Property players to showcase luxury homes

Source : Business Times - 25 Sep 2008

Knight Frank to offer complimentary tours of 4 high-end developments

PROPERTY firms and developers are looking to showcase - and maybe sell - luxury apartments as the wealthy roll into town for this weekend’s Formula One race.

Several plan to arrange visits to showflats for interested visitors. And others, who have nothing concrete planned, say they will organise site visits if there is interest.

Knight Frank, which plans a property circuit at the weekend, is perhaps the most on the ball.

‘Everyone knows a lot of foreigners will be in town this weekend for the race,’ said executive director (residential) Peter Ow. ‘Some may be interested to know more about Singapore, and even to invest here.’

With this in mind, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, Knight Frank is offering complimentary tours - with pick-ups thrown in - of four high- end developments. The projects are Nassim Park Residences, Boulevard Vue, St Regis Residences and Viva. Visitors will also be taken on a general tour of Sentosa Cove.

Tours will start at 9am and take about two hours. Knight Frank agents will try to give visitors an idea of what the high-end property market here is like and also ’sell Singapore’.

To get visitor attention, Knight Frank is advertising in print. In addition, invitations will be sent to all rooms at certain hotels, such as the Pan Pacific and Fullerton. Interested guests can then call and book a tour slot.

‘I’m really not sure what the response will be because these people are here to see the race, not look at or buy property,’ Mr Ow said. But even if just one per cent of the 10,000 expected visitors show an interest, the response will be ‘great’, he said.

Other property firms, by contrast, have nothing as specific planned. But they are still eager and willing. DTZ, for example, is prepared to show its high-end properties on request. There have already been some enquiries, it said.

Developers, on the other hand, have a captive audience - some of them are flying guests into town for the race and will be taking them on visits to the latest luxury offerings.

One developer, which is hosting guests for the F1, told BT that while there are no plans to take these guests to showflats during the F1 weekend itself, guests who extend their stay will be invited to look at luxury developments.

Hamilton Scotts, a 30-storey upmarket project by Hayden Properties - the first project in Asia to feature car parking within apartment units - will hold a car show during the race weekend at its showflat. Car aficionados - of whom there will doubtless be many - will get a chance to view the luxury project with the luxury cars.