CityDev says S’pore office rents stabilising

Source : Business Times – 23 Jun 2009

* CityDev says launched about 500 homes for sale since Jan
* CityDev says residential market recovering well

City Developments (CityDev), Southeast Asia’s second largest developer, said on Tuesday that office rents in Singapore have begun to stabilise and it had raised prices for some of its residential projects.

‘We are quite optimistic the (residential) market is recovering well and we think there is lots of steam in this recovery,’ Group general manager Chia Ngiang Hong said at the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit in Singapore.

Mr Chia said office rents have begun to stabilise after falling sharply in the fourth quarter of 2008 and first three months of 2009 as supply remained relatively tight.

He acknowledged there were many office projects in the pipeline but said most would only enter the market in 2011 and 2012.

Private home sales in Singapore have soared since February after a weak performance in 2008, mirroring developments in Hong Kong and China where residential markets have also recovered despite the weak economic outlook.

Mr Chia said CityDev has launched about 500 homes for sale since January, nearly double the 260 units it planned to sell in the first half of 2009. The firm also raised prices at some of its projects by 2-8 per cent because of strong demand.

According to government data, the number of units transacted in Singapore hit 1,668 units in May, just shy of an all-time high recorded in August 2007.

Mr Chia said property sales in Singapore in the five months to May have already exceeded the 4,000-plus units sold last year, and the total for 2009 should cross 10,000 units – a figure usually associated with years when the sector was booming.

Pent-up demand after last year’s low volumes, an improvement in the stock market, and signs that Singapore’s economy may have bottomed were all boosting interest in the residential market, he said.

Merrill Lynch, which has a ‘buy’ rating on CityDev, said in a report this week that Singapore’s residential market has surpassed expectations and that it now expects a ’short and sharp V-shape recovery’.

CityDev is regarded as the best proxy to the Singapore property market, as it has the largest residential landbank among listed developers and owns offices and shopping malls.

The firm, which also has projects across the region as well as a 53 per cent stake in London-listed hotelier Millennium & Copthorne, posted a 50 per cent drop in net profit in the first quarter of 2009.

344 sign up for HDB Lease Buyback Scheme

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 23 Jun 2009

344 Singaporeans have signed up for the Housing and Development Board’s Lease Buyback Scheme since its launch in March.

HDB gave out its first batch of upfront payment of S$5,000 to flat owners on Tuesday.

Residents in the 30-year-old Queenstown estate were the first to receive the initial payouts from the HDB Lease Buyback Scheme.

Under the scheme, senior citizens aged 62 years and above from low-income households can sell their remaining flat lease to the government.

They can use the proceeds to buy an annuity plan that will provide them with a lifelong income stream of about S$550 a month.

Those who have signed up for the scheme said it allows them to be more financially independent.

One of the scheme’s participants is Ng Siew Yong. She said: “I’m still working, and he’s (her husband) not working. So this scheme is good for us, because it gives us some money to save. So, if there are any problems, we can solve them.”

HDB said its goal is to ensure that elderly Singaporeans understand the options available to supplement their income.

Tay Kim Poh, HDB’s CEO, said: “Our objective is to reach out to the elderly residents that this is a scheme they can consider if they do not have other monetisation options…

“In fact, there are some cases where after we have explained to them…, they felt that the scheme doesn’t quite meet their needs.”

The HDB said it has managed to reach out to about 90 per cent of the 25,000 eligible households.

The programme is applicable to 3-room flats and below. But the HDB said it would consider expanding the programme to residents of four- to five-room flats, depending on the feedback.