900-930 psf, compared with $880 psf when previews began in March. The 336-unit condo is 84 per cent sold.

Near Botanic Gardens, Straits Trading has upped the price of the remaining few units at Gallop Gables to $1,400 psf, from the $1,188 psf average achieved for units sold in the past six weeks. The price increase comes after the developer achieved the sale of its 40th unit in the completed freehold condo.

In the secondary market, some 50-plus units are said to have been sold last week at RiverGate condo near the Singapore River. These are out of 88 units listed in a sales campaign last week. The average price is about $1,400 to $1,500 psf.

The 88 units were from an original pool of 100 units purchased in 2005 by a fund managed by Ferrell Asset Management.

Source: Business Times, 26 May 2009

AMID growing talk of economic green shoots, local developers of high-end private homes rolled out 339 units last month – nearly five times the number in March, according to statistics released on Friday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

And they were not disappointed, as demand kept up with supply that month.

Some 332 private homes in the prime Core Central Region were sold last month, marking the highest since Sept 2007 – the peak of property prices – said Mr Nicholas Mak, director of consultancy and research at Knight Frank.

“This rebound is an encouraging sign that the high-end market is not void of life despite the economic turmoil ravaging across the world,” Colliers International‚s research and advisory director Tay Huey Ying said.

For instance, Illuminaire on Devonshire sold all 72 units launched last month at a median $1,703 per square foot, while BelleRive at Keng Chin Road also sold all 21 units launched.

Analysts agreed that developers, buoyed by the recent good response to mass market condominiums, were testing waters of the high-end segment.

But buyers continued to gravitate towards small units with “affordable price tags which can be under $1.5 million for high-end projects”, noted Savills Research & Consultancy associate director Priya Sengupta.

“Given that developers have started to raise prices of new units on a selective basis to test home buyers‚ price tolerance level, buying activity could be expected to hover in the current range as home buyers are spurred to commit ahead of further price increases by developers,” said Ms Tay.
Yet, developers wanting to move their inventory could launch or relaunch their mid-tier and high-end projects within a lower price bracket in the next few quarters, opined Ms Sengupta.

In total, 1,207 private homes were sold last month and 1,083 units were launched. It was the third straight month where units sold stayed above 1,000.

As in previous months, mid-tier and mass-market projects dominated two-thirds of total sales.

Source : Today, 16 May 2009

Sales in core central region get big boost in April, soaring to 19-month high of 322 units

THE high-end property market – which has remained subdued since the beginning of the year even as activity increased in the mass-market segment – started to move in April.

According to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), some 1,207 units were sold by developers last month. And unlike in the first three months of the year, homes in Singapore’s core central region (CCR) – which includes the prime District 9, Marina Bay and Sentosa – sold as well, with transaction volumes there soaring to a 19-month high of 322 units. In contrast, only 133 homes were sold in the CCR in March.

This rebound is an encouraging sign that the high-end market is not totally void of life as feared, analysts said. Outside the CCR, some 523 homes were also sold in the mass-market outside central region in April, as well as 362 homes in the more upmarket rest of central region.

Buoyed by the performance of the mass market over two consecutive months in February and March, developers started testing the ground with launches in the mid-tier and high-end segments in April.

While just 70 units were launched in the CCR in March, the number rose almost five times to 339 units in April – the highest number since September 2007. Launches in the CCR accounted for almost one-third of all units launched in the month.

‘Developers were probably hoping to ride on the rebound in buying momentum to clear their stock and land bank,’ said Tay Huey Ying, director for research and advisory at Colliers International.

Colliers’ analysis showed that there was a significant jump in the number of new units sold in April in the range of $1,500 per square foot (psf) and above. Some 90 units were sold at above $1,500 psf in April, compared to less than 12 units a month in the preceding six months. Of note, Illuminaire on Devonshire sold all of its 72 newly launched units at a median price of $1,703 psf.

Homes in the $1,000-$1,500 psf price range also sold well. Projects with significant numbers of units sold in this price range include the 51-unit BelleRive on Keng Chin Road (where all 21 units launched in April were sold for $980-$1,404 psf) and Attitude at Kim Yam in the River Valley area (where 22 out of the 33 units launched were sold for $1,157-$1,306 psf).

However, there was still no activity in the luxury segment. April marked the fourth consecutive month with no units transacted above $2,500 psf, pointed out Nicholas Mak, Knight Frank’s director of consultancy & research. ‘Although the sale volume is showing signs of increase, price growth is still subdued,’ Mr Mak said.

Analysts said there could be a variety of reasons why the buying momentum carried on from February and March. Some 1,332 homes were sold in February, and another 1,220 in March – a huge pick-up in sales volume after just 108 homes were sold in January.

Talk that the United States and Singapore economies are recovering, combined with the recent stockmarket rally, could have injected confidence and lifted the sentiments of potential buyers, analysts said.

There is also an increasing sense among potential homebuyers that home prices could be nearing bottom, with URA’s statistics showing that private home prices chalked up their worst-ever quarterly decline of 14.1 per cent in Q1.

Developer sales for the January-April period are already about 90 per cent of all developer sales in 2008. Such launch and sales activity can be sustainable in the months ahead if the Singapore economy and employment market were to expand in 2009, said Knight Frank’s Mr Mak.

The second quarter may chalk up home sales volume of 3,000 units, said Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of CBRE Research. In Q1, 2,660 homes were sold.

Priya Sengupta, associate director of Savills’ research & consultancy unit, warned, however, that in the coming months, cautiousness is the key in developer launches as any sign of ‘false euphoria’ may scare the buyer away, leading to several months of inactivity again.

Others similarly called for ‘cautious optimism’.

There is still enough pent-up demand from homebuyers for a few more months, said Chua Yang Liang, Jones Lang LaSalle’s head of research for South-east Asia. But he added: ‘However, until there is a clear signal of a stabilisation and underlying positive growth in the real economy, the residual pent-up demand alone cannot be expected to lift the residential market in the long term.’

Source: Business Times, 16 May 2009

Sing Hldgs to price it between $1,325 and $1,464 per sqft

SING Holdings is launching its latest residential development, BelleRive, this weekend at indicative prices of between $1,325 and $1,464 per sq ft. The listed developer is also extending an interest absorption scheme to all buyers.

BelleRive, located off Bukit Timah Road between Balmoral and Robin roads, is a 15-storey apartment tower with a total of 51 units. Its two and three-bedroom units range from 958 sq ft to 1,679 sq ft.

The two penthouses, at 2,734 sq ft and 3,735 sq ft, each have a private roof garden, swimming pool and pool deck. The development boasts fittings and finishes from notable brands including kitchen appliances by Gaggenau and imported kitchens by Hoffen.

Project facilities include a swimming pool, barbecue area, children’s playground and gymnasium. Project completion is scheduled for end-2010.

Sing Holdings chief executive Lee Sze Hao said yesterday that about 50 per cent of the freehold project was sold during a recent preview.

BelleRive is within walking distance of the upcoming MRT station in Stevens Road. It is also reasonably close to several schools including the Singapore Chinese Girls’ School, Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road), Raffles Girls Secondary School and St Joseph’s Institution.

Sing Holdings’ previous projects include 38 Draycott Drive, a high-end apartment block in the Ardmore Park area, and an office building named EastGate in the East Coast area.
Residential projects in the pipeline are Meyer Residence on the East Coast, an 85 per cent-owned project, and a joint-venture project called The Laurels at Cairnhill.Source: Business Times, 14 May 2009