RESIDENTIAL MARKET
HDB eyes 25% productivity boost by 2020
The Housing & Development Board (HDB) is looking to boost construction productivity by up to 25 per cent by 2020 amid concerns over a labour crunch.
It has launched a new HDB Construction Productivity Framework aimed at encouraging the use of innovative construction methods and optimising current processes and systems.
As the government moderates foreign worker growth, the adoption of unconventional ways to sustain the construction industry's growth is mandatory as it faces strong projected demand in the foreseeable years, said Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and National Development Lee Yi Shyan.
Mr Lee said around 30,000 workers are hired for HDB projects, out of the 271,209 foreign construction workers in the construction industry (not limited to the housing sector).
"The fact that SMEs are facing a severe manpower crunch is real and painful, but the policy of moderating foreign worker growth is also a reality," he said.
In its bid to implement innovative construction methods, HDB is exploring technologies that facilitate mechanisation and automation to reduce on-site construction time, labour, noise and dust pollution.
HDB is also looking at improving productivity in precast plants through automation, given that many existing prefab plants here are still very labour-intensive, said Mr Lee.
On the process optimisation front, HDB is promoting the use of building information modelling (BIM), which eliminates the need for manual 2D drawings, facilitates better teamwork and reduces abortive work.
Project submissions to HDB will be required to be in BIM format from 2015.
Mr Lee was speaking at the launch of the inaugural HDB Professional Engagement and Knowledge-sharing Forum (PEAK Forum), which represents HDB's focused engagement with professionals in the building and construction industry.
An exhibition showcase on the next phase of development of Punggol was also launched for public consultation. It ends on Oct 28.
Source: Business Times – 18 October 2012
Bungalow plot in Chee Hoon Ave up for sale
A 14,000-square-foot bungalow plot in Chee Hoon Avenue has been offered for sale by public tender with an indicative asking price of between $20.5 million and $21.5 million.
This translates to $1,454 to $1,525 per square foot (psf) of land area.
A two-storey detached house with an attic sits on the plot in the Chee Hoon Avenue Good Class Bungalow Area (GCBA). The property is owned and occupied by a renowned art collector.
The District 11 property is near shopping establishments such as Coronation Shopping Centre and Serene Centre as well as within a one-kilometre radius of Nanyang Primary School.
Meanwhile, a record price in terms of psf of land area was set recently for a bungalow in a GCBA.
A freehold property at Leedon Park was sold for $2,115 psf based on land area of 15,600 sq ft, amounting to $33 million. The bungalow has two storeys and a basement. It comes with six bedrooms and a pool.
The seller is seasoned bungalow investor George Lim, who developed the property, which has obtained BCA's Greenmark Gold Plus award. The property was completed last year.
The tender for the Chee Hoon Avenue site closes on Nov 14 at 3pm.
Source: Business Times – 18 October 2012
Punggol resale flats fetching good prices
Resale prices in Punggol have risen faster than the national average this year, data shows.
And analysts say this trend will accelerate, spurred on by the HDB announcement on Tuesday of comprehensive plans for the area.
According to data-crunching firm Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX), which collates sales by major property agencies, median resale prices in Punggol this year have gone up 3.7 per cent, compared with the overall median figure of 2.3 per cent.
The major boom has come in the form of recent developments such as the Punggol Waterway and the increase in the number of homes, said ERA Realty key executive officer Eugene Lim.
"Punggol today, compared to five years ago, is a totally different place," he said. "With more infrastructure and amenities to be built in the next 15 years, we can expect property prices to increase so long as economic and employment fundamentals are progressive."
New flats sold by the Housing Board in the area have also gone up in price, in tandem with the area's development, analysts say.
As a rough estimate, a four- room premium flat cost up to $254,000 in 2007, while a premium counterpart in a sales launch this year is selling for up to $379,000.
Mr Lim added that higher resale prices will be tempered by the supply that is coming on-stream in the area.
Source: The Straits Times – 18 October 2012
Goodbye, Blk 25 Owen Road
Singapore's first post-World War II flats will soon become another footnote in history.
The squat, two-storey Block 25 Owen Road, built by the Housing Board's predecessor, the Singapore Improvement Trust, is slated to be demolished from next month.
An HDB spokesman said the flats were "no longer offered for letting under the Public Rental Scheme".
When asked about the conservation value of the site, the Urban Redevelopment Authority told The Straits Times that it had to be highly selective in what it conserves because Singapore is land-scarce.
"To showcase the evolution and our success in public housing, 20 Singapore Improvement Trust blocks at the fairly intact Tiong Bahru estate have already been conserved," said a spokesman.
"Block 25 Owen Road is part of a larger Singapore Improvement Trust estate already redeveloped and is not designated for conservation."
He added that the authority has so far conserved more than 7,000 buildings across the island.
People living near the Owen Road flats were surprised at the news of the flats' imminent demolition, which will be completed by May next year.
Source: The Straits Times – 18 October 2012
COMMERCIAL MARKET
Sentiment improving for strata shops, offices
Close to $1.3 billion of strata retail units have changed hands so far this year, almost double last year's $685 million.
As for strata office deals, the figure has crossed the $1.6 billion mark since January, compared with $1.4 billion for the whole of last year, going by CBRE's analysis of caveats captured by the SISV Realink and URA Realis systems.
With more people who had invested earlier in strata commercial space now enjoying attractive gains in price, sentiment has improved, and demand for this type of property has picked up in the last six months.
Firstly, cooling measures in the residential property sector caused a diversion of interest to other sectors; secondly, the low interest rates on savings has meant that there was little point in leaving cash in the bank, and thirdly, the banks are charging low rates on commercial mortgages.
Caveats for strata commercial transactions this year are coming not only from new projects under construction such as Eon Shenton, Oxley Tower, Paya Lebar Square and PS 100, but also from resale deals in older developments such as The Adelphi, International Plaza, Lucky Plaza, Sim Lim Square and Parkway Centre.
While buyers of strata office or retail units in new projects under construction may be opportunistic and take a shorter-term view, those buying units in completed projects would generally have a medium- to long-term outlook, whether they are buying for own occupation or for investment reasons.
A Guthrie-Sun Venture tie-up which acquired 86 office and 77 shop units in The Adelphi from CapitaLand in late 2010 has nearly resold all the units. Only one is left - a 635 sq ft shop unit on the fourth level, which is being negotiated for sale at around $1.65 million.
The remaining 76 shops have been sold at between $1,914 psf and $3,100 psf. All 86 offices have found buyers at between $1,675 psf and $2,350 psf. Total sales value from selling these office and shop units is about $354 million, or 62 per cent more than the $218.1 milllion that Guthrie and Sun Venture paid for the units.
The shops are on Basement 1 to Level 4 and the office units, on Levels 5 and 7 to 10.
The Adelphi is a 999-year leasehold building near City Hall MRT station.
Buyers of the office and shop units include law firms, insurance companies, accounting firms and doctors, most of whom were previously not in the building but who have bought the space for their own occupation; high net-worth investors looking at rental income are also among the buyers.
It has been the reverse situation at Parkway Centre in Marine Parade, where a consortium that acquired 51 office units earlier this year with the original intention of investment, agreed to sell some units after receiving "reverse enquiries" from some existing tenants, mostly operators of education centres looking to buy over the units.
Ten units have been sold since late August at between $1,551 psf and $1,675 psf.
When the consortium, led by real estate investor Kishore Buxani, acquired the 51 units for $53.4 million or about $1,043 psf, it had intended to get involved with the building's management, spruce up the building and hold the units for longer-term yield.
The 51 make up about 43 per cent of Parkway Centre's share value.
An extraordinary general meeting was held in late August and an upgrading contract is expected to be awarded soon.
Refurbishment of the building is slated to begin next month and last four to six months.
Parkway Centre is on a site with a remaining lease of 68 years.
Over in Bencoolen Street, Guthrie-Sun Venture has another tie-up in Burlington Square, where marketing efforts of 66 office units acquired in May from Wing Tai-City Developments have begun.
Available are office units of between 549 sq ft and 1,066 sq ft. Each floor offers up to 8,061 sq ft of column-free space.
The offices are on the fifth to 12th floors of the mixed development. Their occupiers will share, with Burlington Square residents, facilities such as a swimming pool, tennis court and gym.
Guthrie-Sun Venture paid $89.3 million or $1,318 psf. Burlington Square is on a site with a remaining lease of 83 years.
Source: Business Times – 18 October 2012
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