Evia Real Estate has developed quite a reputation in the executive condominium (EC) market in recent years.
In 2010, the company decided to enter the market due to rising incomes and the growing middle-class, believing there would be healthy demand for reasonably priced properties with good specifications, said Leslie Lim, Co-Managing Partner at Evia Real Estate.
Having been responsible for two past EC projects – the 416-unit Watercolours in Pasir Ris launched in 2011, and Heron Bay in Upper Serangoon View that came to market in 2012 with 394 units – the group is now leading a consortium to develop the 546-unit Lake Life EC in Jurong Lake District, which is expected to open for e-application next month.
The first two ECs were warmly received by the market. “Watercolours was sold out in about six months and Heron Bay was more than 90 percent sold over one weekend. We then went on to secure our third EC site – Lake Life,” Lim noted.
But right now the EC market is facing a double whammy. “We have the 30 percent mortgage servicing ratio (MSR) at the lower end putting a lid on borrowing, and the $12,000 income ceiling cap at the upper end.
“Secondly, a resale levy was introduced in December 2013. Fortunately for Lake Life, buyers are exempt from this as the land was purchased before the measure was introduced,” added Lim.
Moreover, the resale levy only affects those who use the Central Provident Fund’s (CPF) housing grant to buy a secondary property. Although some buyers may be affected, this is unlikely to lessen the appeal of ECs as they are still 20 to 30 percent cheaper than equivalent private properties, Lim explained.
Despite Singapore’s property cooling measures, Lim believes the underlying demand for residential property here is still very robust. “Having said that, you would always have a well-priced project in a good location, or unsaturated location doing better than the rest of the inventory.”
Looking North
Unknown to many, Evia Real Estate is also a property fund manager in South Korea. With a portfolio of over 2.3 million sq ft of industrial and commercial space, its assets under management have a combined value of more than $1.5 billion.
“Back in 2010, we expected demand and rental rates for industrial assets in Singapore and Asia to rise along with growing economies. While we tried to secure assets here (in Fusionopolis 3 and 5, and Biopolis 3), we had better success in South Korea,” said Lim.
Currently, the company manages three logistics warehouses and one mixed-use property. These are AMB Incheon Logistics’ facility at Incheon Airport Free Trade Zone, AMB Incheon DC1 Warehouse at Gyeonggi-do, Suwon Ice Logistics Centre at Suwon City and Apple Plaza in Bundang-gu, Gyeonggi.
With a gross floor area of 1.2 million sq ft, the last site is set to be completed by end-October or November. “We upgraded a tired looking building and repositioned the mall into F&B and fashion, two segments that South Korea is particularly strong in,” Lim shared.
Moving forward, Evia is hoping to secure a land development site in the country and build another warehouse by year-end.
“Evia is committed to South Korea with a deep local team of asset managers. Our pipeline there is strong and we intend to grow the portfolio there to about $600 million to $800 million,” added Lim.
Image: Artist’s impression shows the aerial view of Lake Life EC.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Singapore Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
