A recap of our most read stories for the month of August
HDB, DBSS flats sold for over $1m
A 5-room HDB resale flat in Clementi Avenue 3 was sold for $1,005,000 in August – a record price for this flat type outside the Pinnacle @ Duxton project.
The Clementi flat belongs to a unique development called Clementi Towers, which is the first HDB project to be integrated with both a bus interchange and a mall. The development features two 40-storey HDB blocks of 3- to 5-room units that is linked to The Clementi Mall as well as the Clementi MRT station and bus interchange.
Resale prices for HDB flats rarely breach the $1 million mark. The exceptions are those found at Pinnacle @ Duxton and rare types like HDB terrace homes or executive maisonettes.
Such prices have also been achieved in Design Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) developments – public housing projects that are developed and sold by private developers and not the HDB.
In fact, a DBSS flat at City View @ Boon Keng was sold for a record price of $1.1 million.
The deal underscores what housing experts call a persistent demand by some home buyers for centrally located premium units. They noted that units commanding such sky-high prices are ‘outliers’.
The sale works out to a profit of over $300,000, as the sellers bought the flat for around $700,000 in 2008, when the DBSS project was launched.
City View entered the resale market in January, and is the second DBSS development to do so following The Premiere in Tampines in 2014. City View, however, has been sold at higher prices due to its central location, with three other units breaching the $1 million mark.
Earlier in August, a Toa Payoh HDB flat was also sold for a whopping price of $980,000.
Located at Block 101B Toa Payoh Lorong 2, the 1,560.77 sq ft unit is situated behind the Braddell MRT station on the North-South line. The flat is also just a five-minute drive from Toa Payoh Town Centre, HDB Hub and Toa Payoh MRT station.
Aside from being the most expensive flat to be sold in Toa Payoh this year, the sale also ties as the most expensive executive flat to be sold within the area with a unit sold in March 2014 from neighbouring Block 99B, noted The Edge.
An executive unit located on a lower level of the same block also breached the $900,000 mark when it was sold for $910,000 in March.
Figures on the HDB website showed that a total of four HDB flats, comprising two executive apartments and two five-roomers, have been sold in Toa Payoh for $900,000 or more so far this year.
Action taken against 44 illegal short-term rentals: MND
Despite its on-going review of short-term stays, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has taken enforcement action against 44 unauthorised short-term subletting cases in private homes during the first six months of 2016.
This is an increase from the 23 cases in 2015 and 36 in the year before, revealed the Ministry of National Development (MND) in its written response to a query from Member of Parliament Lim Wee Kiak.
Currently, URA guidelines state that private homes are only to be rented out for at least six months. While a conclusion is yet to be reached on the much-debated topic of the home-sharing economy, the MND noted that the short-term rental issue warrants a balanced and careful review without a rush to conclude.
In January 2015, the URA conducted a public consultation exercise on short-term rentals, which concluded in April of the same year. After more than a year, the URA said it needs more time to consider the said issue.
The Housing and Development Board (HDB), on the other hand, has indicated that it has no plans to review the rules on short-term stays for HDB flats.
More homes on auction in Q2: report
The number of residential properties put up for auction increased by 21.2 percent quarter-on-quarter to 103 units in Q2 2016, according to a Knight Frank report.
While the sector accounted for the bulk of auction listings in the second quarter (185 units), Knight Frank observed a lack of transactions in the prime residential segment. Prime residential properties from districts 9, 10 and 11 amounted to just 21 units—the lowest since the second quarter of 2014.
Meanwhile, the number of landed properties put up for mortgagee sale as a proportion of all landed properties put up for auction reached a record high of 50 percent (17 out of 34 units).
Notably, the total number of landed properties placed under the hammer rose by 6.2 percent quarter-on-quarter, but dropped by 19 percent year-on-year.
The number of landed properties put up for auction under mortgagee sale, on the other hand, soared by 54.5 percent quarter-on-quarter and by 142.9 percent year-on-year.
APAC hotel investment turnover down 43%
Hotel investment turnover in the Asia Pacific fell 43.4 percent year-on-year to US$3.7 billion (S$4.96 billion) in the first half of 2016 as investors turned more risk-averse due to the weaker economic environment, a CBRE report revealed.
Japan and Australia have continued to attract investors due to market transparency, strong tourism growth, liquidity as well as the high quality and availability of stock. However, markets in Hong Kong and Singapore remain subdued.
According to the report, interest from foreign investors here is limited as the lack of stock and price gap between vendors and buyers continues to discourage deal flows.
Looking ahead, CBRE expects investors to remain cautious for the rest of the year.
“However, once the present market uncertainty has cleared, activity will pick up, with core assets or assets in safe havens such as Australia, Japan and Singapore set to be the main focus for investors,” it said.
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