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THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 2013
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Factory output rises 2.1% in May
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SingTel CEO earned $4.5m in last FY
$5,000 psf
units ‘not
sign of rise
in market’
Analysts say luxury-home buyers are
still few as leasing demand not there
By MELISSA TAN
RECENT residential transactions
at the top end of the market may
have crept above the $5,000 per
sq ft (psf) level but they do not
suggest that the moribund luxury
market is stirring to life, analysts
say.
“This does not reflect that average prices of overall high-end residential properties have generally
increased or will be improving,”
said R’ST Research director Ong
Kah Seng. He said luxury-home
buyers are still few and far between, and investor interest in
high-end property remains weak
due to low leasing demand.
“Companies are very cautious
in providing generous housing allowances for senior expatriates
due to the ongoing overall economic uncertainty. Many senior
tenant-expatriates are also more
willing to settle for fewer frills or
less spacious, more functional
units
than
super-luxury
high-end. And there are also fewer new senior expatriates seconded to Singapore on family-reloca-
tion packages.”
A 2,756 sq ft unit at the freehold Hamilton Scotts was sold at
$5,001 psf for a total price of close
to $13.8 million last month, Urban
Redevelopment Authority (URA)
records show.
HSR research head Elaine
Chow said the psf price for the
24th-storey unit was “quite an
achievement” by the development’s new owners, given that a
20th-storey unit of the same size
was sold at $3,401 psf on Jan 7, before the Government implemented a seventh round of property
curbs. “A 47 per cent spike in five
months is unusual,” she said.
Chinese firm Reignwood Holdings took over all 36 unsold units
at the 56-unit project in April this
year from KOP Properties.
Freehold TwentyOne Angullia
Park performed even better – two
units were sold at $5,099 psf and
$5,560 psf last month. The caveats for these transactions have not
yet been publicly lodged with
URA.
The last time sale prices rose
above the $5,000 psf level was
LUXURY LIVING: An apartment in the 30-storey Hamilton Scotts (above), where a lift transports a resident’s vehicles to his unit, and (below) an artist’s impression
of TwentyOne Angullia Park, where two units went for $5,099 psf and $5,560 psf last month. PHOTOS: KOP PROPERTIES, CHINA SONANGOL LAND
RECENT TOP TRANSACTED PSF PRICES
Month
Top transacted
price ($ psf)
Project
Total unit price
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
Feb 2013
Jan 2013
Dec 2012*
Nov 2012
Oct 2012
Sept 2012
Aug 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
Feb 2012
Jan 2012
$5,001
$4,790
$3,351
$3,904
$3,680
$4,230
$3,982
$4,289
$5,011
$4,920
$3,971
$4,820
$4,803
$4,566
$3,899
$3,680
$3,680
$4,057
Hamilton Scotts
21 Angullia Park
The Scotts Tower
The Scotts Tower
The Scotts Tower
Skyline @ Orchard Boulevard
The Scotts Tower
Sage
Skyline @ Orchard Boulevard
The Marq
Hilltops
The Marq
Scotts Square
Scotts Square
Scotts Square
Scotts Square
The Scotts Tower
The Orchard Residences
$13,780,000
$15,106,951
$2,200,500
$3,530,000
$2,970,663
$8,741,300
$3,215,000
$12,235,000
$18,880,000
$15,200,000
$11,413,000
$30,400,000
$3,050,000
$2,900,000
$3,693,300
$4,515,360
$3,129,520
$10,000,000
NOTE: *excludes the Hampton Court en bloc sale
when a unit at the freehold Skyline @ Orchard Boulevard was
sold at $5,011 psf or nearly $18.9
million last September.
Before May’s new sales, the
highest psf prices transacted each
month have mostly remained below $4,000 psf since the start of
this year.
Knight Frank research head Alice Tan said prospective buyers of
posh homes are still deterred by
high transaction and holding costs
arising from the additional buyer’s stamp duty and an impending
rise in property taxes.
She noted that there were
around 11,000 uncompleted
non-landed city centre homes
that remain unsold as at the end
of the first quarter this year.
These homes make up a third
of the total unsold and uncompleted non-landed homes here.
Recycling company
latest to eye
property sector
THE promise of real estate riches
has lured yet another non-property firm to venture into the sector.
Recycling company Envirohub Holdings told the Singapore
Exchange on Tuesday that its subsidiary plans to buy a Cayman Islands company that owns the PoMo mall in Selegie Road.
It will pay $164.5 million, a
sum arrived at by deducting the
firm’s bank liabilities of $165.75
million and the net value of its
other assets, worth $5.7 million,
from an initial amount of $336
million.
It did not say what these other
assets were.
Enviro-hub did not specify if
the initial $336 million figure was
based just on the value of PoMo
mall, which is held by a Cayman
Islands-incorporated firm called
F2S1 Investment.
It said in the SGX statement
that it already holds minority
stakes in businesses engaging in
property investment and development and wanted to “explore opportunities in other areas of businesses with good prospects for
growth in the long run”.
The acquisition is expected to
be completed on Oct 18 but is
subject to shareholder approval
at an extraordinary general meeting.
News of the planned purchase
sent Enviro-hub’s stock down 1.2
cents to 11.5 cents yesterday, on
turnover of 398 million units.
The announcement followed
an earlier statement on Tuesday
by shipping firm Courage Marine,
which said it would diversify into
property investment, citing a
weak freight market.
Enviro-hub said the 10-storey
PoMo, formerly Paradiz Centre,
was valued at $273 million as at
Dec 31 last year.
This translates to about $1,539
psf based on a net lettable area of
around 177,381 sq ft.
“The unsold inventory of
high-end residential units, coupled with rising market uncertainty pertaining to liquidity and interest rates, could exert downward
pressure on sale prices in the
months ahead,” Ms Tan added.
[email protected]
Keppel Reit to
buy stake in
Melbourne
office building
By FIONA CHAN
Recycling company Enviro-hub is moving into the property sector by trying to buy PoMo mall located in Selegie Road. The
mall is on a 99-year lease beginning from March 1983 and has a land area of 43,027 sq ft. PHOTO: POMO
The mall, which has a 99-year
lease beginning March 1983, sits
on a land area of 43,027 sq ft. It
has changed hands several times
over the past few years.
It was formerly owned by Australian property investment
group Lend Lease and Silverpeak
Real Estate Partners.
They sold it in March 2011 to
CLSA Capital Partners for $255
million, which translated to
around $1,400 psf based on a net
lettable area of 182,060 sq ft at
that time.
It is unclear whether F2S1 Investment is a CLSA unit.
The firm had a book value of
nearly $116.9 million and net profit after tax of around $7.4 million
as at Dec 31 last year.
Enviro-hub is buying F2S1
through its 51-per-cent-owned
joint venture EH Property.
The remaining 49 per cent of
the joint venture is held by Enviro-hub executive chairman Raymond Ng.
Enviro-hub said last October
that its unit HCG Environment
had secured the rights to buy a
property at Tuas View Circuit for
$8.4 million, consisting of covered warehouses and staff dormitories.
MELISSA TAN
Tuan Sing forks out $349m for Robinson Point
By CHIA YAN MIN
Tuan Sing says the freehold 21-storey Robinson Point (above) will provide the
developer with stable rental income. PHOTO: CBRE
SOURCE: URA
DEVELOPER Tuan Sing Holdings
is buying a Central Business District commercial building, Robinson Point, for $348.9 million.
The company said the freehold
21-storey building, at 39, Robinson Road, would provide it with
stable rental income.
The building, about 15 years
old, has a net lettable area of
about 135,720 sq ft and a gross
floor area of about 169,250 sq ft.
Based on the net lettable area,
the purchase price translates into
$2,571 per sq ft (psf).
Colliers International conducted a valuation of the property,
concluding it had an open market
value of $350 million as at yester-
day. Tuan Sing will buy the building mainly with bank borrowings,
by buying a company which owns
Robinson Point, called Robinson
Point (Cayman).
Tuan Sing said the acquisition
is in line with its “strategy of expanding its core property business and securing recurring income business”. The asset is expected to generate a stable rental
income stream.
Last July, Sun Venture bought
Robinson Point from a real estate
fund managed by US-based
AEW, in a deal that valued the
asset at $284 million or about
$2,132 psf based on net lettable
area.
Before that, office real estate
investment trust CapitaCommer-
cial Trust, partly owned by CapitaLand, sold Robinson Point to
the private fund for $203.3 million in 2010.
The building is fully rented to
third-party tenants, with durations of mainly three years.
Tuan Sing has been on the
acquisition trail of late.
Earlier this month, the developer bought Gilstead Court in the
exclusive Novena-Newton area
for $150.2 million, or $1,292 per
sq ft per plot ratio.
The site is 75,479 sq ft, with a
plot ratio of 1.4.
Tuan Sing’s wholly owned
unit Dillenia Land was awarded
the tender for the property in a
collective sale.
[email protected]
KEPPEL Real Estate Investment
Trust (Reit) is buying a stake in a
commercial building in Melbourne’s central business district.
The office landlord said yesterday it has agreed to pay A$160.2
million (S$192.4 million) for a 50
per cent interest in 8 Exhibition
Street in the Australian city.
It will fund the acquisition,
which is expected to immediately
enhance its distribution per unit,
with a mix of debt and equity, Keppel Reit said in a statement.
“This is a rare opportunity to
acquire a freehold premium-grade
office building in the most prime
part of Melbourne’s CBD and will
add to Keppel Reit’s sterling portfolio of commercial assets in Singapore and in the key cities of Australia,” said Ms Ng Hsueh Ling,
CEO of Keppel Reit Management.
Also known as the Ernst &
Young Building, 8 Exhibition
Street is one of Melbourne’s architectural landmarks. It is built on
top of the Herald and Weekly
Times building, a heritage property now turned into luxury homes.
The 35-storey tower has a total
net lettable area of 480,309 sq ft,
with 3,304 sq ft of retail space on
the ground floor. It is 100 per cent
leased. Major tenants include
Ernst & Young, UBS and Qantas,
the building’s website shows.
Keppel Reit said the tower has
a weighted average lease expiry of
about five years and the leases
have fixed annual rental escalations, which will “provide income
certainty and stability” to the Reit’s unit holders.
It also incorporates environmentally sustainable design elements, with a 4.5-star Nabers energy rating. Nabers, or the National Australian Built Environment
Rating System, measures the environmental performance of Australian buildings and tenancies. The
maximum rating is six stars.
[email protected]