http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/arch...-sale-20140315
Published March 15, 2014
Draycott 8 unit up for auction; 4 Sentosa Cove condos up for sale
JLL marketing by private treaty the Sentosa units, put up for sale by their mortgagees
A FOUR-BEDROOM apartment in the prime Draycott 8 project has been put up for sheriff's auction on March 27. JLL, which is conducting the auction, is also separately marketing by private treaty four condo units in Sentosa Cove that have been put up for sale by their mortgagees (or lenders).
Private treaty deals entail negotiations unlike an auction where all the bidders come publicly.
Two of the apartments are in the Turquoise project; they are four-bedroom units, one above the other and believed to be owned by the same party.
The other two apartments - a three-bedder and a four-bedder - are in the Marina Collection condo.
Mok Sze Sze, head of auction and sales at JLL, said there has been a rise in the number of private homes being put up for auction by mortgagees or lenders. In the first two months of this year, there were five such properties, compared with only two in the same period last year.
Typically, financial institutions tend to provide some leeway to borrowers who are experiencing difficulty servicing their mortgages by giving them an opportunity to dispose of their properties themselves. "But lately it has been more difficult for owners to sell their properties as they tend to hold on to their prices. Buyers, on the other hand, have been finding it harder to obtain credit since the TDSR (total debt servicing ratio) was introduced last June," said Ms Mok.
This has resulted in a price gap, causing more properties to end up as mortgagee sales, she added.
Colliers International deputy managing director Grace Ng says the same argument would apply to non-residential properties since TDSR cuts across all property sectors. "In fact, since last year, we have seen more industrial properties being put up for sale by lenders because SMEs have been experiencing a challenging business environment.
"As for commercial properties, the trend of mortgagee sales is not yet pronounced but I expect more such cases this year."
At Turquoise, a guide price of $5.5 million to $5.8 million has been set for each of the two four-bedroom units, reflecting $1,981-$2,089 per square foot (psf) for the 2,777-sq-ft apartments - on the second and third levels.
The highest transaction in the development was $2,772 psf in October 2007, said Ms Mok citing caveats data from SISV Realink.
Over at Marina Collection, JLL is marketing a three-bedroom apartment of 2,098 sq ft on the first level and a 2,185-sq-ft four-bedder on the third level.
"The asking price for each unit is $6 million, which works out to $2,860 psf for the three-bedder and $2,746 psf for the four-bedder," said Ms Mok.
The highest price achieved in the condo is $2,950 psf between the November 2012 and March 2013 period. Generally, Marina Collection units have been transacting at higher prices as they enjoy a better facing, added Ms Mok.
According to a recent study by Colliers, the median price of condo transactions in Sentosa Cove shot up from $847 psf in Q4 2004 to $1,576 psf in Q4 2006, touching a high of $2,658 psf in Q1 2008. The global crisis took the wind out of the luxury condo market's sails and Sentosa Cove was no exception.
Within just nine months, the median price of condos in the upscale waterfront housing district had tumbled to $1,200 psf in Q4 2008. Following that, prices have been on a rocky road to recovery. The median Sentosa Cove condo price touched a record high of $2,950 psf in Q1 2013. But with the release of the TDSR framework a few months later, this eased to $1,895 psf by end-December 2013.
Meanwhile, those keen on a property in Singapore's traditional prime districts may want to head to JLL's auction on March 27, which starts at 2.30pm at The Amara Hotel. The star property is the sheriff's auction of the four-bedroom unit on the 13th level of Draycott 8. The unit faces the clubhouse and greenery, said Ms Mok. Completed about nine years ago, Draycott 8 is on a site with a balance lease term of about 82 years.
The indicative price for the unit is $6-6.5 million, which reflects about $2,096-$2,270 psf based on the unit's strata area of 2,863 sq ft. JLL said that about a year ago, comparable units in the development fetched around $7 million or $2,445 psf.
The sheriff's sale is being conducted to recover debt owed to an individual creditor.
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