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Thread: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

  1. #1
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    Default Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    By Frederick Lim, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 10 April 2007 1740 hrs


    SINGAPORE: The Singapore property market has been performing well on a broad front across all sectors over the last two years to three years.

    And according to National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan, a good part of it is due to strong foreign investment in Singapore's real estate.

    Speaking at the Cityscape Asia property exhibition, he cited private sector figures which showed that Singapore's property market attracted a five-fold increase in foreign investment to S$5.4 billion last year, compared with 2004.

    The Minister also said that the government is furthering its efforts to make Singapore more vibrant and exciting to attract even more overseas real estate investors.

    Figures showed Singapore's property market is on the roll.

    In the office sector, demand for space hit a six-year high in 2006.

    Demand for shop space last year also grew by the highest annual increase since 1993.

    And in the private housing market, a total of 10,300 uncompleted residential units were sold by developers in 2006 - a historical high surpassing the previous record of 9,800 set in 1994.

    Of these, a quarter was bought by foreigners, including permanent residents.

    And, foreign companies poured S$5.4 billion into Singapore's real estate market last year compared to just S$900 million in 2004.

    National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said: "More than just a good place to do business, I believe the other reason why we have been successful in attracting investments is that Singapore is, I submit, a great place to live in. We welcome people from different cultures, we offer a good quality living environment."

    Mr Mah said that the government would continue to make Singapore's cityscape more beautiful and exciting so as to attract even more overseas property investors.

    Singapore's city planner, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, says it is approaching this on two fronts.

    URA's Chief Executive, Cheong Koon Hean, said: "What we now need to do is to add the vibrancy, give more variety. And I think we have to leverage on our strengths. Two things we need to capitalise on. The fact that we are an island, so we capitalise on water - the use of the water. And let water bring value and enhancement to the city. The second thing is our tropical-ness. Because our weather plants grow very well, we are already a garden city. But we can do better to make ourselves a city in a garden."

    The URA has been releasing more land sites in the city to cater for greater demand for office, hotel, residential and mixed development use.

    And these will be targeted at transforming the city into a better work-live-play environment. - CNA/ir

  2. #2
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    Default Foreign investments in real estate hit all-time high of $5.4 billion last year

    Boom town

    Foreign investments in real estate hit all-time high of $5.4 billion last year

    Johnson Choo
    [email protected]


    SINGAPORE'S red-hot property market attracted a five-fold increase in foreign investment to a record $5.4 billion last year, compared with $900 million in 2004, said National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan yesterday.

    Speaking to movers and shakers of the property industry at the inaugural Cityscape Asia 2007, Mr Mah said: "Driven by positive sentiments (and) the attractiveness of the Singapore Government's plans for key development areas, both local and foreign developers have been buying up development sites sold under the Government's sale of site programme over the past few years."

    This sum, which is almost half the $12.7 billion of total investments received in the 1996 property boom year, includes transactions such as the sale of a redevelopment site at 71 Robinson Road to Lehman Brothers and Kajima Overseas Asia for $163.4 million; the divestment of Parkroyal Hotel to Hong Kong's Park Hotel Group for $141.2 million; and the collective sales of Kim Seng Plaza to Indonesia's Lippo Group for $132 million.

    Most investors come from the United States, Hong Kong, Australia, Germany, Japan, Middle East and Indonesia.

    Other than strong economic growth in the region, Mr Mah said Singapore's success in attracting investments is because Singapore is "a great place to live in". "We welcome people from different cultures, we offer a good quality living environment," he added.

    Mr Mah urged the over 5,000 participants — hailing from 35 countries from the Middle East and the region — to invest in Singapore as its strong economy is supporting a healthy recovery in all sectors of the property market.

    In the office sector, demand for space hit a six-year high in 2006. Presently, there is only a 3 per cent vacancy rate for Class "A" office space. Industry observers say this augurs well for Singapore as popular global cities like Geneva has a vacancy rate of only 1 per cent, and a city like Jakarta has 18 per cent.

    Demand for shop space last year also experienced the highest annual increase since 1993. And in the private housing market, developers sold a total of 10,300 uncompleted residential units in 2006 — a historical high that surpassed the previous record of 9,800 set in 1994. Of these, a quarter was bought by foreigners, including permanent residents.

    "To further capitalise on our strategic position and the opportunities presented by the buoyant regional economy, we have developed new areas of growth," he added.

    Mr Mah said Singapore has restructured its economy to ride the wave of globalisation — a move that led to the targeted development of key niche industries such as petrochemical and wafer fabrication for manufacturing, and heavy investments in R&D in the areas of biomedical, water technology and interactive and digital media.

    Referring to a report by Merrill Lynch, Mr Mah said Singapore is fast "becoming the Zurich and Monaco — not just of Southeast Asia — but of all Asia" as it strives to develop itself as a private banking centre and a tourist destination with its integrated resorts.

    "Our vision is to make Singapore a vibrant, global economy — a City in a Garden, with exciting developments, distinctive architecture, and enhanced greenery and waterfront access. Singapore will be an important destination, not only for business and travel, but also for international events and celebrations," said Mr Mah.

    The three-day Cityscape Asia 2007 in Singapore is the first held outside of Dubai since its establishment in 2002. Three other similar conferences will be held later this year in Shanghai, India and Abu Dhabi.

  3. #3
    chialat liao Guest

    Talking Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Mr Mah is doing to what he did for COE to properties . Raising it to astronomical prices until people cannot afford it . When hdb upgraders cannot upgrade , then there will be many pissed of citizens .

  4. #4
    Bypasser Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Quote Originally Posted by chialat liao
    Mr Mah is doing to what he did for COE to properties . Raising it to astronomical prices until people cannot afford it . When hdb upgraders cannot upgrade , then there will be many pissed of citizens .

    Many more citizens will buy condo lah.
    Pay increased what!
    We must reduce the public-housing ratio from 85% to 75% lah.

    The rest (of the 75%) who cannot afford, don't buy lor.
    Nobody says must buy what!

  5. #5
    dun agree Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Quote Originally Posted by Bypasser
    Many more citizens will buy condo lah.
    Pay increased what!
    We must reduce the public-housing ratio from 85% to 75% lah.

    The rest (of the 75%) who cannot afford, don't buy lor.
    Nobody says must buy what!

    If we do that, we must make sure the lower end of the 25% have higher earning power to afford the mass market condos. If their salaries stay the same as now, because of market forces we will see the mass condo price drop.

  6. #6
    Prince Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Very positive from Govt. Good sign.

  7. #7
    Bypasser Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Quote Originally Posted by dun agree
    If we do that, we must make sure the lower end of the 25% have higher earning power to afford the mass market condos. If their salaries stay the same as now, because of market forces we will see the mass condo price drop.

    Those earning more-than-75%-percentile pay got stagnant pay meh?
    No what! So mass condo prices will raise just a little bit. It will not go up a lot. So they can afford it. The midend and the highend condos will move up a lot. Those at the top have a big pay increment. HDB prices should not go up.

  8. #8
    UBS Investment Research Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Quote Originally Posted by Prince
    Very positive from Govt. Good sign.
    We are projecting an overall price rise of 20% this year.

    We think there is little risk that residential prices in Singapore will decrease as seen in the US market. This is mainly because we believe Singapore residential prices are still in a catch-up stage, compared to GDP.

  9. #9
    Unregistered Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Quote Originally Posted by UBS Investment Research
    We are projecting an overall price rise of 20% this year.

    We think there is little risk that residential prices in Singapore will decrease as seen in the US market. This is mainly because we believe Singapore residential prices are still in a catch-up stage, compared to GDP.
    U r kidding? Catch up stage? $3000 psf and $4000 psf catch up with what??

  10. #10
    Unregistered Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Quote Originally Posted by UBS Investment Research
    We are projecting an overall price rise of 20% this year.

    We think there is little risk that residential prices in Singapore will decrease as seen in the US market. This is mainly because we believe Singapore residential prices are still in a catch-up stage, compared to GDP.
    I was told by an industry insider (no he wasn't trying to sell me any condo) that in the next few years, properties especially in District 1 (Marina Bay, Shenton Way) and District 9 (Orchard, Cairnhill, River Valley, Singapore River) will continue to boom because these 2 districts are where the foreigners and global funds are always looking at.

    At this level, foreign players are only looking for the best because they have no time to scratch the surface and look for other districts or even properties in D10/D11/D15 that are further from town (ie:- Bukit Timah, Meyer Road). Don't forget Singapore is not the only country they invest in.

    Bukit Timah and East Coast/Meyer Road will still have buyer interest, but mainly from Singaporeans and certain resident expats, but to a lesser extent foreigners (who don't live here). Districts 1 and 9 are still the high profile hotspots that the rest of the world looks at when they look at buying Singapore property.

  11. #11
    UBS Investment Research Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Quote Originally Posted by Unregistered
    U r kidding? Catch up stage? $3000 psf and $4000 psf catch up with what??

    Catch up with London $15,000 psf and HongKong $10,000 psf.

  12. #12
    andy Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Catch up with London $15,000 psf and HongKong $10,000 psf.
    But then we don't have Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar paying £100 million for the highest and biggest penthouse in Hyde Park. Then there are other rich Russians and Arabs. I think we need to put that psf price in London in perspective for Spore and have a comparison of the accumulated net worth of the top 1% of Europe/Middle east versus that of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, HongKong, taiwan etc...

  13. #13
    boleh! Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    We have Sultans of Brunei, Sultans of every state in Malaysia, we got Tanoto, Riady, Salim, Sampoerna, Lim, Kuok, etc. The Sultans may not want to live here, but the Indonesian- and Malaysian-Chinese tycoons definitely do!

    We also can lah, do u think?

  14. #14
    Can Can Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Quote Originally Posted by boleh!
    We have Sultans of Brunei, Sultans of every state in Malaysia, we got Tanoto, Riady, Salim, Sampoerna, Lim, Kuok, etc. The Sultans may not want to live here, but the Indonesian- and Malaysian-Chinese tycoons definitely do!

    We also can lah, do u think?

    We sure can!

  15. #15
    botak james Guest

    Talking Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Quote Originally Posted by boleh!
    We have Sultans of Brunei, Sultans of every state in Malaysia, we got Tanoto, Riady, Salim, Sampoerna, Lim, Kuok, etc. The Sultans may not want to live here, but the Indonesian- and Malaysian-Chinese tycoons definitely do!

    We also can lah, do u think?
    For me, i have bought whatever that can appreciate already. I am just waiting for the best time to release, then wait for the next SARS. Buying now is actually very late already. Your margin VS profit factor is very negative. I will advise all to be very cautious when buying. Based on the prices now, you will get burned very easily if you just follow the crowd. Majority of Singaporeans are like lemmings. They don't even know they are at the edge of the cliff. Only when they are dead, then they have realized their mistake. But then it is already too late.

  16. #16
    UBS Investment Research Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    We think there is little risk that residential prices in Singapore will decrease as seen in the US market. This is mainly because we believe Singapore residential prices are still in a catch-up stage, compared to GDP.

  17. #17
    andy Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    We think there is little risk that residential prices in Singapore will decrease as seen in the US market. This is mainly because we believe Singapore residential prices are still in a catch-up stage, compared to GDP.
    What big is the gap between Singapore's GDP and $4000psf?

  18. #18
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    Cool Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    Quote Originally Posted by andy
    What big is the gap between Singapore's GDP and $4000psf?
    Yahh......wat is the factor,of calculations for GDP VS PSF for prime condos?I would like to know though.

  19. #19
    Happy Man Guest

    Default RE: Singapore's Rich Splash Out With A Vengeance

    Quote Originally Posted by Sara Webb
    Sara Webb
    Reuters Singapore
    25 April 2007

    Celebrity-chef dinners, huge pay hikes, and hot properties with a garage for the Ferrari and a berth for the yacht...some people in Singapore are living it up.

    The world's top banks have set up in the city-state, bringing plenty of rich clients in their wake. Now, thanks to a strong economy, a private banking boom, and the prospect of two glitzy casinos opening soon, the big spenders are out in force.

    "The good times are back," said Roman Scott, a financial consultant. "There's been a sudden turnaround in confidence. Suddenly, people notice that the economy is growing, they find they can't hire a secretary, and housing prices are going up."

    Singapore's immaculately groomed private bankers are having a field day, thanks to the government's policy of creating a one-stop banking centre-cum-playground for the affluent.

    The focus on the rich has even spawned a new caste system -- of "high net worth individuals", or those with a mere million in financial assets, and the highly desirable "ultra-high net worth" who have millions or billions of dollars to their name.

    Take Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, Thailand's richest man, according to Forbes, who listed his whisky and beer firm Thai Beverage in Singapore last year.

    He snapped up not just one, but 47 out of 48 flats in a new development for S$205 million, and four entire floors in another project for S$135 million, Business Times reported this month.

    Singapore has more millionaire households as a percentage of total households than any other Asian economy, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

    Now thanks to all the wealthy Chinese, Indonesians, Indians and Thais who turn to Singapore -- not to mention the Europeans who prefer to park their funds offshore -- there aren't enough private bankers to handle all this money.

    Whole teams of "wealth managers" are hopping from one bank to another, lured by promises of ever-higher salaries and payouts.

    "There's a shortage of really high quality bankers, so there's poaching and that pushes salaries up," said Chris Claridge, who runs a head-hunting firm.

    "Most players are getting 20-30% more. One guy, an investment banker, ended up with 75% more because two banks were bidding for him. It was like ebay."

    Celebrity Chefs And Butler Services

    Bankers aren't the only ones getting a big pay rise.

    Singapore's ministers, already among the world's highest-paid, just got a 60% pay hike, lifting their salaries from S$1.2 million to S$1.9 million ($1.26 million) on average.

    The Prime Minister's pay jumped to S$3.5 million ($2.3 million) -- more than five times the U.S. president's $400,000 salary -- while his deputies will each get S$2.45 million. Two former prime ministers who retain cabinet posts will be paid more than S$3 million.

    A few weeks earlier, the government said it would address a widening income gap with benefits for the poor. The bottom 10% of households had an average annual income of S$3,600 per member in 2006, up 6.6% from the previous year.

    Ministers and civil servants are benchmarked against the best-paid individuals in professions such as banking, an area the government is encouraging as part of an economic overhaul.

    Given the wealth in the financial sector, it's no surprise people are splashing out on expensive meals, cars, and homes.

    Indonesian tycoon Oei Hong Leong hosted a S$50,000 charity banquet, flying in celebrity chefs Tetsuya Wakuda and Justin Quek for a 16-course meal that included poached foie gras and steamed tofu, as well as rare vintage wines, the Business Times reported.

    Local media this month profiled a local businessman whose fleet of 20 cars includes Bentleys, a Lamborghini, a Ferrari and a Jaguar, and said that one Singaporean had paid S$3 million for a new Pagani Zonda F, a record for a sports car in the country.

    Even Singapore's long-stagnant property market is getting a welcome shot in the arm, at least at the top end.

    Such gains could start to erode Singapore's competitive advantage for international firms when compared with centres such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, or Tokyo, some analysts warn, while adding to the city-state's inflationary pressures.

    Prices for new apartments in prime districts surged 25% in 2006, the strongest recovery in years, while landlords are demanding rent increases of 50-60%.

    "The rental market has gone through the roof," said property agent BeeBee Tan, with a central flat that rented for S$3,600 now commanding S$6,000 a month, an increase of 67%.

    As for the millionaires, they can take their pick of projects offering butler services or a doorstep berth for that gin palace.

    "It's Monaco in the tropics," said consultant Scott.

    Wow!
    We have more millionaire households as a percentage of total households.
    This number is going to increase with this hot property markets.
    Rejoice everyone!

  20. #20
    democrat Guest

    Default Re: Singapore's Rich Splash Out With A Vengeance

    Quote Originally Posted by Happy Man
    Wow!
    We have more millionaire households as a percentage of total households.
    This number is going to increase with this hot property markets.
    Rejoice everyone!
    The fact is the surge in millionaires are foreigners that park their money here.
    Not that more SGs become millionaires, so what is there to rejoice if you are not part of this group? I am part of the top 15%, but i do not rejoice when i see this country become more and more materialistic beyond redemption.
    high net value and super high net value foreigners will not boost up the general economy. They just support the high-end businesses that they deal with. Only a small group in SG will truly benefit from them. EG:- Indochine, ferrari, marina bay residences, mount elizaberth and so on..... businesses of high net value.
    I personally will find a way to tap on these rich incumbents. But majority of SGs will not have much of a spillover from them. {The rich get richer, the poor get poorer}

  21. #21
    democrat Guest

    Default Re: Property sector doing well across all sectors, foreign demand strong: Mah

    prime minister $3.5 million/yr
    Lowest 10% SGs $3,600/yr
    1 prime minister= 972 poor citizens.

  22. #22
    Happy Feet Guest

    Default Re: Singapore's Rich Splash Out With A Vengeance

    Quote Originally Posted by Happy Man
    Wow!
    We have more millionaire households as a percentage of total households.
    This number is going to increase with this hot property markets.
    Rejoice everyone!

    Yup!
    In fact, the stock market is the first to give us the joy.
    Then come the long-cycle property boom which gives us more joy.
    Seriously, grab some assets and let their values get enhanced.
    Hurray!

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