singapore property weekly issue 252

8/19/2019 Singapore Property Weekly Issue 252

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Issue 252Copyright © 2011-2016 www.propwise.sg. All Rights Reserved.

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CONTENTS

p2 Semi-Retired at 44 - 3 Steps a Wise

Propwise.sg Reader Took to Get There

p6 Singapore Property News This Week

p10 Resale Property Transactions

(March 7 – March 11)

Welcome to the 252th edition of the

Singapore Property Weekly .

Hope you like it!

Mr. Propwise

FROM THE

EDITOR

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 252

Page | 2Back to Contents

By Mr. Propwise

A reader recently wrote in to share his story

of how he achieved semi-retirement at the

young age of 44. He no longer needs to work

for active income, and now spends his time

consulting for technology startups and

ferrying his three teenage kids to their

swimming, running and shot put training and

competitions.

How did he do it? He diligently followed aplan for 20 years to invest and fully pay off his

housing mortgage and car loan.

Semi-Retired at 44 - 3 Steps a Wise Propwise.sgReader Took to Get There


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Here is the plan he followed (I've taken the

liberty to add in some of my own thoughts on

his strategy in italics):

Step #1: Consistently buying Blue Chipstocks over 20 years despite the ups and

downs of the market

Mr. Propwise: Equities has been one of the

best performing asset classes over the long

term. The key, though, is not being swept up

by waves of greed to buy at the market top,and then panicking and selling out at the

market bottoms. Mass hysteria compels the

majority of investors to do exactly that, which

will hurt your long term returns.

One way to overcome this is to do what our smart reader has done - ignore the market

cycles and just buy quality stocks through

market ups and downs. This is akin to an

investing strategy known as Dollar Cost

Averaging, which involves buying a fixed

dollar amount into the market at regular

intervals - you will end up owning more during

market bottoms and less during market tops.

One final consideration is perhaps buying an

Index ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) instead

of individual stocks if you are not confident in

your stock-picking. This will help to diversify

your stock-specific risk. You might also want

to diversify country risk by buying a regionalor even global ETF.

Step #2: Fully paid up his HDB flat and

then rented it out for extra income

Mr. Propwise: HDB flats are how the majority

of Singaporeans and PRs come to own their first home. Historically, they've been fairly

affordable and a typical working couple who

progress in their careers can aspire to pay

down the entire mortgage in perhaps


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10 to 20 years.

HDB flats also tend to be one of the highest

yielding properties you can own given the

fairly resilient rentals.Step #3: Finally moved to a condo and

then fully paid down the mortgage.

Mr. Propwise: If you've the financial means to,

buying a second property will turn you into a

bona fide property investor. When you've fully

paid off both properties, you now have an

investment property that is giving you an

extra income from the monthly rental. This is

a key retirement strategy - creating streams

of additional (not necessarily passive) income

for yourself beyond your job, and then

gradually making your way to Financial

Freedom when your additional income

supersedes your expenses.

A variation of this strategy is to keep the

mortgages on your property (as home loans

are likely to be one of the cheapest loans you

will ever get), and then invest this into high

yielding assets such as dividend stocks. This

will help to maximize your return, but could

lead to increased anxiety as whatever assets

you buy (e.g. stocks) could experience a lot of

volatility.

Of course, skill and luck had a part to play aswell. Our wise reader had worked for a listed

Tech company in the United States, climbed

the corporate ladder to a fairly senior position,

and had received stock compensation that

performed well.

But by achieving financial freedom at a

relatively young age, our kindhearted reader

has also not forgotten the less fortunate - in

addition to spending his time on his


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consulting projects and kids, he also serves

breakfast to one-room HDB dwellers in

Punggol, and together with a group of friends

gives stationery and bicycles to poor kids in

Cambodia twice a year.

He hopes that by sharing his story it will

inspire others (especially the younger

readers) to start their saving and investing

journey - with lots of discipline and a bit of

luck you too can semi-retire and spend your time on activities you find worthwhile.

Do you know of others with an inspiring story

to share? Do let me know at

[email protected] and I'll be happy to profile

them.

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Singapore Property This Week


Residential

Healthy interest in Cairnhill Nine and The

Wisteria

Of the 268 units at Cairnhill Nine, 200 were

released for sale recently. Since its launch,

134 units have been sold. Located at Yishun,116 of the 138 units at The Wisteria were sold

since they were launched. Market experts

believe that both developments appealed to

investors because they were priced

reasonably. At Cairnhill Nine, the units sold

ranged from 591 sq ft to 3,864 sq ft and theywere priced between $2,200 psf and $2,800

psf. Ranging between 732 sq ft and 969 sq ft,

the one-bedroom with guest units were the

most popular, with about 80% of the 90 unitssold. Market experts believe that beyond its

price, its strategic location at Orchard Road

and a lack of major residential projects

launched in that area in the last two years

could have pumped up interest in the

development. Donald Han from ChestertonSingapore added that based on an average

price of $2,500 psf, investors of Cairnhill Nine

could reap a yield of about 4%. At The

Wisteria, the units were sold for average

prices between $1,030 and $1,050 psf. Given

strong demand for its one and two-bedroomunits, market experts believe that there could

be a higher percentage of buyers who are

SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY I 252


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investors compared to a typical residential

project in a suburban area. Comprising three

9-storey towers, The Wisteria is part of a

mixed-use 99-year leasehold development.

(Source: Business Times)

6.8% month-on-month drop in private homes

sold in Feb

According to the Business Times, 301 private

homes (excluding ECs) were sold by

developers in February this year, down from

323 units in January. This was a 6.8% fall

month-on-month and a 22.8% fall year-on-

year - the lowest since December 2014.

Inclusive of ECs, 430 units were sold in

February, down from the 479 units in the

previous month and 455 units in February last

year. Market experts said that this was not

surprising as developers had held off

launches last month due to the festivities and

weak market sentiment. Nonetheless,

property experts believe that private home

sales should increase this month due to the

launch of private homes like the Cairnhill

Nine, The Wisteria and Wandervale. JLL’s

Ong Teck Hui said that those projects are

expected to do well due to their location and

pricing. However, this does not indicate that

the market is recovering. Wong Xian Yang

from OrangeTee believes that developers will

sell about 500 to 800 private homes in March.

He also predicted that there will be a total of

about 1,124 to 1,424 units sold in Q1 this

year, which is comparable to the 1,311 units

sold in Q1 2015. Nicholas Mak from SLP

International estimates that about 7,000

private homes will be sold by the end of the

year as developers have been selling more

units than they have been releasing them.

SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY I 252


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PropNex’s Ismail Gafoor and JLL’s Ong Teck

Hui both said that developers will likely to

adjust their pricing strategy so as to be able

to move units, given the challenging market

conditions.


MND: Cooling measures unlikely to be

lifted

The Ministry of National Development (MND)

has said that the government is unlikely to lift

cooling measures now as doing so may result

in a market rebound. The Real Estate

Developer’s Association of Singapore

(Redas) had been lobbying for a review of the

cooling measures in recent years. Most

recently, a Member of Parliament had asked if

MND will consider removing the additional

buyer’s stamp duty for Singaporeans but

retain it for foreigners. Augustine Tan from

Redas said that the association desires

stability in the market and does not want a

continued slowdown to have negative

spillover effects on the broader economy.

While experts believe that poor private sector construction demand may slow the economy

in 2016, MAS believes that any impact of a

property slowdown on the economy will be

contained. MAS also added that the

construction workforce is generally able to

adjust flexibly to changes in demand without

discernible impact on local employment, as

the sector is made up of a transitory foreign

workforce.


Tanjong Katong bungalow up for auction

Located at Tanjong Katong, a freehold

bungalow has been put up for auction as a

mortgagee sale.



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The indicative price of the property is about

$16 million or $1,213 psf on the land area of

13,189 sq ft. The property may be

redeveloped and the site has been zoned for

residential use within a “two-storey bungalowlanded housing” area. DTZ said that the plot

may be subdivided to give a pair of

bungalows or semi-detached houses,

subjected to approval from authorities.


Commercial

Co-working space expected to gain

popularity

Cushman & Wakefield said that co-working

spaces can be a hedge for office landlords

against a wave of new office completions.

Undesirable or non-performing spaces may

be carved out for tenants to rent on a needs

basis. Developers may also consider bundling

a portion of the vacant space with committed

space, rather than engage in a price war, said

market experts. Located at Keppel Towers,

Workspace, is a new business venture by

Keppel Land that offers both serviced offices

and co-working spaces that cater to smallstartups. Cushman & Wakefield believes that

co-working spaces will allow business to

rescale their space requirements without

having to deal with rigid terms in existing

lease terms. These spaces also encourage

cross-pollination of ideas and promotes asense of community, as they tend to be large

open areas, unlike serviced offices with

private rooms. Given the stability of demand

from co-working and its profitability, Christine

Li from Cushman & Wakefield said that co-

working operators should consider expandingso as to take advantage of the current supply

of 3.6 million sq ft of Grade A office space,

that is entering the market this year.




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Non-Landed Residential Resale Property Transactions for the Week of Mar 7 – Mar 11

Postal

DistrictProject Name

Area

(sqft)

Transacted

Price ($)

Price

($ psf)Tenure

1 PEOPLE'S PARK COMPLEX 463 525,000 1,134 99

2 THE BEACON 969 1,388,000 1,433 99

2 CHINATOWN PLAZA 1,722 1,880,000 1,092 FH

3 ALEXIS 527 838,000 1,589 FH

4 CARIBBEAN AT KEPPEL BAY 1,227 1,780,000 1,451 99

4 THE INTERLACE 3,401 4,080,000 1,199 99

5 BOTANNIA 1,238 1,450,000 1,171 956

5 THE INFINITI 1,270 1,188,000 935 FH

5 PALM MANSIONS 1,324 1,170,000 884 FH

8 CITY SQUARE RESIDENCES 570 955,000 1,674 FH

8 CITIGATE RESIDENCE 570 700,000 1,227 FH

8 STURDEE VIEW 1,475 1,398,000 948 FH

9 THE METZ 1,023 2,488,888 2,434 FH

9 RIVERGATE 1,561 3,100,000 1,986 FH

9 THE PATERSON 1,421 2,620,000 1,844 FH

9 MARTIN PLACE RESIDENCES 1,722 3,135,000 1,820 FH

9 BELLE VUE RESIDENCES 1,938 3,400,000 1,755 FH

9 SUITES AT ORCHARD 1,776 2,912,250 1,640 99

9 ASPEN HEIGHTS 883 1,360,000 1,541 999

10 RV RESIDENCES 861 1,830,000 2,125 999

10 GRANGE RESIDENCES 2,486 4,800,000 1,930 FH

10 THE TESSARINA 990 1,515,000 1,530 FH

Postal


Area

(sqft)

Transacted

Price ($)

Price

($ psf)Tenure

10 VALLEY PARK 1,109 1,592,000 1,436 999

10 HOLLAND PEAK 1,905 2,660,000 1,396 FH

10 BELMOND GREEN 2,411 3,180,000 1,319 FH

10 THE TRIZON 5,737 6,550,000 1,142 FH

11 ADRIA 1,281 2,110,000 1,647 FH

12 TREVISTA 1,109 1,458,000 1,315 99

14 VACANZA @ EAST 807 938,000 1,162 FH

14 CASA SARINA 1,184 980,000 828 FH

15 THE SEA VIEW 560 1,030,000 1,840 FH

15 MOUNTBATTEN LODGE 377 575,000 1,526 FH

15 AMBER RESIDENCES 1,518 1,850,000 1,219 FH

15 COSTA RHU 2,056 2,480,000 1,206 99

15 LAGUNA PARK 1,615 1,340,000 830 99

16 RIVIERA RESIDENCES 786 940,000 1,196 FH

16 EAST MEADOWS 1,216 1,080,000 888 99

16 THE BAYSHORE 1,238 1,080,000 872 99

17 CHANGI GARDEN 1,475 900,000 610 FH

17 LOYANG VALLEY 1,873 1,050,000 561 99

19 A TREASURE TROVE 1,130 1,125,000 995 99

20 THOMSON V TWO 689 880,000 1,277 FH

20 BISHAN 8 1,163 1,310,000 1,127 99

20 BISHAN 8 1,173 1,220,000 1,040 99



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NOTE: This data only covers non-landed residential resale propertytransactions with caveats lodged with the Singapore Land Authority.

Typically, caveats are lodged at least 2-3 weeks after a purchasersigns an OTP, hence the lagged nature of the data.

Postal


Area

(sqft)

Transacted

Price ($)

Price

($ psf)Tenure

20 MARYMOUNT VIEW 1,259 1,210,000 961 FH

20 BRADDELL VIEW 1,615 1,285,000 796 99

21 THE NEXUS 1,485 2,070,000 1,394 FH

21 JARDIN 1,808 2,228,000 1,232 FH

21 CLEMENTI PARK 1,873 1,918,000 1,024 FH

21 SIGNATURE PARK 1,421 1,435,000 1,010 FH

21 ASTOR GREEN 1,528 1,500,000 981 99

21 THE CASCADIA 2,336 2,250,000 963 FH

22 THE LAKESHORE 861 980,000 1,138 99

23 THE LINEAR 1,249 1,110,000 889 999

23 MAYSPRINGS 915 785,000 858 99

23 HILLINGTON GREEN 2,347 1,820,000 776 99923 PALM GARDENS 1,206 925,000 767 99

23 THE WARREN 1,227 930,000 758 99

25 PARC ROSEWOOD 506 600,000 1,186 99

26 CASTLE GREEN 947 760,000 802 99

27 EUPHONY GARDENS 1,044 785,000 752 99
http://www.moneymatters.sg/

singapore property weekly issue 252

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