Let's Hear It For A Year Of Property Records

Source : The Straits Times, Dec 29, 2007

YEAR IN REVIEW : Property

It has been a spectacular year for the property market. The boom, after a long lull and slow recovery, was fast and furious as one mind-boggling record after another was set. JOYCE TEO recounts the record-busters CapitaLand pays $1.339b for Farrer Court

CAPITALAND made history in June when it announced it was paying $1.339 billion for the former HUDC estate Farrer Court in a collective sale. This remains the biggest lump sum ever shelled out for a residential site in Singapore.

The sale is also the largest collective one ever in terms of land area and the number of units. Farrer Court has 618 units. Owners of each unit will get about $2.15 million depending on the size of their flats. The development sits on 838,500 sq ft of land near the junction of Farrer and Holland roads.

The sale propelled relatively small- sized Credo Real Estate into the big league of property firms.

The sale may have been the biggest lump sum paid, but Westwood Apartments - which was sold by Savills Singapore late last month - took the record in terms of the price per sq ft (psf) of potential gross floor area, at $2,525.

In all, about $12.5 billion worth of collective sales was done, 50 per cent more than last year's $8.2 billion and far exceeding the $1.99 billion total in 2005.

This has made millionaires out of many. Some lucky owners got more than a few million dollars. Owners of the 24 units at The Ardmore, for instance, received about $11 million each. Owners of the two penthouses at Westwood will each get a whopping $17 million.


Horizon Towers hearing that went on and on

THE acrimonious $500 million Horizon Towers collective sale went through possibly the longest Strata Titles Board (STB) hearing ever before it was approved.

What was meant to be just another collective sale descended into a drawn-out, and at times dramatic, fight between the supporters and opponents of the sale, and the developers wanting to buy the plot.

The sale was thrown out by the STB over a technicality, making it one of the few applications ever rejected. It was then taken to the High Court, which granted the owners' appeal, paving the way for the STB to approve the sale.

The Horizon Towers case involved an array of top lawyers. Majority owners knew they faced an unprecedented lawsuit for breach of contract by the developer if the sale had ultimately failed.

A group of objecting minority owners spent millions fighting the sale. But the estate was eventually sold to Hotel Properties and its partners Morgan Stanley Real Estate and Qatar Investment Authority, a year after they had inked the deal.


Marine Parade unit sold for $750,888

THIS title, for mainstream flats, was claimed by a five-room unit on the 23rd floor in Marine Parade that offers an unblocked view of the sea. The 32-year-old flat in a prized 'point block' right across from the East Coast Park was sold for $750,888 last month.

That is significantly more than the median price of a five-room flat in Marine Parade - $560,000 in the third quarter, up from $485,000 in the second quarter.

Still, higher absolute prices have been paid for executive flats, which are bigger and not as common as five-room flats. One of these, a 156 sq m high floor unit in Mei Ling Street, sold for $780,000 but cost less than the Marine Parade flat on a psf basis.

Property agents say such high-priced flats need to have the 'X-factor' in terms of surrounding amenities, views and so on.

Also, buyers willing to pay such big amounts are not your typical HDB flat dwellers or buyers. They are cash-rich and include home hunters flush with the proceeds of a collective sale, as well as those who have just collected their pension payout.


Orchard Residences home went for over $5,600 psf

THIS slice of downtown luxury is a penthouse unit at The Orchard Residences, the 175-unit leasehold condominium that is being built above the Orchard MRT Station.

The 53rd floor, 5,048 sq ft unit went for $5,600 per sq ft in October, or slightly more than $28 million.

This year, condo prices crossed the $4,000 psf mark and surged past the $5,000 psf mark for the very first time.

In comparison, last year's price record - set in December by a unit in Marina Bay Residences - was only $3,450 psf.

It is not just units at The Orchard Residences that have scaled such stratospheric highs.

Other developments that have registered sales of above $4,000 psf include Hilltops, Ritz-Carlton Residences and Scotts Square.


Sentosa Cove, Nassim Road plots scale new highs

GOOD-CLASS bungalows have always been considered the creme de la creme of landed homes. That is, until the waterfront homes in Sentosa Cove came along.

Last month, two seafront bungalow plots in 99-year leasehold Sentosa Cove sold for a high of $1,696 psf.

Good-class bungalows, which need to be at least 15,070 sq ft in size and be located in gazetted areas have sold for up to about $1,300 psf.

However, even the heady heights of Sentosa Cove were topped in October when a bungalow that is smaller than a good-class bungalow in the posh precinct of Nassim Road was sold for a high of $1,899 psf, or $25.5 million in total.


Raffles Place rentals soar to $19.80 psf a month

ASKING rents at Republic Plaza in Raffles Place have reportedly hit a whopping $19.80 psf a month amid tight supply, up from just above $13 psf a year ago.

Cushman & Wakefield data showed that prime achievable office rents are now slightly above $16 psf a month on average, compared with around $8.50 psf per month a year ago.

Supply of office space was so tight that the Government came up with transitional sites to cater to demand. Sales of office units also rose.


Foreigners, PRs account for a quarter of total sales

FOREIGNERS and permanent residents went on a buying spree, sometimes scooping up nearly a whole residential project.

Knight Frank data showed that they chalked up 7,902 sales from January to November, which accounted for 24.9 per cent of total sales. These figures, said the firm's research and consultancy head Nicholas Mak, are the highest in 13 years, thanks to healthy regional economic conditions, an increase in the number of expatriates as well as other factors.

Thai tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, for instance, bought 47 out of 48 apartments at Hoi Hup's Suites @ Cairnhill for $205 million, or about $2,550 psf.

He also purchased four floors of apartments at The Orchard Residences for $135 million, or about $3,600 psf.

Institutional investors also entered the market in a big way, picking up anything from several units to whole condo blocks and even development sites. They include Macquarie Global Property Advisors, Goldman Sachs and United States-based Wachovia Development.

joyceteo@sph.com.sg