Jackie Chan Pays $11m For Jinriksha Station At 1 Neil Road

Source : The Straits Times, Dec 12, 2007

Celebrity plans to open piano bar, reflexology business, offices

HONG KONG movie superstar Jackie Chan's love affair with Singapore property continues with his latest purchase - the former Jinriksha Station at 1 Neil Road.

DOWN MEMORY LANE: Built in 1903, the Jinriksha Station was the central depot for rickshaw drivers. -- ST PHOTO: AZIZ HUSSIN

He fell in love with the historic building - once the central depot for rickshaw drivers in Singapore - and bought it for $11 million.

The three-storey corner building in Tanjong Pagar now houses a music lounge called EZ50 on the ground floor. Its sale price works out to $818 per sq ft (psf).

'It's a good price because the individual shophouses there are about $1,000 over psf on average,' said Mr Simon Kwan, who helped broker the deal about a fortnight back. 'As long as he purchases it at or below the market price, he will be comfortable,' he said, of Chan.

Mr Kwan, who is the star's property agent, also runs EZ50 and The 50s pubs, as well as the recently opened Jackie Chan's Cafe Coffee and Tea at 1 Nassim Road.

The star purchased 1 Neil Road from a firm owned by Mr S. L. Cheong, which also owns the 1 Nassim Road property leased to Chan.

Mr Cheong, the uncle of SC Global chief Simon Cheong, also sold Chan The 50s entertainment complex on Tanjong Pagar Road for $8.8 million in 1996.

Both the Tanjong Pagar buildings are in the Neil Road conservation area.

'You can't find buildings like this anywhere else,' said Mr Kwan. 'These are the two most outstanding buildings in Tanjong Pagar.'

The former Jinriksha station was built in 1903.

It is a commercial building with space for rent. The One Family KTV karaoke lounge used to occupy the second and third floors, but it had since closed down, according to Mr Kwan, who is managing the building on behalf of Chan.

Mr Kwan has plans for a piano bar, a foot reflexology business or offices for the 8,500 sq ft of space on the second and third floors.

'The highest possibility is to have offices,' he said, explaining that this plan would leave him time to concentrate on running Chan's new restaurant business in Singapore.

Also, office rents are currently strong, supported by tight supply.

Rents at the nearby Red Dot Traffic Building are at $6 psf a month, while those at International Plaza next to the Tanjong Pagar MRT station are going for $7.50 to $8 psf.

Mr Kwan said they could have seven to eight office units.

A decision will be made after a trip to Hong Kong to meet up with Chan and firm up plans, he said.

Apart from commercial buildings, the movie star also owns a few condominium units in the Orchard Road area, including a three-bedroom unit in The Grangeford condo on Leonie Hill Road.

The 99-year leasehold Grangeford is by now known for the property that sold en bloc for more than half of Horizon Towers' price on a psf basis.

Chan bought his Grangeford apartment, which is being rented out, for only $1.3 million back in 1996.

He will stand to reap about $3.4 million from the collective sale, which he was originally not keen on joining.

Another Hong Kong superstar, Andy Lau, also used to own an apartment at Grangeford, as well as a unit at the UE Square condo.

Mr Kwan said he had since sold these off for Andy Lau. He also used to manage the Singapore properties of the late Teresa Teng and Anita Mui.

Savills Singapore's director of business development and marketing, Mr Ku Swee Yong, said there would be more celebrities entering Singapore's property market.

'For one, the Formula One event will bring in a lot of celebrities.'


Jackie's properties

Among Jackie Chan's other properties and businesses in Singapore are:

# A three-bedroom unit in The Grangeford on Leonie Hill Road;
# Jackie Chan's Cafe, Coffee And Tea at 1 Nassim Road;
# The 50s entertainment complex on Tanjong Pagar Road; and
# A gym business through a partnership with California Fitness.

Property Investment Sales Hit Record Highs In 2007

Source : Channel NewsAsia, 11 December 2007

Property investment sales are hitting a new record high this year.

According to property consultant CB Richard Ellis, total investment sales for this year total nearly S$51 billion.

This is 66 per cent higher than the record of S$30.57 billion achieved for the whole of last year.

The growth was driven by large acquisitions from developers in both the private and public sector.

A site at Marina View which went for almost S$1 billion was among the key property deals for the year which helped to push total property investment sales to a new all-time high.

Property consultants said the strong numbers were driven by a strong appetite for acquisitions.

Jeremy Lake, Executive Director of CB Richard Ellis, said: "I think the property market is probably in the sweet spot at the moment, and by that I mean everything seems to be looking very positive. We've seen developers have a very story appetite for sites. We've seen individual investors buying a large amount of condominiums and houses and then on the office side the office market has been very strong. We've seen a large number of foreign investors buying office buildings for investment."

The residential sector took the lead with 60 per cent of the investment sales pie.

There were 109 en bloc sales alone, amounting to S$13.3 billion.

Public sector land sales were also brisk.

36 government sites were sold for a total of S$11.5 billion.

These comprised purchases of government land sites and the tender awards of luxury water front residential land parcels.

A total of 36 government sites were bought by developers during the year so far consisting of three white sites, nine residential sites, eight commercial sites, six hotel sites and 10 industrial sites.

Meanwhile, investment activity in the office sector remained strong with almost S$14.89 billion of sales.

This accounts for 29 per cent of the overall sales pie.

Office investment sales account for 29 per cent of this year’s total investment sales so far.

CBRE notes that although sentiment in the residential sector has been hit by concerns over the US sub-prime market, it expects the office sector to remain resilient.

“I think the sub-prime has reached Singapore for the residential sector which has been driven largely by sentiment. Sentiment is a little bit bruised at this point in time so your individual home buyer or residential investor is perhaps watching and waiting for more signs of how the market will respond,” said Mr Lake.

CBRE says it expects investment sentiment to remain positive in 2008, given continued economic growth. -CNA/vm

Goldman Seeks $1 billion Windfall On DBS Building

Source : The Business Times, December 12, 2007

US bank could be tweaking portfolio, sources say; DBS may move to new location

Goldman Sachs is said to be discreetly looking around for a buyer for DBS Building along Shenton Way. The US bank, which bought the two office towers two years ago, could reap a tidy gain of almost $1 billion should a deal go through.

DBS Building: Given the property's age and tenure, it may be hard to find takers at $2,000 psf, say analysts

Market watchers say that it makes sense for Goldman Sachs to reshuffle its office portfolio to more prime locations in Singapore.

Goldman is believed to be seeking a price of at least $2,000 per square foot of net lettable area (NLA), which would work out to about $1.75 billion, compared with the $789 psf or $690 million that it paid for the property in late 2005.

Meanwhile, DBS which sold the property to Goldman and leased back the space it occupied, is expected to relocate to Marina Bay Financial Centre (Phase 2), as reported by BT.

DBS occupied the entire 49-storey Tower 1 - which is more than 30 years old - when it sold the property to Goldman in 2005. It also occupied almost 40 per cent of the 34-storey Tower 2, which is just 13 years old. It leased the premises for eight years, with an option for renewal.

The Singapore bank is now said to be eyeing a move to its prestigious new location, expected to be completed in late 2011. This suggests a period of overlap with its existing lease on DBS Building, that runs till late 2013.

Goldman, on the other hand, has been snapping up new office assets of late.

In August this year, it inked a deal to buy Chevron House at Raffles Place from CapitaLand and other parties for $730 million or $2,780 psf of NLA.

The building stands on a site with a remaining lease of about 81 years. Goldman Sachs is also expected to purchase the 37-storey Hitachi Tower next door, in which CapitaLand also has a stake. The price is understood to be around $3,000 psf, or about $840 million in total. Hitachi House has a 999-year leasehold tenure and faces Collyer Quay.

'It's good business sense for Goldman to move its Singapore office holdings from the old Shenton Way area to Raffles Place/Collyer Quay, where rental and capital values are likely to appreciate faster.

'The new financial district at Marina Bay will be connected to the Raffles Place/Collyer Quay vicinity, which will also be rejuvenated with the Ocean Financial Centre development,' a seasoned industry market watcher said.

Some office market watchers estimate that in the current market, Goldman Sachs may fetch around $1,750 psf to $1,800 psf of NLA for DBS Building - instead of the $2,000 psf minimum price it is seeking - given the property's age and short balance land tenure.

'A lot will also depend on what sort of rentals the building can fetch after DBS moves out,' a property consultant said.

And while the Singapore office market has sizzled this year because of an acute shortage of offices, investors have become a little cautious lately on fears that the US sub-prime contagion could clip the space requirements of big financial institutions here.

'Perhaps Goldman Sachs stands a higher chance of achieving its target price range it if waits a little longer and hopefully by then, the current sub-prime woes may ease,' an observer suggests.

Investment in Singapore's office sector, including land for development into offices, has seen a staggering $14.9 billion worth of deals sealed so far this year. This is about three times the figure for the whole of last year.

The supply crunch has also seen prime office capital values rise from about $2,000 psf at the start of this year to nearly $3,000 psf, as seen in the price that Goldman Sachs is believed to have negotiated for Hitachi Tower.

Some Reliefs Already Based On Annual Value

Source : The Straits Times, Dec 12, 2007

I REFER to Mr On Giin Jau's letter, 'Give reliefs based on flat valuation, not flat type' (ST, Dec 8), suggesting that the Government provides tax reliefs and rebates based on the Annual Value (AV) of a flat rather than flat type.

We agree with Mr On that the AV of a flat is a better proxy of wealth than flat type. He may wish to note that the Government already uses the AV of a property as the criterion for the disbursement of GST credits and tax-related reliefs, specifically property-tax rebates.

Such forms of relief are provided to all Singaporeans, including those living in private properties, and households with lower AVs enjoy more relief.

For rebates that are provided only to HDB households, like rebates on utilities charges, service and conservancy charges and rental charges for one- and two-room rental flats, they are based on flat type, with smaller flat types enjoying a higher rebate.

This is simple to understand and to administer, and serves the intended purpose of helping those more in need.

Nevertheless, we acknowledge Mr On's point that flat type may not always be an accurate proxy of wealth. Going forward we will continue to review how to improve the disbursement of government reliefs and rebates in a way which is fair and reasonable.

We thank Mr On for his feedback.

Tan Li San (Ms)
Director (Social Programmes)
for Permanent Secretary
Ministry of Finance

SLA Offers 100,000sqm Of Office Space For Sale

Source : Channel NewsAsia, 12 December 2007

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is offering another 100,000 square metres of office space in three properties on short-term leases.

The tenders are aimed at meeting market demand.

The three properties are the site of the former Alexandra fire station, a former office of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the former Upper Aljunied Technical School.

The former Alexandra fire station site in Queensway has a land area of under 12,000 square metres and a gross floor area of 3,200 square metres.

The CAAS site in Changi has a land area of about 1,500 square metres and a gross floor area of slightly over 1,000 square metres.

The former Upper Aljunied Technical School site has a land area of about 20,000 square metres and a gross floor area of 7,700 square metres. - CNA/so