Higher Pay For Cleaners, Higher S & C Charges?

Source : The Straits Times, Aug 7, 2007

Higher productivity and in turn higher pay - that's what cleaners and conservancy workers in HDB estates can look forward to under the latest Job Recreation Programme.

For residents, it could mean cleaner estates, since contractors must now send their staff for training to secure contracts with town councils.

But will cleaner estates mean higher conservancy charges?

Ng Kai Ling finds out.

Video Link - http://tinyurl.com/38tffx [ The Straits Times Video News]

Horizon Towers Owners Try To Head Off Lawsuit

Source : The Straits Times, Aug 8, 2007

Following aborted collective sale, failed buyers' extraordinary claim works out to as much as $5.78 million for each unit

-- ST FILE PHOTO

OWNERS at Horizon Towers fear they could lose millions of dollars each in a lawsuit over their condominium's aborted collective sale.

Who's who

Sellers: 173 owners at Horizon Towers (right) in Leonie Hill who signed the agreement to sell

Buyers: Hotel Properties Limited, Morgan Stanley Real Estate and Qatar Investment Authority

Objectors: Owners who did not sign the agreement


The authorities: Strata Titles Board (STB)

Timeline

August 2006: Horizon Towers tender fails to attract offers at the $500 million reserve price

February 2007: Hotel Properties and partners agree to buy Horizon Towers for $500 million or about $815 per sq ft (psf) of potential gross floor area

Late April 2007: Grangeford Apartment tender sets record asking price of $2,016 psf of potential gross floor area

May 2007: A group of owners who feel shortchanged by the sale, because prices have soared, attempted to reverse it

Late May 2007: Mediation hearing at the STB held

June 2007: Overseas Union Enterprise inked conditional deal to buy Grangeford at $1,810 psf of potential gross floor area

Early August 2007: STB dismisses the Horizon Towers collective sale on technical grounds

The parties who intended to buy the estate said they will sue the 173 owners who backed the sale for breach of contract and are claiming up to $1 billion in lost profits.

The extraordinary claim works out to about $5.78 million for each unit.

Minority owners - those who voted against the sale - will not be sued but they also fear the legal fallout could see them forced to sell their homes.

'Horizon Tower owners are very concerned with the purchasers' lawyer's letter to sue them,' said the deputy chairman of the sales committee, Ms Doreen Siow.

'We are trying to protect the interests of individual home owners and are in discussions with our lawyers on how to proceed.'

Legal teams were locked in lengthy meetings with the sales committee yesterday trying to devise a response, which the buyers want delivered today.

The threat to sue is contained in a letter delivered on Monday demanding that the sellers extend the sale deadline - it is due to expire on Saturday - by four months.

This would allow a new sale application to be made to the Strata Titles Board (STB) - one without the procedural errors that caused the initial application to be axed last Friday.

The buyers - Hotel Properties Limited (HPL), Morgan Stanley Real Estate and Qatar Investment Authority - also said the sellers could appeal to the High Court over the STB decision.

If the demands are not met, the buyers have threatened to sue for lost profits, estimated at between $800 million and $1 billion.

The STB dismissed the $500 million collective sale of the two 99-year leasehold blocks - comprising 199 apartments and 11 penthouses - on technical grounds, and not because of any merits in the case.

It said that 'statutory requirements' had not been met but did not elaborate.

Lawyers for the majority owners, Tan, Rajah & Cheah, have asked the STB for the reasons for its decision, in what has become the most contentious collective sale in years.

The deal struck in February eventually triggered protests from some owners, who felt the price was far too low.

Many owners were only too happy to see the deal fail even though they had earlier supported it because prime property prices have risen significantly since.

They cited the Grangeford estate next door, which was put up for sale a few months later with an asking price well above that achieved by Horizon Towers. Grangeford was sold last week at a level not far from its asking price.

Months of wrangling, meetings and ballooning legal costs led to last Friday's STB hearing.

The Horizon Towers case is highly unusual in that it is thought to be the first time that a buyer has threatened to sue the sellers.

It is also one of the few collective sales to be thrown out on technical grounds.

The wrangle is also striking for the number of top-flight legal eagles it has attracted.

HPL has Senior Counsel K.Shanmugam and Mr William Ong of Allen & Gledhill on its team.

Majority owners are represented by Senior Counsel Jimmy Yim of Drew & Napier and Senior Counsel Chelva Rajah of Tan, Rajah & Cheah.

Two small groups of objectors to the sale assigned Mr Kannan Ramesh, senior partner of Tan Kok Quan Partnership, and Mr Phillip Fong, senior partner of Harry Ellias Partnership.

A company that owns several units appointed Dr S.K.Phang, who then enlisted Senior Counsel Michael Hwang.

Pearlbank Apartments, Mitre Hotel Up For Sale

Source : The Business Times, 7 Aug 2007

PEARLBANK Apartments in the Chinatown area and Mitre Hotel off Killiney Road have been launched for sale.

And on Friday last week, MCL Land said it had bought Dynasty Garden Court 1 in Sixth Avenue for $80 million or $1,160 per square foot of land area. The freehold site is designated for three-storey mixed landed housing. The collective sale was brokered by Credo Real Estate.

Knight Frank says it expects at least $750 million for Pearlbank Apartments. This reflects a unit land price of $1,445 per sq ft of potential gross floor area including an estimated $137 million the developer will have to pay the state to restore the lease on the 82,376 sq ft site to 99 years from a balance of about 62.

In the Killiney Road area, the Mitre Hotel and a two-storey outhouse that sit on freehold land of 39,972 sq ft are expected to fetch about $200 million, or close to $1,800 psf per plot ratio, including an estimated $700,000 development charge.

Jones Lang LaSalle is marketing the property, which is being sold by public tender after a court order was made following a dispute among the Chiam family members who own it.

The site is zoned for residential use with a 2.8 plot ratio - the ratio of maximum potential gross floor area to land area - and a 10-storey height limit. The tender closes on Sept 12.

Pearlbank Apartments, next to Pearl’s Hill City Park, was built on land sold in 1969 under the Third Urban Redevelopment Authority Sale of Sites programme. It was the first all-housing project built on a URA land parcel.

The development has 280 apartments and eight commercial units. Knight Frank says owners representing more than 80 per cent of share values have signed the collective sale agreement. The project has an existing gross floor area (GFA) of 613,530 sq ft, equivalent to a 7.447 plot ratio - higher than the 7.2 designated for the site under Master Plan 2003.

Knight Frank’s price expectation of ‘at least $750 million’ is based on the assumption that the developer can retain the existing GFA in a new project.

‘Based on an average unit size of 1,200 sq ft, 500 new apartments can be built on the site,’ the firm says. Because of the site’s elevation, even lower-level units will have unblocked views of the city skyline, it adds.

Developers have until Sept 18 to submit offers.

Horizon Towers’ Failed Buyers Allege Breach Of Contract

Source : The Straits Times, 7 Aug 2007

In the wake of a scuppered Horizon Towers deal, the failed buyers have sent a letter to lawyers representing the majority owners who signed the original sales deal, alleging the sellers are in breach of contract.

The three joint buyers - Hotel Properties Limited, Morgan Stanley Real Estate and Qatar Investment Authority, the investment arm of the Gulf Arab state of Qatar - estimate their loss arising from the aborted deal to be in the region of $800 million to $1 billion.

Hotel Properties’ group executive director Christopher Lim confirmed yesterday that the letter had been sent to law firm Tan Rajah & Cheah.

The consortium of buyers are urging the sellers to consider alternative courses of action. These include extending the deadline for the sales option beyond this Saturday.

There is currently provision for the sales committee to extend the deadline by four months. This would enable a fresh application be filed with the Strata Titles Board.

The move is the latest twist in the contentious collective sale of Horizon Towers. The sale was aborted late last week after months of bitter wrangling between neighbours and lawyers.

Last Friday, the Strata Titles Board ruled in favour of the protesting minority owners of the two tower blocks in Leonie Hill, which were due to be sold for $500 million to the developers.

The ruling in favour of minority owners was the first such ruling in seven years, and came after the board decided that the proper sales procedures were not followed.

The saga began soon after the neighbouring Grangeford condominium was sold en bloc at a far higher asking price per sq ft than the price offered for Horizon Towers.

Unhappy Horizon Towers residents banded together to call an extraordinary general meeting to replace their sales committee. Several of the original members subsequently resigned.

UE Considers Retail Reit Backed By Malls

Source : The Straits Times, 7 Aug 2007

UNITED Engineers (UE) is mulling over starting a retail real estate investment trust (Reit) backed by malls in its new mixed development in one-north and UE Square.

Alternatively, it could sell the retail space of about 100,000 sq ft at the mixed development to an existing Reit or another party, its managing director and chief executive officer, Mr Jackson Yap, told The Straits Times yesterday.

UE Square is a mixed development with 78,737 sq ft of retail space.

He said this after the builder announced that it has sold all 366 homes at The Rochester, which is located at the same 99-year leasehold development as the one-north mall.

The residential units were sold at an average price of $1,300 per sq ft (psf), UE said in a statement yesterday. Prices ranged from $900 psf to about $1,600 psf.

The Rochester, designed by famed architect Paul Noritaka Tange of Tange Associates, is the second condominium to be marketed at the 200ha research hub one-north.

The first - the 405-unit One North Residences - was sold in March at $850 psf to $950 psf on average. Like the first condominium, The Rochester was bought mainly by locals. Its nine penthouses that come with private lap pools, however, were purchased mostly by foreigners, at $4 million to $8 million each.

UE’s one-north mixed development also consists of 125 service apartments and a 250-room hotel. The company last launched a residential project - at UE Square - more than a decade ago. But more will come, said Mr Yap.

For now, UE is focusing on its next project, a high-end one located at Balmoral Crescent.

It plans to launch and market this 40-unit development in Hong Kong and Jakarta at about $2,500 psf in October.

UE had tied up with Kajima Overseas Asia to buy the Balmoral site in a collective sale last August for $52 million or just $733 psf of potential gross floor area, inclusive of development charge