Source : The Business Times, July 22, 2009
HSBC is offering customers of its declining-rate-spread home loans who sell their houses a chance to continue benefiting from lower interest rate spreads, if they take out a new loan with the bank.
The latest tweak to its variable-rate mortgage offering is aimed at persuading customers to stay with the bank, even if they sell their home and redeem their existing loan.
HSBC charges customers of its Sibor-pegged home loans the three-month Singapore interbank offered rate or Sibor, plus an extra margin or spread that declines after the first year.
When the bank launched its Sibor-pegged 'loyalty' home loan package last July, the spread was 0.75 percentage points above Sibor in the first year, 0.65 points in the second year and 0.55 points subsequently. The current spreads are 1.3 points for the first year, 1.2 points for the second year and 1.1 points subsequently.
In March this year the bank launched a new 'relationship-based' home loan package that charged a spread that started at 1.5 percentage points above Sibor in the first year, then declined by 0.075 point each year until the 10th year, when the spread fell to zero, before rising again to 1.2 points subsequently.
Since then, the spreads have been revised. They now start at 1.2 points in the first year and fall by 0.1 point each year until they reach 0.8 point, where the level stays until the ninth year. The spread then falls to zero in the 10th year, and rises to 1.3 points subsequently. Sebastian Arcuri, head of personal financial services at HSBC, said the response to both packages has been 'extremely positive', with three-quarters of the bank's home loan customers choosing one of the two, instead of fixed-rate loans.
With the latest 'portability' feature, customers who sells their home and redeem their mortgage early - say, in the third year - and takes out another Sibor-pegged home loan with HSBC for a new property will pay the same spreads as before on the redeemed loan amount, instead of starting at the top rate. If the Sibor rises significantly, however, the overall interest rate paid by a borrower may still increase from one year to the next.
Mr Arcuri said the feature will help customers save on interest. 'With loan portability, our customers can enjoy the freedom and flexibility to redeem their loan, buy a new home and still benefit from a lower interest rate spread on their home loan year on year,' he said.
To qualify for the rate-spread discounts and the portability feature, customers must keep at least $100,000 in deposits, investments or insurance with HSBC.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Fragrance To Launch At Least 6 More Home Projects In H2
Source : The Business Times, July 22, 2009
Group posts 11.4% rise in Q2 net profit to $17.7 million
FRAGRANCE Group says it intends to launch at least another six residential projects with about 480 units in the second half of this year.
Slow market: H1 net fell 8.9% due to lower selling prices of Fragrance-built homes
It said this in its latest financial results statement, which showed it posted an 11.4 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit for the second quarter ended June 30 to $17.7 million. Turnover rose 33.1 per cent to $79.5 million.
For the first half, the group's net earnings slipped 8.9 per cent year- on-year to $27.8 million despite a 15.5 per cent improvement in turnover to $130.3 million. The lower bottom line was partly due to lower profit margins by the property development business as a result of lower selling prices.
Earnings per share increased from 1.9 cents in Q2 2008 to 2.1 cents in Q2 2009. Net asset value per share rose from 15.3 cents on Dec 31 last year to 18 cents on June 30, 2009.
For Q2 2009, profit before taxation (PBT) from property rose 9.8 per cent year-on-year to $15 million and PBT from hotels increased 7.6 per cent to $5.9 million.
The group's cash and bank balances stood at $25.7 million on June 30, 2009, up from $13.8 million on Dec 31, 2008. Its total borrowings decreased to $178.4 million from $212.1 million on Dec 31, 2008, mainly due to loan repayment relating to sold and completed projects, which was partly offset by new loans for development projects.
The group generated a positive cash flow from operations of $53.6 million during the first half of 2009. This arose mainly from the projects that were sold and completed during the period.
These proceeds were used to settle the borrowings pertaining to the sold and completed projects as well as purchase of property, plant and equipment.
Group posts 11.4% rise in Q2 net profit to $17.7 million
FRAGRANCE Group says it intends to launch at least another six residential projects with about 480 units in the second half of this year.
Slow market: H1 net fell 8.9% due to lower selling prices of Fragrance-built homes It said this in its latest financial results statement, which showed it posted an 11.4 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit for the second quarter ended June 30 to $17.7 million. Turnover rose 33.1 per cent to $79.5 million.
For the first half, the group's net earnings slipped 8.9 per cent year- on-year to $27.8 million despite a 15.5 per cent improvement in turnover to $130.3 million. The lower bottom line was partly due to lower profit margins by the property development business as a result of lower selling prices.
Earnings per share increased from 1.9 cents in Q2 2008 to 2.1 cents in Q2 2009. Net asset value per share rose from 15.3 cents on Dec 31 last year to 18 cents on June 30, 2009.
For Q2 2009, profit before taxation (PBT) from property rose 9.8 per cent year-on-year to $15 million and PBT from hotels increased 7.6 per cent to $5.9 million.
The group's cash and bank balances stood at $25.7 million on June 30, 2009, up from $13.8 million on Dec 31, 2008. Its total borrowings decreased to $178.4 million from $212.1 million on Dec 31, 2008, mainly due to loan repayment relating to sold and completed projects, which was partly offset by new loans for development projects.
The group generated a positive cash flow from operations of $53.6 million during the first half of 2009. This arose mainly from the projects that were sold and completed during the period.
These proceeds were used to settle the borrowings pertaining to the sold and completed projects as well as purchase of property, plant and equipment.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
HSBC Home Loans Offer 'Portability' Perk
Source : The Straits Times, July 22 2009
Scheme allows borrowers to carry forward the discount level they have reached to their new home.
HSBC borrowers with either the bank's Singapore Interbank Offered Rate-pegged (Sibor) loyalty package or its Sibor-pegged relationship- based loan package will now not lose any of the time-related loyalty discounts they have earned when moving house.
The bank has launched a loan 'portability' feature for those with these packages. This allows them to carry forward the discount level they have reached to their new home. Customers can sell their property and continue from where they left off on the sliding interest rate spread offered to them under the two specific loan schemes.
For the relationship-based home loan package, HSBC customers see a year-on-year decrease in the interest spread until the 10th year, when it hits zero.
The Sibor-pegged loyalty home loan deal cuts the interest rate spread at the end of every anniversary year, up to the third year of the loan.
The two packages - both launched last year - are designed to reward longer-term borrowers.
Typically, loans pegged to the Sibor - the rate at which banks lend cash to one another - have either flat or increasing interest rate spreads.
Under the new arrangement, if a customer has a Sibor-pegged relationship-based loan and sells his property in the third year of the loan when the interest rate is 1.69 per cent - Sibor plus 1 per cent, assuming Sibor is 0.69 per cent - he can enjoy a first-year loan interest rate of 1.69 per cent on his new property.
From there, he can go on to enjoy the year-on-year decrease in interest rate spreads offered by his original Sibor-pegged deal with the bank.
Mr Sebastian Arcuri, HSBC's head of personal financial services, said that loan portability meant customers can enjoy the flexibility to redeem their loan, buy a new home and still benefit from a lower interest rate spread year on year.
He added that for customers to enjoy this benefit, they must have a total balance of $100,000 and above in deposits, investments and insurance with HSBC. They must also finance their new home loan, on a completed property, within six months.
Scheme allows borrowers to carry forward the discount level they have reached to their new home.
HSBC borrowers with either the bank's Singapore Interbank Offered Rate-pegged (Sibor) loyalty package or its Sibor-pegged relationship- based loan package will now not lose any of the time-related loyalty discounts they have earned when moving house.
The bank has launched a loan 'portability' feature for those with these packages. This allows them to carry forward the discount level they have reached to their new home. Customers can sell their property and continue from where they left off on the sliding interest rate spread offered to them under the two specific loan schemes.For the relationship-based home loan package, HSBC customers see a year-on-year decrease in the interest spread until the 10th year, when it hits zero.
The Sibor-pegged loyalty home loan deal cuts the interest rate spread at the end of every anniversary year, up to the third year of the loan.
The two packages - both launched last year - are designed to reward longer-term borrowers.
Typically, loans pegged to the Sibor - the rate at which banks lend cash to one another - have either flat or increasing interest rate spreads.
Under the new arrangement, if a customer has a Sibor-pegged relationship-based loan and sells his property in the third year of the loan when the interest rate is 1.69 per cent - Sibor plus 1 per cent, assuming Sibor is 0.69 per cent - he can enjoy a first-year loan interest rate of 1.69 per cent on his new property.
From there, he can go on to enjoy the year-on-year decrease in interest rate spreads offered by his original Sibor-pegged deal with the bank.
Mr Sebastian Arcuri, HSBC's head of personal financial services, said that loan portability meant customers can enjoy the flexibility to redeem their loan, buy a new home and still benefit from a lower interest rate spread year on year.
He added that for customers to enjoy this benefit, they must have a total balance of $100,000 and above in deposits, investments and insurance with HSBC. They must also finance their new home loan, on a completed property, within six months.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Developer Set To Bid $62m For Bt Panjang Condo Site
Source : The Straits Times, July 21, 2009
If sold, it will be first state-owned residential site sale in 10 months
EVER since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the United States and Singapore's slide into recession, the Government has been unable to attract bids for residential development sites.
But yesterday - after 10 straight months without selling a single residential site - the Government said it had finally received an offer for a condominium parcel in Bukit Panjang.
An unnamed property developer has committed to bid at least $62 million for the 244,347 sq ft plot, in what consultants say is a further sign of the property market's rebound.
The 99-year leasehold site located along Chestnut Avenue has been sitting on the Government's reserve list since March last year. Sites on the reserve list are made available for sale, but are not launched for tender until a developer puts in a minimum bid.
Now that the Chestnut Avenue plot has been triggered for sale, it will be put up for tender by the Housing Board by the end of this week, HDB said yesterday.
The bid submitted works out to about $120 per sq ft (psf) of potential gross floor area, as compared with the $220 to $270 psf expected when the site was first made available in March last year.
Mr Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of CB Richard Ellis Research, thinks the final winning bid will be $150 to $160 psf of potential gross floor area, or $76 million to $82 million in total.
The Chestnut Avenue site can accommodate a development of about 450 units.
If sold, it will be the first state-owned residential development sale since Sept 10 last year - just before Lehman's demise - when a condo site at the junction of New Upper Changi Road and Tanah Merah Kechil Avenue went for $84 million.
A few days later, on Sept 16, the HDB launched an executive condominium site at Punggol Field, but found no takers.
Now that buyers are returning in large numbers to showflats, developers' confidence appears to be on the rise, according to consultants.
Home buyers have been snapping up more than 1,000 new homes each month since February, culminating in a record 1,825 new homes sold last month - even more than the number sold in August 2007, the peak of the boom two years ago.
Last week, owners of the freehold Dragon Mansion in Spottiswoode Park Road launched the year's first collective sale, with a bullish price tag of $120 million.
Yesterday's offer for Chestnut Avenue shows that there is renewed interest in the market, according to Jones Lang LaSalle's head of Singapore research Chua Yang Liang, who is still only cautiously optimistic.
'The market is stirring and some developers may be excited, but by and large I don't think there's an overall bullishness in the market,' he said.
And he predicts just a handful of bids for the Chestnut Avenue land.
'I'm not sure if the rest of the developers will bite, considering there is still uncertainty in the larger economy.'
The site is located near other property developments such as Maysprings, Cashew Heights Condominium and Hazel Park Condominium. In recent months, units at the 99-year leasehold Maysprings have been sold at just below $500 psf, while those at the other two condos - both freehold - have gone for $560 to $600 psf, said CB Richard Ellis Research's Mr Li.
He expects the developer who buys the Chestnut Avenue site to plan to sell finished units at more than $600 psf. Such entry-level private homes would be targeted at HDB upgraders - a promising segment of buyers unaffected by fears of a possible oversupply of mid-tier and high-end homes.
Analysts are anticipating more developers to resume buying land in the second half of this year, given that the Urban Redevelopment Authority has received inquiries about some of the other sites on its reserve list.
Also, as market sentiment improves, developers have started to pick up land meant for hotel and industrial development.
Earlier this month, $43.9 million was offered for a hotel site in New Bridge Road, prompting a public tender for the plot. And last month, 14 valid bids were received for a hotel site in Short Street.
If sold, it will be first state-owned residential site sale in 10 months
EVER since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the United States and Singapore's slide into recession, the Government has been unable to attract bids for residential development sites.
But yesterday - after 10 straight months without selling a single residential site - the Government said it had finally received an offer for a condominium parcel in Bukit Panjang.An unnamed property developer has committed to bid at least $62 million for the 244,347 sq ft plot, in what consultants say is a further sign of the property market's rebound.
The 99-year leasehold site located along Chestnut Avenue has been sitting on the Government's reserve list since March last year. Sites on the reserve list are made available for sale, but are not launched for tender until a developer puts in a minimum bid.
Now that the Chestnut Avenue plot has been triggered for sale, it will be put up for tender by the Housing Board by the end of this week, HDB said yesterday.
The bid submitted works out to about $120 per sq ft (psf) of potential gross floor area, as compared with the $220 to $270 psf expected when the site was first made available in March last year.
Mr Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of CB Richard Ellis Research, thinks the final winning bid will be $150 to $160 psf of potential gross floor area, or $76 million to $82 million in total.
The Chestnut Avenue site can accommodate a development of about 450 units.
If sold, it will be the first state-owned residential development sale since Sept 10 last year - just before Lehman's demise - when a condo site at the junction of New Upper Changi Road and Tanah Merah Kechil Avenue went for $84 million.
A few days later, on Sept 16, the HDB launched an executive condominium site at Punggol Field, but found no takers.
Now that buyers are returning in large numbers to showflats, developers' confidence appears to be on the rise, according to consultants.
Home buyers have been snapping up more than 1,000 new homes each month since February, culminating in a record 1,825 new homes sold last month - even more than the number sold in August 2007, the peak of the boom two years ago.
Last week, owners of the freehold Dragon Mansion in Spottiswoode Park Road launched the year's first collective sale, with a bullish price tag of $120 million.
Yesterday's offer for Chestnut Avenue shows that there is renewed interest in the market, according to Jones Lang LaSalle's head of Singapore research Chua Yang Liang, who is still only cautiously optimistic.
'The market is stirring and some developers may be excited, but by and large I don't think there's an overall bullishness in the market,' he said.
And he predicts just a handful of bids for the Chestnut Avenue land.
'I'm not sure if the rest of the developers will bite, considering there is still uncertainty in the larger economy.'
The site is located near other property developments such as Maysprings, Cashew Heights Condominium and Hazel Park Condominium. In recent months, units at the 99-year leasehold Maysprings have been sold at just below $500 psf, while those at the other two condos - both freehold - have gone for $560 to $600 psf, said CB Richard Ellis Research's Mr Li.
He expects the developer who buys the Chestnut Avenue site to plan to sell finished units at more than $600 psf. Such entry-level private homes would be targeted at HDB upgraders - a promising segment of buyers unaffected by fears of a possible oversupply of mid-tier and high-end homes.
Analysts are anticipating more developers to resume buying land in the second half of this year, given that the Urban Redevelopment Authority has received inquiries about some of the other sites on its reserve list.
Also, as market sentiment improves, developers have started to pick up land meant for hotel and industrial development.
Earlier this month, $43.9 million was offered for a hotel site in New Bridge Road, prompting a public tender for the plot. And last month, 14 valid bids were received for a hotel site in Short Street.
Keppel To Develop Eco-Homes In Tianjin Park
Source : The Business Times, July 21, 2009
KEPPEL Corp and Keppel Land will invest a combined 705 million yuan (S$148 million) to develop a site in the Tianjin Eco-City park in China.
Tianjin Eco-City: The 36.8-hectare site in the business park is expected to eventually yield about 5,000 homes, and office and retail space with a total gross floor area of 680,000 sq metres
The 36.8-hectare site in the business park is expected to eventually yield about 5,000 homes, and office and retail space with a total gross floor area of 680,000 sq metres.
Construction will start in the first quarter of next year and proceed in phases. The first phase will yield 1,760 homes with a total gross floor area of 170,000 sq m, and commercial developments with a gross floor area of 40,000 sq m.
The sales launch of first-phase homes is expected in Q2 next year, Keppel said.
The development is located along a 'green spine linking major transit nodes, residential developments and commercial centres' and is close to the Eco-Business Park and commercial sub-centre, which is next to a planned light rail station.
Keppel Corp will take a 45 per cent stake in the development and Keppel Land will own the remaining 55 per cent. Keppel Land has been appointed project manager.
Kevin Wong, group chief executive of Keppel Land, said the project will 'contribute to the development of a thriving city in an ecologically sustainable urban environment'.
'Keppel Land has a successful track record in master-planning and executing large-scale integrated township developments,' he said. 'Our knowledge of and experience in the China market stands us in good stead to harness synergies and create value for Tianjin Eco-City.'
Ecologically friendly features to be built into the development include thermal insulation for buildings, the use of solar energy to reduce power consumption, and rainwater collection for recycling.
Keppel has engaged architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and US-based consulting firm Rocky Mountain Institute, which provides advice on sustainable developments. Keppel has also hired Parsons Brinckerhoff, an engineering consultancy firm with experience of eco-projects and developments in China.
The Tianjin Eco-City, conceived as a working model of sustainable development, is being developed by Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Investment and Development Co, an equal joint venture between a Singapore consortium led by Keppel Group and a Chinese consortium.
Keppel said the proposed investment is not expected to have any material impact on the earnings or net assets per share of Keppel Corp or Keppel Land this financial year.
KEPPEL Corp and Keppel Land will invest a combined 705 million yuan (S$148 million) to develop a site in the Tianjin Eco-City park in China.
Tianjin Eco-City: The 36.8-hectare site in the business park is expected to eventually yield about 5,000 homes, and office and retail space with a total gross floor area of 680,000 sq metresThe 36.8-hectare site in the business park is expected to eventually yield about 5,000 homes, and office and retail space with a total gross floor area of 680,000 sq metres.
Construction will start in the first quarter of next year and proceed in phases. The first phase will yield 1,760 homes with a total gross floor area of 170,000 sq m, and commercial developments with a gross floor area of 40,000 sq m.
The sales launch of first-phase homes is expected in Q2 next year, Keppel said.
The development is located along a 'green spine linking major transit nodes, residential developments and commercial centres' and is close to the Eco-Business Park and commercial sub-centre, which is next to a planned light rail station.
Keppel Corp will take a 45 per cent stake in the development and Keppel Land will own the remaining 55 per cent. Keppel Land has been appointed project manager.
Kevin Wong, group chief executive of Keppel Land, said the project will 'contribute to the development of a thriving city in an ecologically sustainable urban environment'.
'Keppel Land has a successful track record in master-planning and executing large-scale integrated township developments,' he said. 'Our knowledge of and experience in the China market stands us in good stead to harness synergies and create value for Tianjin Eco-City.'
Ecologically friendly features to be built into the development include thermal insulation for buildings, the use of solar energy to reduce power consumption, and rainwater collection for recycling.
Keppel has engaged architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and US-based consulting firm Rocky Mountain Institute, which provides advice on sustainable developments. Keppel has also hired Parsons Brinckerhoff, an engineering consultancy firm with experience of eco-projects and developments in China.
The Tianjin Eco-City, conceived as a working model of sustainable development, is being developed by Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Investment and Development Co, an equal joint venture between a Singapore consortium led by Keppel Group and a Chinese consortium.
Keppel said the proposed investment is not expected to have any material impact on the earnings or net assets per share of Keppel Corp or Keppel Land this financial year.
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