With 1,423 private homes sold in H1, it is far ahead of all other developers

(SINGAPORE) Developers are planning to launch more mass market projects this weekend to take advantage of a recent surge in buying interest.

Hiap Hoe Group, a niche developer, will officially launch its 118-unit The Beverly, located at Toh Tuck Road, this Saturday. The starting selling price is $648 per square foot (psf), which Hiap Hoe says is an ‘attractive starting selling price’.

‘We have designed The Beverly for those looking for affordable, high-quality residential developments in a good location,’ said Teo Ho Beng, the company’s managing director.

The Beverly’s two, three and four-bedroom apartments range from 1,120 sq ft to 4,187 sq ft, while its double-storey penthouses range from 2,099 sq ft to 3,757 sq ft and are each outfitted with a private roof garden and pool.

On the other side of the island at Pasir Ris, Sustained Land Pte Ltd will also officially launch Coastal Breeze Residences come this weekend. Two and three-bedroom units at the 63-unit development will sell for $610-$660 psf.

Sustained Land has sold 13 units in Coastal Breeze Residences since the start of 2008 in a soft launch. The units, which were mostly prime apartments on higher floors, went at an average price of $690 psf.

The remaining units are mostly three-bedders between 1159 sq ft and 1356 sq ft in size and there are also duplex penthouses. In terms of absolute value, for example, the price for a three-room 1159 sq ft unit starts at $712,000.

Meanwhile, the UOL Group is expected to launch its 646-unit Double Bay Residences in Simei sometime next week. Market talk has it that the project could be launched at $650-680 psf.

The three projects are coming hot on the heels of two successful launches earlier this month. Units at Frasers Centrepoint’s Caspian condominium near Jurong Lake and Alexis @ Alexandra, a project by joint venture partners Yi Kai Group and Fission Group, sold quickly upon the projects’ launches.

One market insider said that developers are taking pricing cues from each other, and making sure their newly launched projects are priced to sell. ‘There is a sense that people will only be willing to buy projects in the $600-plus psf range, and also only units that don’t cost too much in total. People don’t really want to pay more than $600,000 or $700,000-plus in these times,’ he said.

Developers are also throwing in more upmarket features into their mass market offerings to entice buyers. Each of The Beverly’s 118 apartments is served by private lifts that open into the lobby of its interior. UOL’s Double Bay Residences will also offer extras such as full-length windows in the kitchen, the company has said.

Source: Business Times, 26 Feb 2009

Other developers try to ride buying wave by relaunching units at lower prices

(SINGAPORE) The Alexis condo sold like hot cakes last week and now a few buyers at the fully sold project are trying to flip their units in the subsale market, notwithstanding the fact that Singapore is in the throes of its worst recession.

These buyers are seeking prices about $100 per square foot above what they had paid, translating to a net gain of around 10 per cent, property agents estimate.@ Shelford during the weekend at an average price of about $1,000-1,100 psf. Units cost between $900,000 (for a three-bedroom apartment) and $1.7 million (for a penthouse). About half or 16 of the total 31 apartments in five-storey freehold project are now sold, said the company’s managing director Alvin Ng.

Macly Capital is also said to have sold about 10 units over the weekend at Newton Edge.

Property market watchers say specuvestors may have been drawn to Alexis, near Queenstown MRT station, by developer EC Prime’s decision to offer buyers an interest absorption scheme without charging any premium (usually buyers have to pay about 3 per cent more for such schemes), as well as the relatively affordable investment sums for the mostly smallish units.

However, EC Prime’s director Melvin Poh refuted talk in some quarters that the company generated demand from agents who bought units, and that a substantial number of buyers picked up multiple units.

‘We have checked our sales records; there were only two families that bought multiple units – one family bought five units, and the other, three units. The rest of the buyers all picked up one unit each.

‘If agents from Huttons (Alexis’s marketing agent) or their close relatives bought, they would have to declare to us, and so far there have been none,’ Mr Poh said.

Alexis’s buyers were mostly Singaporeans and EC Prime, a joint venture between Yi Kai Group and Fission Group, has given them up to three weeks to decide whether they would like to opt for the interest absorption scheme (IAS).

Buyers had to pay 5 per cent of the purchase price when they booked a unit, that is, when they were issued an option by the developer. Eight weeks later, they will have to pay up another 15 per cent, with no further payment (under IAS) until the project receives Temporary Occupation Permit in about three years.

Those who do not exercise their options will forfeit a quarter of their 5 per cent deposit. For a $500,000 unit, that will amount to $6,250.

Those who buy on IAS will have to immediately sign up for a home mortgage with United Overseas Bank, and the credit assessment is expected to sift out financially weak buyers.

‘Alexis has drawn investors. Based on our sale prices, they could earn about 5-6 per cent yield from renting their units, given the location near an MRT station close to town,’ Mr Poh said.

Source: Business Times – 18 Feb 2009

Ripples from the strong sales momentum generated for the 293-unit freehold condo, comprising mostly smallish units costing between $420,000 and $800,000, spread to showflats of several other small and mid-sized developers. Some of them trimmed prices to give buyers an incentive to commit to a purchase.

The mini home-buying wave sparked earlier this month by Frasers Centrepoint’s launch of its Caspian condo in the Jurong Lake District, has led other developers to speed up launch plans for new projects, or to relaunch existing ones, with a price cut.

This weekend, GuocoLand will relaunch The Quartz condo near Buangkok MRT Station with a price cut of nearly 10 per cent.

The 625-unit, 99-year leasehold project is slated to receive Temporary Occupation Permit in a few months and is left with 182 units. For a start, GuocoLand is likely to push out about 60-odd units, all three-bedders and most of which will cost below $650,000. The average price of the units to be relaunched will be about $595 psf, compared with an average price of $650 psf that GuocoLand was selling the project at during the height of the market in 2007.

The project is being marketed by CB Richard Ellis and ERA.

In the River Valley area, Fortune Development has sold 12 units at RV Suites since Saturday. The 96-unit freehold project’s average price is $1,300 psf and most of the units are smallish, at about 500 to 550 sq ft and cost about $630,000 to $730,000. This brings total sales in the seven-storey project to 42 units, according to Fortune general manager Victor Soh.

Over in the Shelford Road area, East Coast Properties sold 14 units at D’Chateau

New developments Caspian and Alexis report brisk sales, add buzz to market

(SINGAPORE) Frasers Centrepoint Ltd (FCL) has delivered much needed positive news by reporting that its 712-unit Caspian condominium near Jurong Lake is now 65 per cent sold with 460 units snapped up to date.

Over at Alexandra, the 293-unit Alexis @ Alexandra by joint venture partners Yi Kai Group and Fission Group is said to be fully sold.

Both developments were launched this month and together, total sales of 753 units have already topped new developer sales for the whole quarter of Q1 2008.

Source: Business Times – 16 Feb 2009

The demand for these two developments have taken many by surprise.

Mohamed Ismail, chief executive of PropNex, which is also the marketing agent for the 99-year leasehold Caspian, said that the sales target had initially been only 250 units for its first phase.

However, after these were sold out quickly at an average price of $580 psf, more units were released at the higher price of $600 psf.

It is understood that FCL will continue selling units as long as there are buyers and that it is comfortable with the pace of sales.

Giving his take on the Caspian’s success, Mr Ismail said: ‘The strategy in a down market is to look at the size of the units, reach out to buyers in the same area, and keep prices low.’

Alexis, a freehold development marketed by Huttons Asia was more expensive at around $1,000 psf. However, Mr Ismail noted that Alexis is a ‘unique product’ with small units. He added: ‘It doesn’t really matter what the per square foot price is these days. If the quantum is below $1 million, there will be many takers.’

While these sales figures are encouraging, Cushman and Wakefield managing director Donald Han said that the demand could be very ‘project specific’ with pent-up demand quickly satisfied.

A case in point could be City Developments Ltd’s (CDL) 724-unit Livia condominium project in Pasir Ris. Livia was launched in July last year and 338 units have been sold as at end December at an average price of $650 psf. Over the weekend, CDL launched 30 units at an average of $620 per sq ft but the atmosphere at the showflat is said to be relatively subdued.

Still, the launch of Caspian and Alexis has added some buzz to an otherwise quiet market.
Some developers have noted that there are buyers waiting to move.

And Teo Hong Lim, chief executive of Roxy-Pacific, the parent company of Roxy Homes, has noticed that the sale of a few units can trigger a rash of buying because those waiting on the sidelines do not want to ‘miss the boat’.

Mr Teo says that Roxy Homes sees about 70-100 visitors at its showflats a day.

East Coast Properties managing director Alvin Ng says he has also noticed an increase in visitors at its showflats with sales also picking up. Asked what is driving this in light of the poor economy, Mr Ng said: ‘It’s really anyone’s guess.’

SINGAPORE : Singapore property prices have been coming down in line with the economic slowdown.

But at least one developer is going a step further to attract homebuyers.

Yi Kai Development and Fission Group, joint developers of the 293-unit condominium Alexis@Alexandra, are offering discounts of 28 per cent to pull in the crowds.

And the move appears to be paying off as potential homebuyers flocked to the opening of the development near Queenstown MRT.

The development includes 100 studio apartments, priced at about S$450,000 each. Two-bedroom units cost approximately S$660,000.

That is not an issue for some buyers as they snapped up several units at one go. But others are taking a more cautious approach.

“I think the property market is really messy now. What if I regret it later? I’ll wait till things calm down. If there are leftover units, I’ll buy if I really like it,” said one member of the public.

Source: Channel News Asia – 12 Feb 2009