SINGAPORE – Singapore’s private home prices rose almost a third over the whole of 2007 despite a slower pace of growth in the fourth quarter, the government said Wednesday.

For the year, the housing price index rose 31 percent. Fourth-quarter private property prices rose 6.6 percent from the third quarter after increasing 8.3 percent in the previous three months, according to preliminary estimates from the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

No average price figures were released. Homes in the central region sold for record prices last year, and the property price inflation has also spread to less-expensive suburban areas.

Prices in the core central region rose 7 percent in the quarter from the previous period, compared to the 8.3 percent increase in the previous three months.

Just outside the core central region, prices increased 7.3 percent, slightly slower than the 7.9 percent rise in July-September. Elsewhere home prices rose 7.5 percent, also slightly slower than growth of 7.9 percent in the previous quarter.

During the fourth quarter, the government withdrew a scheme that allowed buyers of uncompleted properties to defer part of the payments in a bid to slow the sector. The scheme had been implemented in 1997 when Singapore’s property market crashed. It fueled speculation among investors who secured properties with minimum downpayments and quickly resold them.

About 85 percent of Singaporeans live in subsidized public housing apartments built by the government. Private developers compete to provide housing for the remaining 15 percent of Singapore citizens, along with a sizable number of foreigners that make up the rest of the city-state’s population of about 4.5 million.

The flash estimate issued Wednesday on home prices is based on data for the first 10 weeks of the quarter. The government will issue more detailed figures in one month.

Source: Forbes.com

Having a flagship piece of real estate used to be the pride and joy of many companies, but increasingly, these properties are being put on the market. And high-profile names feature prominently in the divestment game. ‘We’ve seen this happening for a while now,’ said Kim Eng research head Seah Hiang Hong. ‘Previously, companies thought there were capital gains to be had, besides buying property for their own use. But the scenario has changed with the property market being depressed for so long.’

Singapore Telecommunications is putting its exchange site in Old Holland Road up for tender, while media giant Singapore Press Holdings has sold its historic Times House site to Marco Polo Developments for $118.88 million.

Fashion retailer FJ Benjamin, too, is looking for buyers for its prime Orange Grove Road headquarters.TT International, which makes consumer electronic products under the Akira brand, let go of its flagship TT International Tradepark in Toh Guan Road to Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust (A-Reit) for $92 million. In turn, TT is leasing back the property for 10 years.

Osim and Ultro Technologies also entered into sale-and-lease-back agreements with A-Reit for their name-bearing properties.

‘Previously, companies bought property out of security, afraid that they may one day get booted out when rents rise,’ says DTZ Debenham Tie Leung executive director Ong Choon Fah. ‘But with rents being soft now and the proliferation of sale-and-lease-back agreements, there is no such fear.

source: http://netleasenews.blogspot.com/2003/12/singapores-blue-chips-pursuing-sale.html

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The dream many Americans have of owning a holiday villa in Provence, France, a hide-away cottage in the English countryside or even a ski chalet in Vail, Colorado has moved a little closer to reality with an announcement by a leading British bank.

Lloyds TSB Offshore Limited, a subsidiary of the British financial services group Lloyds TSB Group plc , is now offering an international mortgage facility to qualifying Americans interested in investing in second homes in the U.S., the U.K. and nine other specified countries. Lloyds TSB Offshore Limited has recently opened representative offices in Los Angeles, Stamford (CT) and Miami and is actively promoting the mortgage product in the US market.

Lloyds TSB Offshore Limited is offering American customers access to the International Mortgage Service which provides residential mortgages for investment, buy-to-let and vacation homes in eleven jurisdictions, including the United States itself. In addition to the U.S. and the United Kingdom, other locations include Spain, France, Portugal, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Canada and Australia. Lloyds TSB Offshore Limited stresses that with the exception of Hong Kong and Singapore, it does not provide mortgages for a property used as a principal primary residence.

The International Mortgage Service has been helping individuals purchase investment, buy-to-let and vacation homes, primarily in Asia, since 1985. With representative offices in the United States, the bank is now seeking to do the same for U.S. citizens wishing to make a second-home property investment in the countries specified with an international mortgage product designed for American investors to take advantage of domestic and overseas opportunities. The International Mortgage Service offers 75% pre-approved financing and an Advance Credit Line, a choice of repayment methods, multi-currency loan facilities, currency switching options and competitive interest rates without early repayment fees.

Read more on CNN.com…

Property prices are not likely to feel much impact now that the winner for the integrated resorts has been announced. Analysts have said that is because any rise in Singapore property prices was already priced in.

According to property analysts, the market has already factored in any possible major movements in prices.

“The priced-in factor came in when the plans are more firm on the IR. That would be roughly about a year ago. The recent announcement of the award of IR is just another step. In a way, it is expected so there is not an expected increase in home prices,” said Nicholas Mak, Consultancy and Research Director at Knight Frank.

Analysts have said it is also hard to pinpoint just how much the integrated resorts contributed to property price increases over the last year.

That is because there are other favourable economic factors such as a recovering economy, more jobs and the new downtown in the works.

Analysts have also said the integrated resorts did manage to put Singapore properties within the radar of overseas investors.

“Singapore is now becoming a more hip place, a more happening place. A place where there can be more fun with more vitality. That puts Singapore on the map of some investors,” added Mr Mak.

Read more on Condo Office Rentals…

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WASHINGTON (AFP) — Singapore once again topped the World Bank’s ranks for the best place in the world to do business, and Egypt is the leader in reforms to invite more business, the World Bank said Tuesday.

“For the second year running, Singapore tops the aggregate rankings on the ease of doing business” in 2006-2007, the World Bank said in releasing its “Doing Business 2008″ report.

Singapore unseated New Zealand in the annual rankings last year. In the latest report, New Zealand held on to the number-two spot, ahead of the United States, in third place.

Hong Kong, Denmark, Britain, Canada, Ireland, Australia and Iceland rounded out in descending order the top 10 places for ease of doing business in the survey of 178 economies.

The World Bank said that countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union reformed the most in 2006-2007, along with a large group of emerging markets, including China and India.

“China was the standout in East Asia, implementing far-reaching new private property rights and a new bankruptcy law,” the bank said in a statement.

Egypt, the leading reformer, greatly improved its position in the global rankings on the ease of doing business, with reforms in five of the 10 areas studied by the report, the 185-nation poverty-fighting bank said.

“The report finds that equity returns are highest in countries that are reforming the most,” said Michael Klein, World Bank/International Finance Corporation vice president for financial and private-sector development.

“Investors are looking for upside potential, and they find it in economies that are reforming — regardless of their starting point,” he added.

In addition to Egypt, the other top 10 reformers are, in order, Croatia, Ghana, Macedonia, Georgia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China and Bulgaria.

“The results show that as governments ease regulations for doing business, more entrepreneurs go into business,” said Simeon Djankov, lead author of the report.

“Eastern Europe has witnessed a boom in new business entry that rivals the rapid growth in East Asia in the past,” he said.

The rankings are based on 10 indicators of business regulation that track the time and cost to meet government requirements in business start-up, operation, trade, taxation, and closure, the bank said.

Read more on AFP…

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