Issue 260

Copyright 2011-2016 www.propwise.sg. All Rights Reserved.

CONTENTS
p2

FROM THE

EDITOR

Buying a New Launch Home Based on an

Welcome to the 260th edition of the

Singapore Property Weekly.

Artists Impressions? Read This First

Hope you like it!

p6

Singapore Property News This Week

p9

Resale Property Transactions

Mr. Propwise

(May 3 May 6)

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 260

Buying a New Launch Home Based on an Artists

Impressions? Read This First
By Property Soul (guest contributor)

Once when I was conducting a workshop, I

showed some property launch newspaper
ads to illustrate how deceiving they could be
for one, every unit doesnt come with a
beautiful wife and two lovely kids.
During the break one of the participants came
forward and asked to take a close shot of one
of the new launch print ads. He explained that
his friend had bought a unit in the same
project and was very unhappy with what he
got. He wanted to show the friend the original
drawing of the project based on the artists
impression.

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 260

Buyers
are
impressions

paying

for

artists

I have explained in my book No B.S. Guide to

Property Investment what the purpose of the
artists impression is: To capture the buyers
imagination, sales brochures distributed
during launch all come with nice drawings of
the buildings exterior and the surrounding
landscape.
Below are some common characteristics of
these artists impressions:
1. A must-have includes infinite blue sky, lush
greenery, a beautiful beach or breathtaking
sea view. The development stands out
prominently in the area, with adjacent
buildings conveniently shortened or erased to
highlight its stylish profile.

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2. The actual site may be in the middle of a

cross junction. But the developer gives this an
interesting twist to make the project appear in
the midst of a jungle. In reality, blocks cant
even be built without cutting all the trees
originally found at the site.
3. Nuisances or objects with bad fengshui like
cemeteries, slums, petrol stations, power
plants, etc. adjacent to the site are
suspiciously hidden. When asked, a safe
answer is that the government has plans to
relocate it. They will be gone when the project
is ready for occupation.
4. Some facilities are drawn for illustration
only. For instance, a swimming pool is
included to create a relaxing ambience. Never
mind that the actual one might be too small
for anyone to swim there.

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 260

The shock comes from the large disparity
between the buyers memory of the drawings,
the project model and the showflat, versus
the reality of seeing the real surroundings, the
actual site and the final bare unit.
The experience is like going for the first date
with someone you meet online. The
Facebook picture looks very much like Lee
Min Ho or Park Shin Hye. But unfortunately,
he or she is completely unrecognizable in
person.

Honey, I shrunk the flat

It remains a mystery how developers
calculate the actual floor area of the units
(some developers dont even care to show
the size next to the floor plans anyway). In my
workshop, I tell participants that there are
different terminologies: strata area versus

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GFA (Gross Floor Area), construction floor

area versus sellable floor area, and built-in
area versus open-air area.
Buyers often lament that flats built these days
come with much smaller halls and rooms.
Bedrooms that used to have more than
enough space for a king size bed can now
only fit a single bed. Living and dining rooms
in older condominium projects all look very
spacious compared with modern designs that
have a 2-in-1 living and dining hall but cant
even fit a round dining table for six.
These are the things that buyers often miss
when they are appreciating the nice showflat
at the sales gallery. The showflat unit looks
spacious. But when buyers finally collect the
key, they are shocked to find that the size of
their unit shrinks.

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 260

The experience is like buying the biggestsized oranges at $4.25 for 3 from your
neighborhood supermarket. You choose the
highest price option thinking that each orange
should be big enough to share with the rest of
your family. But after you peel off the thick
skin, the actual size of the orange flesh is not
much bigger than the type of you can get at
$3.25 for 10.
You sure you are buying that?
I have gone for hundreds of flat viewings. I
often wonder why some owners would buy a
house or unit with such bad fengshui.
I am especially puzzled by buyers who pick a
place with very strong Sha Qi () such as
T-Junctions, Noise Sha (), the Heavens
Kill Sha (), Scissors Sha (), Wall

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Blade Sha (), Flame Sha (),

Reflection Sha (), Roof Ridge Sha (
), etc.
The saddest part is that: These people pay so
much to buy a home. They stay there and feel
somethings wrong. But they dont even know
what the problem is.
The property agents job is to move the
houses or units off the project as quickly as
possible. It is not in their best interests to tell
you the potential problems, or point out the
(real) best units.
By guest contributor Property Soul, a
successful property investor, blogger, and
author of the No B.S. Guide to Property
Investment.

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 260

Singapore Property This Week

Residential
Condo resale volumes and prices rose in
April

The latest April data from SRX Property

showed that prices and transaction volume of
resale private apartments and condos have
risen for two consecutive months. Prices rose
0.7 per cent in the Core Central Region
(CCR) and 1.3 per cent in the city-fringe or
Rest of Central Region (RCR), but slipped 0.2
per cent in the Outside Central Region
(OCR). ERA Realty Network's key executive
officer, Eugene Lim, noted that the price
weakness in OCR was due to the high supply
of private property in those areas. The

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improvement
in
transaction
volumes,
however, suggests that there is still a ready
pool of buyers in the resale market.
(Source: Business Times)
Condo rent remains unchanged while
rental volume slumps
Rental volume fell 10.3 percent to about
3,953 units in April, compared with 4,405
units in March. Data released by SRX
Property on Wednesday showed that when
broken down by sectors, rents in the city area
remained the same; those in the city fringe
rose 0.1 per cent, while those in the suburbs
experienced a decrease of 0.1 per cent.

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 260

Many corporates across industries are
downsizing headcounts or letting go of
professionals due to cautious economic
times, which makes it unlikely for a significant
increase in expatriates seconded to
Singapore, resulting in sluggish rental
performance.

since a series of curbs have been introduced

by the government to cool buyers'
enthusiasm. Singapore remains Asia's
second-most expensive housing market.

(Source: Business Times)

Stanley
Quek
companies
sell
7
shophouses for S$81.4m to 8M Real
Estate

S'pore prime land 'exorbitant': CityDev

City Developments Ltd said in an earnings
statement on Wednesday that it is
increasingly difficult to secure prime land in
Singapore and even if available as the asking
price for land is exorbitantly high. The
comments referred to the 170,000 square
foot site the company bought for its Gramercy
Park project, just off the prime Orchard Road
shopping belt. While Singapore's residential
property prices have been on the decline
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(Source: Business Times)

Commercial

Five of the shophouses are adjoining

properties at Nos 15, 17, 19, 21 and 23
Tanjong Pagar were sold at S$2,166 per
square foot (psf). They are on 8,902 sq ft of
land with about 77.5 years' balance lease.
The Neil Road property, on a site with a
balance lease term of 72 years, is being
transacted for S$1,912 psf. The Gemmill
Lane property is being sold for S$2,511 psf.
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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 260

8M Real Estate still sees opportunity for
repositioning and further growth for the
shophouses and intends to immediately
refurbish the shophouses for lease to Food &
Beverages (F&B) businesses.
(Source: Business Times)

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 260

Non-Landed Residential Resale Property Transactions for the Week of May 3 May 6

Postal
District
2
4
4
5
5
8
8
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
10
10
10
10
10
10
10

Project Name
ICON
SKYLINE RESIDENCES
CARIBBEAN AT KEPPEL BAY
REGENT PARK
FABER CREST
CITYSCAPE @FARRER PARK
THE BLISS
OUE TWIN PEAKS
OUE TWIN PEAKS
OUE TWIN PEAKS
OUE TWIN PEAKS
OUE TWIN PEAKS
OUE TWIN PEAKS
GRANGE INFINITE
CAIRNHILL CREST
CAIRNHILL CREST
NASSIM PARK RESIDENCES
ARDMORE THREE
ARDMORE THREE
ARDMORE PARK
VOLARI
RV RESIDENCES
TANGLIN PARK

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Area
(sqft)
1,119
484
2,433
818
1,733
1,163
667
570
549
1,055
549
549
1,399
2,594
1,981
1,701
3,175
1,776
1,744
2,885
1,636
452
1,679

Transacted
Price ($)
1,785,000
1,000,000
3,850,000
820,000
1,350,000
1,546,000
850,000
1,691,701
1,388,000
2,550,000
1,262,700
1,262,700
3,165,000
5,700,000
3,613,500
2,950,000
11,700,000
5,700,865
5,278,075
8,500,000
3,600,000
978,260
3,428,000

Price
Tenure
($ psf)
1,595
99
2,064
FH
1,583
99
1,002
99
779
99
1,330
FH
1,274
FH
2,965
99
2,528
99
2,417
99
2,300
99
2,300
99
2,262
99
2,197
FH
1,824
FH
1,735
FH
3,685
FH
3,210
FH
3,027
FH
2,947
FH
2,200
FH
2,164 999
2,041
FH

Postal
District
10
10
10
10
11
11
11
11
12
14
14
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
16
16

Project Name
THE LOFT
MELROSE PARK
SIXTH AVENUE VILLE
TANGLIN REGENCY
PARK INFINIA AT WEE NAM
THOMSON EURO-ASIA
THOMSON 800
AMARYLLIS VILLE
BLISS LOFT
D'WEAVE
VACANZA @ EAST
THE MEYERISE
AALTO
ARTHUR 118
SILVERSEA
PARC BLEU
TIERRA VUE
PEBBLE BAY
COSTA RHU
IDYLLIC RESIDENCES
SILAHIS APARTMENT
VILLAS LAGUNA
THE CLEARWATER

Area
(sqft)
1,109
1,345
1,270
1,109
1,335
947
1,625
2,637
786
398
484
883
1,528
893
980
452
1,227
2,626
2,217
1,076
1,292
1,561
1,227

Transacted
Price ($)
2,010,000
2,180,000
1,828,000
1,300,000
2,550,000
1,550,000
1,988,000
2,970,000
875,000
610,000
660,000
1,590,000
2,300,000
1,280,000
1,400,000
645,000
1,750,000
3,525,000
2,800,000
1,170,000
960,000
1,550,000
1,100,000

Price
Tenure
($ psf)
1,813
99
1,620 999
1,439
FH
1,173
99
1,910
FH
1,636
FH
1,223
FH
1,126
99
1,114
FH
1,532
FH
1,363
FH
1,801
FH
1,505
FH
1,433
FH
1,429
99
1,427
FH
1,426
FH
1,342
99
1,263
99
1,087
FH
743
FH
993
FH
896
99

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 260

Postal
District
16
16
18
18
19
19
19
20
20
21
21
22
22
23
23
23
23
25
25
27
27
28

Project Name
BAYSHORE PARK
TANAMERA CREST
DOUBLE BAY RESIDENCES
TROPICAL SPRING
KOVAN MELODY
THE SPRINGBLOOM
RIVERVALE CREST
CLOVER BY THE PARK
THE GARDENS AT BISHAN
1 KING ALBERT PARK
CLEMENTI PARK
THE LAKESHORE
THE LAKESHORE
CASHEW HEIGHTS CONDOMINIUM
THE LINEAR
PALM GARDENS
NORTHVALE
PARC ROSEWOOD
ROSEWOOD
THE ESTUARY
EUPHONY GARDENS
SELETAR SPRINGS CONDOMINIUM

Area
(sqft)
936
1,173
1,550
1,389
1,216
1,302
1,206
2,573
1,152
1,109
1,959
1,173
1,270
1,238
1,399
1,206
1,087
431
1,012
603
1,195
1,582

Transacted
Price ($)
800,000
875,000
1,450,000
1,080,888
1,215,000
1,290,000
850,000
2,850,000
1,250,000
1,300,000
1,939,410
1,238,000
1,220,000
1,240,000
1,068,000
905,000
760,000
525,000
816,000
602,000
828,000
1,120,000

Price
Tenure
($ psf)
854
99
746
99
935
99
778
99
999
99
990
99
705
99
1,108
99
1,085
99
1,173
FH
990
FH
1,055
99
961
99
1,002 999
763
999
751
99
699
99
1,219
99
806
99
999
99
693
99
708
99

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.

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