Golf clubs 'must return state land when lease ends'

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http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/saturday/premium/singapore/story/golf-clubs-must-return-state-land-when-lease-ends-20140215

Golf clubs 'must return state land when lease ends'

Published on Feb 15, 2014

By K.C. Vijayan Senior Law Correspondent


COUNTRY clubs will still have to give up golf courses built on state land even if the current lease includes an option to renew. This was made clear by the Ministry of Law, ahead of meetings with four golf clubs over the future of their courses.

The ministry explained that any renewal option is secondary to the original fixed period of the lease, and the land has to be returned when needed.

"This information is known to those who become golf club members," said the ministry in its reply to The Straits Times' queries. "It is the same for all other state leases, whether for residential, commercial, industrial or other uses."

The authorities are expected to explain the Government's policy on lease extensions during tomorrow's separate meetings with four country clubs, and shed light on its impact on certain golf courses.

Three of the affected clubs - Tanah Merah Country Club, Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) and Keppel Club - currently have golf courses on state land with leases which will expire in seven years. Meanwhile, the lease for the National Service Resort and Country Club in Changi comes to an end in nine years.

Elaborating on tomorrow's closed-door meetings, a ministry spokesman said: "The Government is taking the extra step of letting the clubs, their members and the public know the status of expiring leases more than seven years in advance.

"This is to enable the clubs to better make their investment and membership plans; and for members and the public to make informed decisions if they are thinking of selling or buying memberships in these clubs."

The leases that are being reviewed are for land earmarked for other use under the Draft Master Plan 2013, which was released last November by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. For instance, the land on which Keppel Club currently has its golf greens has been rezoned for residential use.

The Government is also seeking to claim back one 18-hole course and convert it for public use. This will replace the Marina Bay Golf Course public course, where the lease will expire in 2024. The land has been zoned for commercial and residential use.

The ministry had earlier also said that it should come as "no surprise" if one of SICC's locations is affected. SICC, the largest golf club here, has four 18-hole courses at two places - the Bukit location near MacRitchie Reservoir and the Island location at Lower Pierce Reservoir - plus a nine-hole course.

SICC members seem to be especially concerned about the possible loss of at least one of the two courses at the Bukit location.

"It would be extremely distressing in view of the more than $120 million investments over the last 15 years we have made and the emotional attachment to the four greens," said former SICC committee member S. Radakrishnan.

"We are hoping for the best from the authorities."

It is understood that the Bukit location also includes freehold land - about the size of a football field - which belongs to the club.

Asked if this ground will be affected in the event the lease on the surrounding area is not extended, the ministry said the "Government will not touch freehold land".

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http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/monday/premium/top-the-news/story/some-15-golf-club-land-make-way-other-use-20140217

Some 15% of golf club land to make way for other use

About 220ha will be freed up from 2030 for housing and infrastructure

Published on Feb 17, 2014

By Rachel Scully


SOME 15 per cent of land now occupied by golf courses will be making way for new homes, public amenities and infrastructure.

A total of 219ha of land, equivalent to about a third the size of Ang Mo Kio, will be made available from 2030 after the leases on a number of golf courses expire, the Law Ministry said yesterday.

Some of this land will come from Keppel Club and Marina Bay Golf Course, which is a public golf course. They will not get their leases renewed after they expire in 2021 and 2024 respectively.

It also includes the land from Orchid Country Club in Yishun, which will be offered a lease extension through to 2030, after which the land will be taken back for housing needs.

Other clubs with a decade or less remaining on their leases will be given shorter terms upon renewal, up to 2040 at most. Some will also have to give up part of their land to other developments.

One of Singapore Island Country Club's four courses will become a public course when its lease runs out in 2021. This course at its Bukit location off Lornie Road will be managed by the labour movement.

The announcement puts to rest months of speculation about the fates of clubs whose leases are expiring within the decade, after the Government said early last year that it may take back some land for higher intensity uses.

There are 14 private clubs and three public courses here, with the majority on 30-year leases.

Law Minister K. Shanmugam told the media yesterday that the Government wants people to enjoy golf and make available the facilities for it. "But the question is: how many courses do we need, when a significantly large proportion of the population does not golf? Their needs also need to be taken into account."

Under the proposed changes, Keppel Club will lose its 44ha site in Telok Blangah, while Tanah Merah Country Club and the National Service Resort & Country Club in Changi will lose some land for Changi Airport's expansion.

Marina Bay Golf Course, the only 18-hole public course, sits on 68ha of land slated for commercial and residential uses, and will not have its lease renewed.

These changes are in line with Urban Redevelopment Authority plans to raise the proportion of land allocated for housing from 14 per cent to 17 per cent, and from 13 per cent to 17 per cent for industry and commerce uses by 2030.

Golf courses currently make up about 2 per cent of Singapore's total land area, or about 1,500ha.

The ministry said the Government has informed the stakeholders of lease extensions seven years in advance to facilitate planning and investment decisions.

Economist Song Seng Wun said: "Despite protests by some golf club members, I think they know that ultimately, golf courses will have to make way for other needs.

"Replacing some golf course land for mixed-use developments such as offices, residential units or commercial spaces, creates business for those in the construction sector and benefits residents living in the area."

PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail said it is heartening to know the Government prioritises housing and office space needs above that of golf. "Some may argue that golf courses act as the green lungs of a city, but the recent Draft Master Plan released last year shows that the Government is mindful of setting aside enough green spaces," he said.

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http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/monday/premium/top-the-news/story/one-siccs-two-bukit-courses-become-public-after-2021-20140217

One of SICC's two Bukit courses to become public after 2021

Published on Feb 17, 2014

By Rachel Scully


ONE of the four courses at the Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) will be converted for public use after its lease expires in 2021.

This is in line with the Government's move to put less-utilised golf course land to more efficient use while keeping golf accessible to the public, national servicemen and the labour movement.

The Ministry of Law said last week that the minimum requirement is to have at least one 18-hole golf course for public use.

Marina Bay Golf Course is the only 18-hole public course, but its lease will expire in 2024.

SICC's affected course is one of the two at the club's Bukit location off Lornie Road. But its members can suggest an alternative, subject to government approval.

SICC president Tay Joo Soon said the club was "naturally disappointed that the outcome has fallen short" of what it had hoped for. "With the loss of one of our courses, it will put a strain on our remaining facilities, given our large membership base (of about 7,800)," he said.

It was a sentiment shared by veteran golf membership broker Fion Phua.

She said: "It will be hard to convince SICC members, whose memberships are valued at about $208,000 now, to share their amenities with the public. It's like asking residents of a condo to share their facilities with someone who is not living in the estate."

The golfing fraternity was abuzz over the government announcement yesterday that some land occupied by golf clubs and courses will be taken back for more pressing needs such as housing and infrastructure. Some club members who will receive compensation for the changes were unperturbed, but others worry that their golfing spots will be less enjoyable in future.

Members of Tanah Merah Country Club (TMCC) and National Service Resort & Country Club (NSRCC) will be the first to feel the impact of the plans.

Part of TMCC's Garden Course will be acquired for Changi Airport's new taxiways by the end of this year, said the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the Singapore Land Authority.

The club's members learnt at a closed-door briefing with government agency representatives yesterday that it may lose six holes of its 18-hole Garden Course and three tennis courts.

The land is required for the three-runway system that will accommodate long-term air traffic growth for Singapore.

Yet veteran broker Ms Phua, of Tee Up Marketing Enterprises, expects membership prices at TMCC to rise. The club has sufficient land to reconfigure an 18-hole course and will receive some compensation to fund it, she said.

NSRCC will also become smaller, as the temporary occupation licence of one of its three nine-hole courses will not be renewed after it runs out in August.

An NSRCC spokesman told The Straits Times that the club will hold a townhall meeting next week to let members know how they can be compensated.

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http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/archive/monday/premium/top-stories/200-ha-golf-course-land-freed-20140217

Published February 17, 2014

200 ha of golf course land freed

No lease renewal for Keppel Club, Marina Bay Golf Course

By andrea soh [email protected]


[SINGAPORE] Some 200 hectares of land, roughly one third the size of Ang Mo Kio town, will eventually be freed up for other uses when the land leases for Keppel Club, Marina Bay Golf Course and the Orchid Country Club expire.

The government said yesterday that it would not be renewing the leases for both Keppel Club and Marina Bay Golf Course when they end in 2021 and 2024 respectively. Orchid Country Club's lease expires in 2021 but will be renewed for another nine years to 2030 after which there will be no further extension.

Parts of the fairways at Tanah Merah Country Club (TMCC) and National Service Resort and Country Club (NSRCC) will be acquired by the end of this year for the expansion of Changi Airport, and one of Singapore Island Country Club's (SICC) golf courses will be made public.

SICC has, however, been given the flexibility to decide which golf course it wants to give up, contrary to earlier expectations that one of its courses at the Bukit location would be affected.

At a briefing yesterday by government agencies, SICC members who questioned why the Bukit location, next to MacRitchie reservoir, was chosen instead of the Island location - next to the Pierce Reservoirs - were told that they could decide for themselves which course to give up. The course next to the one to be offered for public use would have its lease extended to 2030, while the other unaffected courses will have their leases extended to 2040.

The SICC course set aside for public use will be run by the labour movement, and will replace the 18-hole course at the Marina Bay Golf Course.

With the exception of Keppel Club, all the private clubs with less than a decade left in their leases will be allowed to renew them till between 2030 and 2040 - a change from the previous practice of 30-year leases.

Explaining the shorter leases, Law Minister K Shanmugam said at a doorstop after the SICC meeting: "The URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) can predict reasonably up to 2040. They didn't want to tie themselves up beyond the period."

And while utilisation rate of the golf courses had no bearing on the renewal of land lease in the latest review, it might be taken into consideration in the future, said the Law Ministry.

The government has said that its two main considerations for the renewal of golf courses are whether the land is needed for other uses, and ensuring that the general public, National Service men and the labour movement have enough access to golfing facilities.

"Where we can give a fresh lease, we will do so. If it's needed for development, then the golf course will have to give way," said Mr Shanmugam. "As the number of courses shrink, we'll have to be fair to all, not just existing members, but also members of the public and people who are losing their courses. So we try to have some equity."

Yesterday's announcement, which comes after much speculation on the fate of the golf clubs, evoked strong reactions from Keppel and SICC members.

While the fate of Keppel's current golf course has been known for a while - it was reflected as a residential site as early as the Urban Redevelopment Authority's 2001 Concept Plan - members had been hoping for a replacement site.

"It's a very unpalatable announcement," said Keppel Club member Manoj Sharma, a managing director. "The precedence was that when the government took a golf course away, they would give a replacement. This time they did not give that option."

Keppel members also said that the club's closure was a loss to Singapore heritage. It was founded in 1904 and is one of the oldest here.

"We need to be a country with heritage, with a soul, with playgrounds," said Khor Chee Kok, a financial adviser, though he conceded that the decision was made in the best interest of the country.

The government will offer Keppel an alternative site to operate as a social club, and encourage the manager of the new public course to consider a tie up with Keppel.

At SICC, the mood was also downbeat.

"We are naturally disappointed that the outcome has fallen short of what we had hoped for. With the loss of one of our courses, it will put a strain on our remaining facilities given our large membership base," said its president Tay Joo Soon.

"Nonetheless, as with all golf clubs in Singapore, SICC has to accept that change is on the horizon, and necessary in the broader context of the national interest."

Some members expressed concern over how the demarcation of the public and the SICC course will be made and how facilities are to be shared.

SICC has to work with the labour movement on how the courses can be reconfigured, and make the necessary arrangements by end-February 2015 in order for the course next to the public course to be renewed till 2030.

For TMCC, which will have 10 ha of its land acquired by the government for Changi Airport's new taxiways by the end of this year, reconfiguration work will start immediately, said the club's general manager Kok Min Yee.

This will be done while keeping the 18 holes still in play, he said. "The reconfigurations should not cost us too much as it is not expected to be very extensive. It is hard to estimate the cost right now as we have not finalised the design as yet."

Meanwhile, NSRCC, which will lose about 26 ha of land after its temporary occupation licence expires in August, is undertaking a strategic review to reconfigure the golf courses and provide more social facilities. The club will hold a townhall session next Monday to speak to members on its future plans.

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http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/archive/tuesday/premium/top-stories/golf-club-membership-prices-flux-20140218

Published February 18, 2014

Golf club membership prices in flux

General upward movement expected, but SICC value to fall

By andrea soh [email protected]


[SINGAPORE] Golf club membership prices were in flux yesterday, as the market reacted to the news on the fates of the various courses here.

Among the four clubs most affected by Sunday's announcement, Tanah Merah Country Club (TMCC) will emerge a winner in its membership value, said golf membership brokers.

TMCC will have 10 ha of its land acquired by the government for Changi Airport; new taxiways will be built to link existing airport facilities with a new runway and the planned Terminal 5. However, the leases on its courses will be renewed.

The acquisition will affect six holes of its 18-hole Garden course, three tennis courts and two storage sheds, but the government will compensate the club. The amount is to be pegged to the market value of the land as at yesterday, when it was gazetted by the Singapore Land Authority.

Fion Phua, a golf membership broker, said: "They are being compensated with money, and land lease is being extended. Rightfully, their membership value should go up."

The membership value of TMCC is now about $118,000, compared with about $140,000 at the beginning of last year.

Uncertainty over the lease renewals has weighed on the membership prices for golf clubs with leases expiring within a decade.

Now that the fate of these golf clubs has been made clearer, their membership prices may have room to recover, given that most will have their leases renewed, said golf membership brokers.

Another reason that their prices will be supported is that there will be fewer courses left, said Lee Lee Langdale, another broker, noting that Keppel Club will be gone, and that the Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) will lose up to two courses.

For both Keppel Club and SICC, the outlook for membership prices is less positive.

The government said on Sunday that it will not renew the lease for Keppel Club when it ends in 2021.

One of the SICC's four golf courses will be made public, while the course next to it will be given a lease only until 2030, with the possibility that it could also be made public then too.

The government had, after talks with the club's general committee, initially decided on SICC's Bukit golf courses for this purpose, on the assumption that SICC would prefer not to give up its bigger Island location, where the club recently put more than $100 million into a clubhouse.

But after SICC members questioned at a briefing on Sunday why the Bukit location was chosen, the government said that it would leave the decision to them, subject to certain criteria.

The SICC membership price would certainly go down, said Ms Phua.

"Basically a four-room HDB flat has become 21/2-room HDB flat, so it'll come down. The lease may be longer, but you have to open your backyard to share with the public," she said.

Nonetheless, businessman and SICC member Ron Song was sanguine about the value of the club's membership, saying that members join to enjoy the facilities, not to sell their membership.

Keppel Club members, on the other hand, face the double whammy of having no golf course to play on in seven years and the possibility of higher golf club membership prices at other clubs. Some told The Business Times they will play in Malaysia and Bintan instead.

The fourth club affected by Sunday's announcements, the National Service Resort Country Club at Changi, is open only to existing and former NSmen, so its membership is not transferrable on the open market.

Yesterday, Orchid Country Club, offered a final seven-year lease till Dec 2030, told members that it welcomed the offer of the lease extension; it is awaiting more details, such as on the amount of land premium payable, and will study the financial implications for the club in the meantime.

Some 200 ha of 1,500 ha of golf course land will be freed up for other uses by 2030, as the government moves to use these plots of land at a higher intensity.

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http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/archive/friday/premium/top-stories/sicc-members-told-reprieve-golf-club-land-20140221

Published February 21, 2014

SICC members told of 'reprieve' on golf club land

Foreigners looking at buying Malaysian golf club memberships for investment

By andrea soh [email protected]


[SINGAPORE] Anger turned into a mix of relief and resignation for members of the Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) yesterday, when they learned that the fate of the club could have been worse.

In a six-page letter to club members on Tuesday night, SICC president Tay Joo Soon revealed that the authorities had originally not intended to renew the leases on two of the club's four golf courses when they expired in 2021.

The Ministry of Law had informed SICC in December that it would not extend the lease for its Bukit location next to MacRitchie Reservoir, where the club has two 18-hole courses.

The club's general committee appealed to the ministry to extend the lease for all its four courses, and met the ministry last Monday.

The government then allowed the renewal of the lease for one of the courses at Bukit till 2030; the other course is to be made public and be managed by the labour movement.

SICC's two other golf courses at the Island location next to the Upper and Lower Pierce reservoirs, will be renewed till 2040.

Mr Tay said: "This concession will allow the club more time and greater flexibility to make and execute investment and development plans to facilitate eventual transition."

The government, in a briefing to the club's members last Sunday, also gave the club the option of deciding which of its two locations it would want to give up, subject to certain criteria.

This means that the government has given the club two concessions, noted an SICC member, who said that it was "heartening".

"(Having to give up one course) is the better of two evils. In the light of present-day reality, this may be the best outcome."

Agreeing, Thomas Lee, a lawyer and SICC member, said: "This latest position is actually a reprieve.

"Of course, I'd prefer that nothing is taken away, but since the decision is already made, I guess we'll just have to live with it."

Nevertheless, Mr Tay expressed disappointment that the outcome fell short of what the committee had sought.

"With the loss of one of our courses, it will put a strain on our remaining facilities, given our large membership base. That strain will be felt more starkly post-2030, when the club will have only one leasehold location to operate from."

He highlighted the fact that the extension for the course next to the public one was conditional on the club reaching an agreement with the labour movement, by February next year, on reconfiguring the golf courses and the sharing of facilities; otherwise, the club would lose the entire location in 2021.

Golf club membership broker Fion Phua said that this scared some members into selling their memberships yesterday morning, which could also add to pressure on the price of an SICC membership. It has already fallen about $15,000 in three days to between $190,000 and $200,000, she noted.

Meanwhile, rising membership prices at other golf courses have triggered enquiries from enterprising foreigners - especially Koreans and Chinese nationals - who are buying Malaysian golf club memberships with a view to sell them to Singaporeans in future.

Ms Phua said: "(They are asking:) 'When Singapore clubs eventually become too congested, will that be a good investment?'"

The closure of the Marina Bay Golf Course, Keppel Club and Orchid Country Club by 2030 is set to cut 200 ha from the current 1,500 ha of golf club land.

Singaporeans are, however, wary about Malaysian golf courses because of the crime rate in Johor Bahru, brokers said.

Henry Yip, a golf club broker, said: "At this moment, there's still this sentiment of not wanting to risk an arm and a leg just trying to go into JB, although I'm hearing from affected family and friends that they might look more at playing there in future."

With the dust settled and greater certainty on the horizon, golf clubs are now moving ahead with their plans which had been put on hold.

Tanah Merah Country Club yesterday told its members that it plans to extensively renovate its Tampines course. The club is now waiting for details on the terms of the new lease before proceeding.

Raffles Country Club, unaffected by the latest review, has also obtained approval from its members to proceed with an upgrade of its 18-hole Palm course.