Source : The Business Times, January 29, 2008
But developers are in no rush to launch condos ahead of Chinese New Year
A SLEW of projects from various segments - residential, hotels, office and industrial/warehouse - received provisional permission (PP) from Urban Redevelopment Authority in the fourth quarter of last year, based on official data released on Friday.
The private residential projects that bagged PP in Q4 included a 401-unit condo at Upper Thomson Road by UOL Group (on the former Green Meadows site), several strata housing projects at Gilstead Road and Paya Lebar Crescent and the high-profile Marina Bay Suites, whose preview incidentally has been postponed from the end of this month till after the Chinese New Year festivities.
URA data also showed that there are several high-end private residential projects that have secured the pre-requisites for sale - that is, Housing Developer's Sale Licence and Building Plan Approval - but that had yet to be launched as at Dec 31, 2007.
These include Wing Tai's 176-unit Belle Vue Residences at Oxley Walk, 45-unit Ardmore Point at Ardmore Park, 100-unit L'VIV at Newton Road, and City Developments' 228- unit Sentosa Quayside and 77-unit Shelford Suites, among others.
Wing Tai deputy chairman Edmund Cheng said, when contacted by BT, that the group's three projects are not quite ready for launch yet as the showflats, for one, are not ready. 'It's not a good time to launch in any case, as we're crossing over to the Chinese New Year period,' he added.
'With all the global uncertainty, we'll have to see how things pan out before we launch anything. But I don't think it's going to be all gloomy. I'm still quite positive about Singapore's economic growth and this will provide the fundamentals for the property industry to go forward.
'The consolidation in property prices we've been seeing for the past few months is a positive thing, bringing expectations to a more realistic level. Before that, prices were going up so fast, it was not to anybody's interest including developers', because our replacement costs were also so much higher,' Mr Cheng explained.
Knight Frank executive director (residential) Peter Ow reckons it makes sense for most developers to hold back launching projects for now, because they would find it tough to achieve the kind of prices they may have in mind, in the current market.
'Developers can afford to wait it out for a few months as most have strong financial muscle - thanks to the supernormal profits they've made in the past couple of years on the back of strong price appreciation, especially in the high-end segment,' Mr Ow added.
Credo Real Estate managing director Karamjit Singh observed that residential developers are going ahead with securing planning approvals, designing their projects and building showflats but not in a rush with marketing them until sentiments become more conducive for launches, perhaps after Chinese New Year.
'It's a different story for developers of hotels and offices and to some extent industrial facilities. These sectors are experiencing a space shortage, especially for hotels and offices. So developers will rush to proceed with developing such projects once they receive planning approval,' he added.
At least four hotel projects received PP in Q4: CityDev's 257-room property at Sentosa Cove, CGH Group's 272-room hotel in Tanjong Pagar, Haggai Institute for Advanced Leadership Training's 180-room facility at Fairy Point Hill in Changi, and Hotel Grand Central's 328-room hotel in Little India.
Two separate office developments on 99-year sites at Anson Road - by a unit of LaSalle Asia Opportunity Fund III, and by a Mapletree Investments subsidiary - clinched PP in Q4. URA also gave its nod for 144,870 sq metres (gross floor area) of office space and 5,530 sq m of retail space at Marina Bay Financial Centre's Phase 2.
Also receiving the same approval were two transitional office projects on 15-year leasehold sites next to Newton MRT Station and in Tampines.
Among a string of industrial projects obtaining PP in Q4 were Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust's 74,660 sq metre business park project at Changi Business Park Ave 3 and HG Metal Manufacturing's factory at Jurong Port Road. Jurong Port Pte Ltd also received approval to build a 10,240 sq metre extension to its existing warehouse at Jurong Port Rd and URA gave the green light for StorHub Self Storage to develop a warehouse project at Simei Avenue/Tampines St 92.
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