The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) released new rules on Friday that will set standards and regulate the conduct of estate agency work.
From 15 November, salespersons cannot represent both buyers and sellers in a property transaction under the Estate Agents (Estate Agency Work) Regulations.
It will also prohibit estate agents and salespersons from handling cash in certain transactions or referring their clients to any moneylender.
Other provisions will kick in on 1 January.
They include prescribed estate agency agreements that estate agents will use with their clients for the sale, purchase or lease of residential property in Singapore.
Individuals who undertake estate agency work will also be required to take part in continuing professional development programmes for a minimum of 6 hours per year from 2011.
From March next year, the regulations will require salespersons to display their estate agent’s card, when doing estate agency work. This is to allow the industry sufficient time to comply with the estate agent’s card requirement.
Separately, the Estate Agents (Licensing and Registration) Regulations and the Estate Agents (Fees) Regulations will take effect on 1 November.
Application for estate agent’s license and salesperson’s registration will start from that date and those who successfully register with CEA will have their names published on its website from 1 January.
Those who do not meet the licensing or registration criteria will not be granted a license or registration. This includes those with criminal records, especially for fraud and dishonesty.
Also from January next year, it will be an offence for sales persons who are not registered with CEA to handle estate agency work.
They must also have written agreements with estate agents before they can practice.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 29 Oct 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wider gap expected between public and private housing prices in Singapore
Prices of housing and development board properties in Singapore are expected to fall up to 10% in the next six months while those of private real estate will rise up to 7%, according to a new survey.
It will create a two tier real estate system making it harder for people to upgrade in a country where property accounts for almost half of private wealth, according to the poll of property analysts by Bloomberg.
‘Who these rules will hit the most are people who have little savings and who live from day to day. They are mostly those who live in public housing,’ said Mohamed Ismail, chief executive officer of home broker PropNex Singapore.
Four out of six analysts polled by Bloomberg expect prices for HDB flats to drop in the next six months, while four out of seven predict private apartment prices will gain.
In August, the government increased down payments for second mortgages and extended the stamp duty to residential property sold within three years in a bid to calm real estate prices which surged 38% in the second quarter from a year earlier.
‘This is targeted at the HDB and mass market, where we’ve seen continuous price increases which have exceeded previous peaks,’ said Han of Cushman & Wakefield.
The government has been trying to slow the increase in home prices for a year, with earlier measures banning developers from absorbing interest payments for flats under construction and stopping interest only loans for some projects.
‘The previous measures were only scratching the surface. The recent measures are more impactful because they really hurt people’s cash outflow’ said Chua Chor Hoon, of DTZ’s Southeast Asia Research.
HDB resales fell 50% the week after the new rules were introduced, according to Ismail at PropNex, who said people have been shocked into a wait and see attitude. He expects cash premiums paid for HDB flats to drop by half to about S$25,000 by the end of the year.
CapitaLand, Southeast Asia’s biggest developer, expects Singapore’s home prices to fall a little with the cooling measures.
But many investors will not be deterred. Recently a Chinese national paid a record S$36 million for a private bungalow in Sentosa Cove and a Singaporean couple paid S$1.1 million for a Bishan flat, S$200,000 more than the official valuation.
Banks are only allowed to lend up to 80% of the appraised value, so the buyer has to pay the rest in cash or by drawing on pension funds. Any premium over the valuation has to be paid in cash. Since the August announcement, buyers who hold more than one mortgage can now only borrow up to 70% of a property’s appraised value.
Singapore subsidizes new HDB flats to help citizens get a start on the property ladder. When an HDB flat is resold, the price is decided by the seller and buyer.
The government’s action to try to avoid a bubble is a lesson to speculators and buyers not to overspend on real estate, according to Tan Tion Cheng, chairman of property agent Knight Frank.
At the time of the new measures, the government said price levels had exceeded the peak reached in the second quarter of 1996. ‘The rising prices were infringing into public housing. The measures remind investors that if they don’t have money, don’t buy,’ he explained.
Source : Propertywire – 22 Oct 2010
It will create a two tier real estate system making it harder for people to upgrade in a country where property accounts for almost half of private wealth, according to the poll of property analysts by Bloomberg.
‘Who these rules will hit the most are people who have little savings and who live from day to day. They are mostly those who live in public housing,’ said Mohamed Ismail, chief executive officer of home broker PropNex Singapore.
Four out of six analysts polled by Bloomberg expect prices for HDB flats to drop in the next six months, while four out of seven predict private apartment prices will gain.
In August, the government increased down payments for second mortgages and extended the stamp duty to residential property sold within three years in a bid to calm real estate prices which surged 38% in the second quarter from a year earlier.
‘This is targeted at the HDB and mass market, where we’ve seen continuous price increases which have exceeded previous peaks,’ said Han of Cushman & Wakefield.
The government has been trying to slow the increase in home prices for a year, with earlier measures banning developers from absorbing interest payments for flats under construction and stopping interest only loans for some projects.
‘The previous measures were only scratching the surface. The recent measures are more impactful because they really hurt people’s cash outflow’ said Chua Chor Hoon, of DTZ’s Southeast Asia Research.
HDB resales fell 50% the week after the new rules were introduced, according to Ismail at PropNex, who said people have been shocked into a wait and see attitude. He expects cash premiums paid for HDB flats to drop by half to about S$25,000 by the end of the year.
CapitaLand, Southeast Asia’s biggest developer, expects Singapore’s home prices to fall a little with the cooling measures.
But many investors will not be deterred. Recently a Chinese national paid a record S$36 million for a private bungalow in Sentosa Cove and a Singaporean couple paid S$1.1 million for a Bishan flat, S$200,000 more than the official valuation.
Banks are only allowed to lend up to 80% of the appraised value, so the buyer has to pay the rest in cash or by drawing on pension funds. Any premium over the valuation has to be paid in cash. Since the August announcement, buyers who hold more than one mortgage can now only borrow up to 70% of a property’s appraised value.
Singapore subsidizes new HDB flats to help citizens get a start on the property ladder. When an HDB flat is resold, the price is decided by the seller and buyer.
The government’s action to try to avoid a bubble is a lesson to speculators and buyers not to overspend on real estate, according to Tan Tion Cheng, chairman of property agent Knight Frank.
At the time of the new measures, the government said price levels had exceeded the peak reached in the second quarter of 1996. ‘The rising prices were infringing into public housing. The measures remind investors that if they don’t have money, don’t buy,’ he explained.
Source : Propertywire – 22 Oct 2010
Stamford Rd site to get $250m makeover
SINGAPORE - Come 2018, the historic Capitol Building and Stamford House will re-emerge as a luxury five-star hotel.
Alongside it will be a new 15-storey retail and residence building, while the 81-year-old Capitol Theatre will be restored to its former glory to become the Republic's largest single-screen cinema cum performance theatre.
These details of the $250-million winning bid - from Capitol Retail Management, Capitol Hotel Management and Capitol Residential Development - to redevelop the 1.43-hectare land parcel at the junction of Stamford Road and North Bridge Road, were revealed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday.
This announcement ends a 26-year stop-start process to breathe new life into this plum spot in the Civic District.
The site was released for sale on the reserve list in December 2008 and drew a total of 14 tenders.
The URA said Capitol's bid won out - from a final pool of three - because its plan "offers a high-quality development befitting of its prominent location within the Civic District and its rich architectural heritage".
The plan will breathe new life into Capitol Theatre, which screened its last movie in 1998.
Theatre groups will be given in-residence status to stage performances at the 800- to 1,000-seat theatre for part of the year, while Golden Village will operate the Republic's largest single-screen cinema for the rest of the year.
The 15-storey building, which will sit on where Capitol Centre is currently, will have four floors of retail and F&B outlets. The rest will be residential apartments, which analysts expect will fetch above $2,000 per square foot.
And on the streets: A sheltered civic plaza and a pedestrainised galleria lined with F&B offerings.
Cushman & Wakefield's managing director Donald Han told MediaCorp: "When the project is completed, it'll complete the entire necklace of activity around the Raffles City, City Hall area. Bottom line, it's going to create more vibrancy in the locality."
CBRE Research executive director Li Hiaw Ho said: "This unique development will would form a synergistic combination along with the current mixed-use development Raffles City as well as the upcoming South Beach, bringing an infusion of new diverse activity to the entire City Hall area."
Source : Today Online 28 Oct 2010
Alongside it will be a new 15-storey retail and residence building, while the 81-year-old Capitol Theatre will be restored to its former glory to become the Republic's largest single-screen cinema cum performance theatre.
These details of the $250-million winning bid - from Capitol Retail Management, Capitol Hotel Management and Capitol Residential Development - to redevelop the 1.43-hectare land parcel at the junction of Stamford Road and North Bridge Road, were revealed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday.
This announcement ends a 26-year stop-start process to breathe new life into this plum spot in the Civic District.
The site was released for sale on the reserve list in December 2008 and drew a total of 14 tenders.
The URA said Capitol's bid won out - from a final pool of three - because its plan "offers a high-quality development befitting of its prominent location within the Civic District and its rich architectural heritage".
The plan will breathe new life into Capitol Theatre, which screened its last movie in 1998.
Theatre groups will be given in-residence status to stage performances at the 800- to 1,000-seat theatre for part of the year, while Golden Village will operate the Republic's largest single-screen cinema for the rest of the year.
The 15-storey building, which will sit on where Capitol Centre is currently, will have four floors of retail and F&B outlets. The rest will be residential apartments, which analysts expect will fetch above $2,000 per square foot.
And on the streets: A sheltered civic plaza and a pedestrainised galleria lined with F&B offerings.
Cushman & Wakefield's managing director Donald Han told MediaCorp: "When the project is completed, it'll complete the entire necklace of activity around the Raffles City, City Hall area. Bottom line, it's going to create more vibrancy in the locality."
CBRE Research executive director Li Hiaw Ho said: "This unique development will would form a synergistic combination along with the current mixed-use development Raffles City as well as the upcoming South Beach, bringing an infusion of new diverse activity to the entire City Hall area."
Source : Today Online 28 Oct 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)