Issue 180

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CONTENTS
p2 8 Self-Defeating Mistakes Amateur
Property Investors Make
p6 Singapore Property News This Week
p10 Resale Property Transactions
(October 15 October 21 )
Welcome to the 180
th
edition of the
Singapore Property Weekly.
Hope you like it!
Mr. Propwise
FROM THE
EDITOR
SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 180
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By Gerald Tay (guest contributor)
Weve covered Property Valuation utilising
powerful ratios - CapRates, Cash-on-Cash,
IRR, NPV, and MIRR in previous articles.
Although these five ratios are seminal to
measuring a propertys value, your attitude is
no less critical.
There are a number of behaviours that almost
guarantee losing in the real estate market.
These behaviours, the antithesis of the way
The Master Investor operates, include:
1. Greed
Investors try to buy and sell in the cycle, in
the hope that they will be able to time their
investments to maximise profits.
8 Self-Defeating Mistakes Amateur Property Investors Make
SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 180
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A desire for quick profits blinds investors to
the real hard work needed to win.
An example of bad investing is buying off-
plan properties and trying to offload them
before or after the T.O.P, in order to catch
profits.
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through
life, son. Animal House
2. Impatience
People have an insatiable need for action. It
might be the adrenaline rush they get from
action their gamblers high. Investing in
property is about patience and objective
decision-making, not action addiction.
One does not invest because he is afraid to
miss the wave. One invests when it makes
sense to do so. Unfortunately, many investors
cannot tell the difference or know the
When. They invest like lemmings who dont
have opinions of their own.
3. Lack of discipline
It takes an accumulation of knowledge and
sharp focus to invest successfully. Many
would rather listen to the advice of others
than to take the time to learn for themselves.
People are lazy when it comes to acquiring
the education needed for investing. Think
about Bernard Madoff. Think of Profitable
Plots (the local investment company which
was recently busted by the CAD). People just
want to believe.
4. Refusal to accept the truth
Investors do not want to believe that the only
truth is cashflow when it comes to any real
estate investment. As a result, they follow
others exuberance and lazy strategies like
SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 180
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hoping for capital gains and rental
guarantees, setting the stage for inevitable
losses.
If you want a guarantee, go buy a toaster.
5. No objectivity
Losing Investors are unable to disengage
emotionally from the market. They believe the
market owes them a living.
6. The Complainers
They get depressed when they lose. Usually,
they look everywhere else but at themselves,
blaming others or events to avoid taking
responsibility for their own actions. Instead of
examining their own emotions to understand
why they make the decisions they do, they
chase after Holy Grails to hopefully find an
ironclad winning strategy.
7. Inability to stay in the present
To be a successful investor, you cant spend
your time thinking about how youre going to
spend your profits. Investing because you
have the money is not a wise state of mind.
8. Making false parallels
Just because the market behaved one way in
2010 does not mean that a similar pattern
today or in the future will give the same result.
If you try to make market predictions, youre
guaranteed to be in a continual state of
uncertainty whether you admit it or not. We
react the same way to uncertainty as do other
animals when faced with a threat, by shifting
into the fight-or-flight mode.
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Whales can only get harpooned when they
come to the surface, and turtles can only
move forward when they stick their necks out,
but investors face risk no matter what they
do.
By guest contributor Gerald Tay, who is the
founder and coach at CREI Academy Group
Pte Ltd, an organization dedicated to
empowering retail property investors with
smarter investing philosophy and strategies.
He is a full-time investor with over 13 years of
solid experience in building his wealth
through Property Investment and is financially
wealthy today.
SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 180
Singapore Property This Week
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Residential
Tharman: Home prices not corrected
enough yet
While HDB resale prices and private property
prices have been adjusting in the last four to
five quarters, Deputy Prime Minister and
Finance Minister TharmanShanmugaratnam
said that the price correction mechanism is
still working to reverse the effects of the
sharp increase in property prices in the past
years. He said that if property prices are left
unchecked, they would have increased in
excess of household incomes. Nonetheless,
Minister Tharman said that the risk profiles of
borrowers have improved as the share of
borrowers taking up multiple housing loans
have fallen to 13 percent of new housing
loans in Q2 this year, as compared to the 30
percent in 2011. The average tenure of new
private housing loans has also declined to
about 25 years, instead of 30 years in 2012.
According to the Urban Redevelopment
Authority, private property prices have
decreased by 0.7 percent in Q3 this year,
compared to the previous quarter. This was
the fourth quarter that prices have fallen.
(Source: Business Times)
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URA approves 2 mega private residential
projects
URA has approved two mega private
residential projects in Q3 this year. These
mega private residential projects are
expected to house at least 1,000 units each.
GuocoLand will be developing a 99-year
leasehold site at Sims Drive into a 1,024 unit
condominium called Sims Urban Oasis. The
site at Sims Drive was purchased by the
developer in April this year for $530.89 million
or $688 per square foot per plot ratio (psfppr).
The site is almost 2.4 hectares large. The
other mega private residential site that has
been approved is located at Upper
Serangoon View. Located on two adjacent
river-fronting sites, Kingsford Waterbay will be
developed into a 1,165 unit condominium.
The land parcel was purchased at $460.4
million by Kingsford Property Development or
$522 psfppr in November 2013.
(Source: Business Times)
Lake Life opens for public viewing
Lake Life, an executive condominium that is
located at Jurong Lake District, has been
opened for public viewing. Units are priced at
an average of $857 per square foot. The 546
units executive condominium has been
opened earlier for public viewing as its
developer had expected large crowds. A two
bedroom unit is priced at $685,000; a three-
bedroom unit is priced at $898,000 while a
three-bedroom premium unit will cost around
$984,000. Four bedroom units are expected
to be priced around $1.07 million; and a four-
bedroom premium unit will cost slightly more
at $1.088 million. Five-bedroom units will be
priced at an average of about $1.388 million.
Evia Real Estate, which is leading the
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consortium of developers for Lake Life, said
that prices for the executive condominium
have been priced high due to the high land
price. Developers expect to break even with
costs at $800 psf.
(Source: Business Times)
PPHS HBDflats increased by 800 units
In addition to the current supply of 1,150 HDB
flats under the Parenthood Provisional
Housing Scheme (PPHS), the government
will increase flats under the PPHS by another
800 units, said Minister for National
Development Khaw Boon Wan. This will be
done to ease rental expenses for couples
who can co-rent the units. The PPHS was
introduced in 2013 to provide first-timer
married couples with children below 16 years
old an affordable temporary housing while
they wait for their HDB flats to be completed.
Since its introduction, the scheme has been
extended to include married couples, with or
without children, who are waiting for the
completion of their Build-to-order flats or their
Sale of Balance flats.
(Source: Business Times)
Commercial
PayaLebar Central site released for tender
URA has launched a site at PayaLebar
Central for mixed development. The site has
a gross floor area of 164,794 square meters.
About 55 percent of the maximum gross floor
area will be allocated for office use while the
remaining space will be developed into retail,
entertainment, F&B and residential use. URA
intends to limit the number of strata lots at the
site to just five.
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Thus, the average strata office size is
expected to be around 200,000 square feet.
Since the strata units are larger, market
experts believe that developers will have
better control over the mix of tenants and
may be better able to attract major tenants
like banks. Nonetheless, Ong ChoonFah from
DTZ said that with bigger strata units, only
deep-pocketed investors will be able to
finance such projects. Thus, Chris Archibold
from JLL said that he expects the site to be
priced around $700 to $850 psfppr. However,
Donald Han from Chestertons expects more
bids for the site. He believes that there will be
at least six bids for the project, of which at
least three bids would be more than $1,000
psfppr. The tender for the PayaLebar Central
site will cease on March 31 2015.
(Source: Business Times)
J TC launches 3 sites
Three sites have been launched for tender by
JTC. Of the three sites, two have been
released on the confirmed list while one will
be launched on the reserved list. The two
sites on the confirmed list include sites at
Tuas South Street 9 and TanjongPenjuru;
while the reserve list site is located at Tuas
South Street 7. The site at Tuas South Street
9 is 0.8 hectares large and has been zoned
for business-2 development. It has a tenure
lease of 20 years and 7 months. On the other
hand, the TanjongPenjuru site has a
maximum gross plot ratio of 2.5 and has a
tenure lease of 20 years. The Tuas South
Street 7 site is only 0.5 hectares large but has
a 20 year 4 month tenure. The tender for the
sites are expected to close on December 23.
(Source: Business Times)
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Non-Landed Residential Resale Property Transactions for the Week of Oct 15 Oct 21
Postal
District
Project Name
Area
(sqft)
Transacted
Price ($)
Price
($ psf)
Tenure
1 THE SAIL @ MARINA BAY 1,184 2,350,000 1,985 99
3 QUEENS 1,195 1,300,000 1,088 99
4 THE INTERLACE 1,044 1,450,000 1,389 99
5 VISTA PARK 2,573 1,900,000 739 99
5 ONE-NORTH RESIDENCES 1,335 1,750,000 1,311 99
5 HUNDRED TREES 1,313 1,630,000 1,241 956
5 HUNDRED TREES 1,227 1,363,000 1,111 956
5 VISTA PARK 1,216 1,100,000 904 99
5 WEST BAY CONDOMINIUM 850 767,000 902 99
8 CITYLIGHTS 872 1,300,000 1,491 99
9 HELIOS RESIDENCES 1,668 4,200,000 2,517 FH
9 SCOTTS 28 1,636 3,300,000 2,017 FH
9 EMILY RESIDENCE 657 1,050,000 1,599 FH
9 VIDA 527 1,000,000 1,896 FH
10 DUCHESS CREST 4,241 5,100,000 1,203 99
10 D'GROVE VILLAS 2,702 4,650,000 1,721 FH
10 THREE THREE ROBIN 1,636 3,260,000 1,993 FH
10 RIDGEWOOD 1,615 2,060,000 1,276 999
10 THE HERMITAGE 818 1,450,000 1,772 FH
11 CUBE 8 893 1,360,000 1,522 FH
12 DE ROYALE 1,259 1,600,000 1,270 FH
14 DAKOTA RESIDENCES 1,894 2,778,000 1,466 99
Postal
District
Project Name
Area
(sqft)
Transacted
Price ($)
Price
($ psf)
Tenure
14 ESCADA VIEW 1,399 1,150,000 822 FH
14 ASTON MANSIONS 1,302 1,070,000 822 99
14 CRYSTAL MANSIONS 1,259 885,000 703 FH
14 ASTOR 872 842,000 966 99
15 THE WATERSIDE 2,142 3,100,000 1,447 FH
15 THE ESTA 1,593 2,350,000 1,475 FH
15 LAGUNA PARK 1,453 1,290,000 888 99
15 RICCHEZZA 883 1,000,000 1,133 FH
15 EASTVILLE APARTMENTS 926 990,000 1,069 FH
15 D' FRESCO 797 920,000 1,155 FH
16 BEDOK COURT 2,260 1,688,000 747 99
16 LANDBAY CONDOMINIUM 969 1,285,000 1,326 FH
16 AQUARIUS BY THE PARK 1,324 1,200,000 906 99
16 AQUARIUS BY THE PARK 1,227 1,110,000 905 99
18 CHANGI RISE CONDOMINIUM 1,496 1,230,000 822 99
18 ELIAS GREEN 1,615 975,000 604 99
18 TAMPINES COURT 1,701 825,000 485 101
19 KOVAN RESIDENCES 1,798 2,100,000 1,168 99
19 CHERRYHILL 1,389 1,438,000 1,036 FH
19 KOVAN MELODY 1,292 1,380,000 1,068 99
19 RIO VISTA 1,249 1,105,000 885 99
20 THOMSON VIEW CONDOMINIUM 2,024 1,630,000 805 99
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NOTE: This data only covers non-landed residential resale property
transactions with caveats lodged with the Singapore Land Authority.
Typically, caveats are lodged at least 2-3 weeks after a purchaser
signs an OTP, hence the lagged nature of the data.
Postal
District
Project Name
Area
(sqft)
Transacted
Price ($)
Price
($ psf)
Tenure
21 THE RAINTREE 1,582 1,550,000 980 99
21 THE CASCADIA 990 1,548,000 1,563 FH
21 SYMPHONY HEIGHTS 969 1,160,000 1,197 FH
22 LAKEPOINT CONDOMINIUM 2,486 1,475,000 593 99
22 PARC OASIS 1,378 1,240,000 900 99
22 THE MAYFAIR 1,163 1,030,000 886 99
23 HILLTOP GROVE 1,862 1,150,000 618 99
23 MAYSPRINGS 818 752,000 919 99
26 CASTLE GREEN 1,593 1,238,000 777 99
27 ORCHID PARK CONDOMINIUM 872 715,000 820 99