BUY AND SELL A SINGAPORE PROPERTY FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOUSE

Trendale Tower, a freehold apartment at 79 Cairnhill Road did not attract any bids for its collective sale at the reserve price of S$178 million. The 20-storey apartment houses 18 spacious residential units of 298 square metres each, which works out to S$2,386 per plot ratio after factoring in the 7 per cent bonus gross floor area for balconies. Completed in 1982, the residential development is 400m from Newton MRT station and 600m from the Orchard Road shopping belt Savills is the exclusive marketing agent for Trendale Tower when it was put up for sale in August this year.  Trendale Tower was previously put up for collective sale in May 2018 at a lower reserve price of S$163.52 million, however there were no en bloc buyers too. Trendale Tower has a verified GFA of 72,691 square feet and sits on a land area of approximately 21,708 sq ft. It is zoned “residential” under the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s 2019 Master Plan with an allowable gross plot ratio of 2.8 so the height control is a maximum of 36 storeys. Land Transport Authority does not require any pre-application feasibility study for this site redevelopment as long as it is not more than 103 units. Residents of Trendale have access to schools like Anglo-Chinese School (Primary), Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) and EtonHouse International Pre-School, which are situated within 1 kilometre of the property.

URA latest property data revealed that August new private home sales in Singapore slumped 47.6 per cent from July due to the lack of launches in the month of Hungry Ghost Festival. Property developers sold a total of 437 units excluding executive condominiums (ECs) lower than the 834 units sold in July 2022. On a year-on-year basis, new home sales in August fell 64.1 per cent from the 1,216 units sold in August 2021. Analysts have attributed the sluggish sales as no new launch projects were launched last month. Hence, some buyers turned to existing launches such as Hyll On Holland, Riviere, Perfect Ten and The Hyde. There is a taboo on not buying real estate property during the Hungry Ghost Festival as it is deemed to be unlucky to most Chinese believers.  Nevertheless, 220 units located in the CCR were sold during August, followed by homes in the rest of central region (RCR) or city fringe with 127 units and the outside central region (OCR) with 90 units.The fixed interest rate for home loans hover between 2.7% to 3.00% did dampen some investors' interest in property purchases.  URA data shows that the number of condos excluding ECs, bought by foreign buyers also grew from 42 units in July to 59 units in August. Healthy sales volume from Sky Eden@Bedok and Lentor Modern will buck the trend for September.

Yanlord Land Group Limited and its subsidiary, United Engineers Limited have won a residential site tender at Lentor Central in Singapore.  A wholly-owned subsidiary of United Engineers Limited, UED Alpha Pte. Ltd., together with Forsea Residence Pte. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Forsea Holdings Pte. Ltd. (“Forsea”), and Soilbuild Group Holdings Ltd. form the consortium for this winning bid of $481,028,300 or S$1,108 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr). Located within the new Lentor Hills estate, the land size is approximately 144,714 square feet (equivalent to 13,444.3 square metres) with a maximum permissible gross floor area of about 434,140 square feet. The property developer plan to build a residential condominium of about 470 units. The maximum building height for the site is 112 metres SHD (Singapore height datum) or 23 storeys. “We are pleased to continue building our residential development track records in Singapore following the successful 100% sale of Dairy Farm Residences. With this prime Site in the Lentor Hills neighbourhood, we intend to create a quality development leveraging on its attractive attributes including its close proximity to lush greenery, MRT and retail amenities”, said Mr Roy Tan, Group Managing Director, United Engineers Limited. “We are delighted to partner with UEL and Forsea in this attractive residential development, following closely after the successful sale of all units in our latest project, Verticus. We are confident that we will continue to deliver value for homebuyers and investors through high standards of design and living concepts”, said Mr Lim Han Qin, Director, Soilbuild Group Holdings Ltd.. The schools near Lentor Hills sites include Presbyterian High School, Anderson Primary School, and CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School. PropertyForSale senior analyst predicts the launch price of this project to be from S$1,900 PSF as evident from the selling price of Lentor Modern.

Property developers sold 834 new launch residential units in July, whereas June registered 434 new homes sales only.  Following the end of June school holidays, property investors and home buyers return to Singapore real estate to buy new launch projects. AMO Residence in Ang Mo Kio is the one and only new launch project in July and the largest suburban condominium development for this year. Nearly 98 per cent of the units at AMO Residence were sold on the first day of launch with average PSF of S$2,100. On a year-on-year comparison, new home sales fell almost 48 per cent from the 1,602 units sold in July 2021. Primarily because the developers are running out of land bank.  The overwhelming response at AMO Residence should support the upcoming launches such as GuocoLand’s Lentor Modern at Lentor Central (605 units) and Frasers Property’s Sky Eden @ Bedok at Bedok Central (158 units). It should attract HDB upgraders and first-time home buyers who are immunued recent round of cooling measures.  Despite the global inflation and interest rates hike, new launch home buyers may not feel the pinch due to the progressive payment schedule whereby home loans tend to be smaller in the initial repayment period.

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) has launched 4,993 Build-to-Order (BTO) flats for sale under its August exercise. These new flats come from seven projects in both mature and non-mature estates in Singapore - namely Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Merah, Choa Chu Kang, Jurong East, Tampines and Woodlands. Bukit Merah BTO flats have been selected to be under the Prime Location Housing (PLH) model.  HDB buyers of Alexandra Vale or Havelock Hillside BTO flats must commit to the 10-year minimum occupation period. The cost of these PLH BTO flats start from S$370,000 for a 3-room flat from S$531,000 for a 4-room flat excluding housing grants. Alexandra Vale project is located along Alexandra View near the Redhill MRT station. There will be a total of 782 BTO units comprising 600 4-room flats and 182 3-roomers across 2 residential blocks ranging from 41 to 50 storeys high. To ensure an inclusive living environment, 2-room rental flats will be constructed in one of the blocks. Havelock Hillside project will be built along Havelock Road near the Havelock MRT station on the Thomson-East Coast Line. It will comprise 2 residential blocks at 42-and 45-storeys tall, with a total of 869 units made up of 698 4-room flats and 171 3-roomers. As PLH flats owners enjoy additional subsidies, they will have to return to HDB a fixed 6 per cent of the resale price or valuation, whichever is higher, upon the sale of their flats in the future. Elsewhere in Jurong East which falls under the non-mature estates, flat prices start from S$97,000 for a two-room Flexi flat and S$188,000 for a three-room flat in Woodlands. At Choa Chu Kang, a four-room flat start from S$277,000 and S$390,000 for a five-room flat. With the revision in HDB policy for non-mature estates, at least 85 per cent of the 3-room BTO flats and 95 per cent of 4-room units and larger will be set aside for first-timer families, up from current levels of at least 70 per cent and 85 per cent, respectively. First timer singles will stand a higher chance to secure non-senior 2-room flexi flats because HDB will allocate up to 65 per cent for them, an increase from 50 per cent currently. BTO projects in Choa Chu Kang, Tampines and Woodlands, which have the shortest waiting times at 3.8 years or less. ERA Realty Network’s head of research and consultancy Nicholas Mak predicts Woodlands BTO flats will be oversubscribed as it is only 200-metre away from the Woodlands South MRT along the Thomson East-Coast Line. The deadline for submitting your BTO application is on 5 September 2022, Monday. HDB said that applicants will be shortlisted using a computer ballot instead of a first-come-first-served basis.