Positive effects seen of JTC policy changes

Market watchers say the latest changes in JTC policies will benefit genuine industrial users but discourage property speculators.

From Nov 15, JTC will lengthen the prohibition period for lease assignments and increase the minimum occupation period for anchor tenants who do sale and leaseback arrangements.

This amended policy has the twin effect of removing from the allocated industrial land market real estate punters disguised as faux industrialists and also projecting some fairness that now, even larger SMEs who had successfully lobbied for industrial land to build their premises, have to stay committed to their original cause for a longer period of time.

Another effect is that the number of secondary-market deals for industrial premises on JTC-leased sites is set to decline. This in turn will hit industrial property brokers, analysts say.

A key change is that industrialists who sell their premises on JTC-leased sites to a third-party facility provider such as a real estate investment trust (Reit) and then lease back the asset as an anchor tenant, under JTC’s Sale and Lease Back Scheme, will now be subject to a longer minimum occupation period (MOP).

Industry players predict the longer leaseback period will end the game played by some industrialists with a keen eye on the property market, who had been buying land from JTC to develop an industrial property and then selling it to a Reit for a handsome gain. They did not mind having to pay a high rent under the sale and leaseback deal as it was often for a relatively short period of, say, under three years.

Another way in which the change in JTC rules will reduce speculative transactions is the longer lease assignment prohibition period for those who buy JTC facilities from the secondary market.

Source: Business Times –6December 2013

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JTC changes industrial property rules

Industrialists and third-party facility providers such as property funds/developers who own industrial properties on JTC-leased sites will now be required to hold these properties for a longer period before they may sell them.

JTC has also extended the minimum occupation period for anchor tenants of third-party facility providers. The changes took effect on Nov 15. The move is aimed at safeguarding Singapore’s scarce industrial land resources for optimal use by genuine industrialists and dampening property speculation.

Contacted by BT, JTC said the changes aimed to “ensure the lessees allocated our limited industrial land in their lease contract based on their proposed business plans remain committed to them for a sustained and reasonable period of time”. The changes also discourage speculation and promote price stability in the industrial property market, it added.

The statutory board reckons its policy strikes a “reasonable balance” between facilitating a lessee‘s need to sell its industrial premises in the secondary market and ensuring the lessee deploys the land towards the purpose that JTC allocated it for.

Industry players believe the move will dampen secondary market transactions for landed factories on JTC-leased sites and thus hit industrial property brokers.

JTC leases land chiefly to end-user industrialists to build their facilities. After a lease assignment prohibition period, the industrialist may sell the property to either another end-user; or a third-party facility provider, subject to the industrialist leasing back the property as an anchor tenant for a minimum occupation period (MOP).

This Sale and Leaseback Scheme is one of the schemes under which JTC allows a third-party facility provider to be its lessee. Another is the Third-Party Build and Lease Scheme, where a property fund or developer agrees to build a customised facility for an end-user, to whom it leases the building for an MOP. Both schemes are aimed at helping industrialists to offload assets and lighten their balance sheets.

Before Nov 15, new JTC lessees (both industrialists and third-party facility providers) were not allowed to assign (sell) their premises until they had fulfilled the investment period (the duration of construction of the industrial facility and installation of plant and machinery). Typically, the investment period spans three years.

Following the policy revision, JTC has lengthened this “assignment prohibition period” by five years.

As for those buying JTC facilities from the secondary market, the ban on selling the property used to be three years from the date of assignment previously. Effective Nov 15, the sale-ban period is five years in the case of properties with up to 30 years’ remaining lease, and 10 years for properties that have more than 30 years’ balance lease.

However, an industrialist that needs to offload its property may still do so under the Sale and Leaseback Scheme, subject to fulfilling an MOP. This used to be three years from the assignment date. From Nov 15, this period has been lengthened to five years from the assignment date in the case of properties on sites with up to 30 years’ balance lease, and to 10 years from the assignment date for properties with more than 30 years’ remaining lease.

JTC has also increased the MOP for new anchor tenants in the Third-Party Build and Lease Scheme. Before Nov 15, this was three years following the issue of the Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) of the building. With the revised policy, JTC has lengthened the MOP to five years after the investment period.

The revisions in the assignment prohibition period and MOP are applicable to all new and renewed contracts for JTC facilities on lease, as well as new assignments, issued from Nov 15. Existing contracts will not be affected.

Another change is that all owners of industrial premises on JTC-leased sites with less than five years’ balance lease are no longer allowed to sell them. Previously, the sale ban applied to leases below three years.

JTC said that based on its engagement with third-party facility providers, they are generally receptive of the longer prohibition period for lease assignments as well as the longer MOP for anchor tenants. “Third-party facility providers such as Reits are long-term investors, and hence the extended prohibition period is not an issue with them,” it added.

Source: Business Times –6December 2013

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Allgreen to launch SkySuites@Anson tomorrow

Sales for Allgreen Properties’ 72-storey SkySuites@Anson project in Tanjong Pagar will begin tomorrow, with prices starting from $968,000.

Located at Enggor Street and within walking distance of Tanjong Pagar MRT station, the 99-year leasehold development will have 360 one to three-bedroom units that range from 365 square feet (sq ft) to 1,140 sq ft. The development is expected to be completed in 2015.

In per square foot (psf) terms, average rates for a one bedroom unit start from $2,650 psf. Those for a two-bedder start from $2,200 psf and the three-room units, which are all on high floors, start from $2,500 psf.

The residences at the project come with fully concealable designer kitchens as well as carpark lots for all units. SkySuites@Anson also has private club facilities including a 360-degree sky deck on the 72nd floor.

The showflat for SkySuites@Anson is along Peck Seah Street and opens tomorrow.

Source: Business Times –6 December 2013

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New survey shows contradictory views towards property

It would appear that Singapore has lost some of its lustre, slipping four spots to seventh place in terms of investment appeal, and dropping six spots to ninth position on the development prospects front, according to the latest real estate forecast jointly published by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC).

That being said, the Republic remains a favoured market in Asia, holding considerable investment and development appeal, due to its vibrant economic growth and strong emphasis on community livability, according to the Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2014, a property forecast survey of over 250 real estate professionals.

“Varying market phenomena have stirred contradicting views towards (Singapore’s) real estate outlook,” said Choo Eng Beng, partner and real estate leader, PwC Singapore, noting this is the first time Singapore has slipped off the top five spots since the report started in 2007. “On the one hand, investing in real estate is getting more expensive due to expected higher interest rates, compressed cap rates and tighter regulations. On the other hand, some see room for better returns with low vacancy rates and potential for higher rentals,” he added.

One of the perennial issues faced in Singapore, as with the rest of Asia, is the acute shortage of investable stock. “In Singapore, the fundamentals may have hit bottom after several years of weakness, and in the short term should find support from a relatively modest pipeline of supply,” noted the report. “Statistically, investment in core property rebounded in 2013 and some see it now at the bottom of the cycle.”

This is in part due to Singapore being increasingly seen as a more attractive financial centre than Sydney because of its location, suggested a fund manager.

That being said, most of the recent action has been driven by left-pocket/right- pocket Reit (real estate investment trust) flotations and government land sales, while cap rates for high- quality buildings are now in the 3-4 per cent range, pricing many investors out of the market, said the report.

Overall, the top investment market for 2014 was Tokyo – for the first time since 2009 – buoyed by a wave of optimism over the positive impact of “Abenomics“, followed by Shanghai, Jakarta, Manila and Sydney. For investment prospects by property type, the industrial/distribution sector was the top-rated property sector for investment potential, followed by residential, office, retail, and hotel.

In Singapore, the residential sector saw the greatest dip in confidence, with only 11.1 per cent of respondents saying they were looking to buy versus 30 per cent a year ago.

Source: Business Times –6 December 2013

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Median COV for resale flats at lowest in 4 years

The market for Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flats continued to weaken last month, with median cash-over-valuations (COVs) falling to their lowest level in more than four years.

Median COVs fell 30.1 per cent to $8,000 in November, according to flash estimates from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX), from $11,444 the month before.

This is the first time that the cash premium fell below $10,000 since July 2009. COVs have consistently declined through 2013 from a peak of $35,000 in January.

“COV continued to fall and we are seeing more flats exchanging hands for zero COV or below valuation,” said Eugene Lim, key executive officer at ERA Realty.

Overall, on the month, SRX expects an estimated 1,051 resale flats to have been sold in November, down from the 1,187 units the month before.

SRX data showed that 97 resale flats sold last month were transacted below their valuation price, higher than the 82 units in October. Sengkang, Choa Chu Kang, and Jurong West had the most resale HDB flats sold below valuation in November.

The overall HDB resale price index in November dipped 0.6 per cent from October to 146.9 – the lowest level since last September.

Mr Lim attributed the weak performance overall to a tighter mortgage servicing ratio, as well as other policies such as allowing singles to buy Build-to-Order (BTO) flats, a three-year wait before new permanent residents can buy a resale flat and an increasing supply of new flats.

In the private residential sector, resale activity was lacklustre as well.

Resale prices for non-landed private residential units are estimated to have fallen 1.5 per cent from the previous month to 171.5 in November – which would make it the third straight month of decline.

“Prices have continued to soften and will continue to soften with all the property cooling measures snowballing and upcoming supply,” said Mr Lim.

All three regions saw price drops, led a by 2 per cent decline in the Core Central Region, followed by a 0.9 per cent dip for Outside Central Region and a 0.7 per cent loss in Rest of Central Region.

An estimated 387 non-landed homes were moved last month, 22.9 per cent lower than the 502 units in October.

Source: Business Times –6 December 2013

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Home loan growth could slow as sales weaken: Experts

Home loan growth is expected to slow further this quarter amid weakening residential property sales, analysts said yesterday.

However, prices are likely to remain elevated until at least the middle of next year despite several rounds of property cooling measures in recent years, they said.

The central bank said on Tuesday that home loan growth here had slowed, and the number of borrowers with unreasonably high levels of housing debt had improved after the measures.

It also pointed to high price levels, and said it would step in to ensure stability and sustainability in the property market if necessary.

Analysts said the loan growth slowdown is to be expected in the wake of tough loan curbs imposed in June under a total debt servicing ratio (TDSR) framework. The TDSR stops banks from issuing a loan that pushes a borrower’s debt repayments above 60 per cent of his gross monthly income.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said the credit profile of housing loans had improved, and cited a smaller share of new housing loans with a loan-to-value ratio above 70 per cent. This ratio is the proportion of a home’s value that a buyer can borrow.

That share has dropped from a high of 77 per cent in the second quarter of 2010 to stabilise at 66 per cent since last year. MAS said the portion of loans in which the homes are worth less than the mortgage – or in negative equity – also remains negligible.

UOB Kay Hian equity analyst Vikrant Pandey said overall home sales volumes could fall about 30 per cent this year from last year.

While the overall price index is expected to rise by up to 2 per cent this year from last year, the index may fall by 5 per cent to 10 per cent next year, he said.

MAS said on Tuesday that “momentum has varied across different market segments”. It noted that while private home prices in suburban areas have climbed 2.5 per cent every quarter on average this year, prices on the city fringe and in the city centre have started to show some weakness, turning negative in the third quarter.

Source: The Straits Times –5 December 2013

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Iskandar’s Medini gets property tax break

Malaysia has granted a substantial tax break to a zone in a showpiece investment project near Singapore, a move likely to provide crucial support to a US$800 million initial public offering of the area’s developer next year.

The Medini area in the southern state of Johor is the only section of the US$30 billion Iskandar Development Region to get an exemption from a 30 per cent property gains tax announced in October to cool soaring property prices, government officials said.

The area is being developed by Medini Iskandar Malaysia, a company that is 60 per cent owned by Iskandar Investment, a corporation controlled by sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co and Dubai- based realtor United World Infrastructure each own 20 per cent.

“Medini in 2006 and 2007 was a sparsely populated area and not a preferred investment location,” Ismail Ibrahim, chief executive of Iskandar Regional Development Authority (Irda), told Reuters when asked why the area received an exemption. “The objective is to provide the catalyst to drive investments into Medini,” he said.

Since its inception in 2006, Medini has been exempt from property gains taxes.

Medini Iskandar declined to comment about the latest tax exemption.

The tax break, however, means the company should be able to attract more funds into the Medini area, helping the prospects for its IPO as well as the government, which is seeking to lure more investors, especially from cash-rich Singapore, into the Iskandar region without inflating a broader property bubble.

“It (the exemption) certainly gives it an edge over others in Iskandar,” said a banker involved in Medini Iskandar’s IPO, which is expected to be launched in the first half of 2014.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Maybank have been chosen to manage the planned listing, according to Thomson Reuters publication IFR.

Other major listed developers in the Medini zone include Mah Sing Group, Sunway Bhd, Eastern & Oriental and WCT Holdings.

The whole Iskandar region has seen property prices climb in recent years due to speculators and higher demand from Singaporeans seeking a break from sky-high prices in the city-state.

US, European and Chinese firms have also realised the potential of the area as a manufacturing hub.

The recent tax hike has left other Iskandar developers like Iskandar Waterfront, partly owned by Johor state, and UEM Sunrise, Malaysia’s biggest real estate company, bracing for a chill next year.

Both companies declined to comment when asked about the tax exemption for Medini.

Iskandar Waterfront, which is developing a zone directly across the causeway that links Singapore with Johor Baru, has, however, delayed a US$300 million IPO to the end of 2014 from the first quarter to gauge the impact of the property cooling measures, people with knowledge of the matter said last month.

The sources declined to be identified because the information was confidential.

The Iskandar Development Region struggled to attract investors at first, but improved infrastructure and soaring property prices in Singapore burnished its appeal.

Total committed investments by local and foreign companies in the area until September this year amounted to RM128.21 billion (S$49.85 billion), almost 10 times as much as when the zone was first set up in 2006, Irda officials said.

Local investors account for almost 65 per cent of the total.

Medini, the largest township across the narrow strait from Singapore, is only a small part of one of the five sections that make up the Iskandar Development Region.

The area that was once mostly rubber and palm plantations is now home to a popular Legoland theme park resort, a production centre for Britain’s famed Pinewood Studios, as well as some of the most developed infrastructure in the whole Iskandar region, government officials say.

Medini Iskandar has so far spent RM5.9 billion on developing the area, with US$600 million going on well-lit roads and sewage treatment facilities. The rest was an initial capital injection, according to the company website.

Source: Business Times –5 December 2013

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Smaller BTO supply ‘won’t affect resales’

Reducing the supply of Build-To-Order flats after a three-year construction boom makes sense given the reduced demand but resale prices are unlikely to be affected, say analysts.

This is because, now that pent-up BTO demand has been addressed, the two markets largely serve different groups.

Analysts were responding to remarks by National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan, who said on Monday that the Housing Board’s “massive construction programme” would start to be tapered off next year.

Mr Khaw noted that three years of BTO launches have begun to restore a balance in the supply and demand of public housing by clearing the backlog of first-time buyers, mainly young families.

BTO application rates for first-timers ranged from 0.7 to 2 times this year, down from a high of 5.3 in 2010.

Mr Khaw also pointed to falling cash-over-valuation figures in the resale market as a welcome sign of balance being restored.

The past three years of higher BTO supply meant first-time buyers could get a new flat rather than turning to the resale market.

This factor in conjunction with cooling measures like stricter home loan rules helped alleviate demand for resale units. Resale prices and cash premiums have fallen in response.

But analysts doubt the tapering will drive buyers back to the resale market.

Excess demand, dating from a time of a severe shortage of affordable flats, has been satisfied.

Nor are resale sellers likely to raise their prices, since buyers’ ability to afford pricey flats has been curbed by new loan rules.

Source: The Straits Times –4 December 2013

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Khaw seeks ideas from public on Draft Master Plan 2013

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan has asked Singaporeans to share their ideas on proposals from the Draft Master Plan 2013 (DMP13) to aid its implementation.

Writing on his blog yesterday, he said: “Many of these ideas need strong support of the community to be implemented.”

He added: “The more support we have, the more we can push the envelope to implement the plans.”

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA’s) Master Plan is the blueprint governing Singapore’s development over the medium term. Mr Khaw called DMP13 a complete picture of how the plans by various agencies come together to shape the living environment going forward.

“Our vision is that every new town will promote community interaction, health, energy efficiency and worker productivity, with pervasive greenery.”

Among the proposals in DMP13 that the authorities wish to engage Singaporeans are community-friendly, fenceless residential precincts with fewer cars, planning of cycling routes, and shaping of public spaces.

The housing concepts will apply to housing estates including the new precincts of Kampong Bugis and Marina South. As for cycling, there are plans such as expanding the network of cycling paths as well as putting various facilities like better lighting and parking facilities in place.

Mr Khaw said the public can also give their views on how the authorities should plan in the longer term for areas such as the Greater Southern Waterfront.

About 1,000 hectares of land will be freed up for development after the City Terminals and Pasir Panjang Terminal move to Tuas from their current locations starting 2027, and URA has six conceptual plans lined up for the area.

The response to DMP13 has been “very encouraging”, Mr Khaw said. Some 20,000 people have visited the exhibition at The URA Centre, and close to 250,000 unique visitors have accessed the DMP13 website. Feedback was also positive for plans to enhance the Civic District into a pedestrian-friendly area, and from the cycling community on plans to promote cycling, he added.

“Share your views so we can shape our Singapore together,” Mr Khaw said.

Source: Business Times –4 December 2013

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Property cooling moves show results

The government’s measures to cool the residential property market have had significant impact: Transaction volumes have plunged, new home loan sales have contracted and loan-to-value (LTV) ratios have improved.

“The series of property-related measures taken by the government over the past few years has dampened momentum in the market,” said the Monetary Authority of Singapore Financial Stability Review 2013 yesterday.

But the government remains vigilant as price levels remain high, it said.

Despite slower sales, tender prices by developers have remained high. Last month’s tender for two adjacent plots at Upper Serangoon View got eight bids each, with foreign developers continuing to outbid local players.

The increase in the private property price index has moderated since Q3 2009, with the average quarter-on-quarter rise of 0.67 per cent in the first three quarters of 2013 lower than the 0.70 per cent for 2012 and 1.43 per cent for 2011, the Review said.

Momentum has varied across different market segments. Prices of private residential properties in the Outside Central Region on average increased by 2.5 per cent per quarter in 2013. In contrast, prices in the Rest of Central Region and the Core Central Region have started to show some weakness, turning negative in Q3 2013.

Overall transactions have fallen by about a third while investment/speculative demand for home loans has halved.

Average monthly transactions fell to 2,100 units in the first 10 months of this year from 3,200 units last year. The fall in overall sales was driven by resale transactions, which fell by about half in 2013 (from an average of 1,100 units per month in 2012 to 600 units in 2013). New sales also dropped significantly to an average of 900 units per month between July and October 2013 (compared with an average of 1,600 units per month between 2011 and 2012) following the implementation of the Total Debt Servicing Ratio framework in end-June. Sub-sale activity has remained subdued.

The measures appear to have had a dampening effect on the growth of outstanding housing loans, with the year-on-year growth slowing from a peak of 22 per cent in September 2010 to 12 per cent in September 2013.

The volume of new housing loans, which reflects trends in overall demand in the property market, has contracted to $8.8 billion in Q3 2013 from $13.5 billion a year earlier.

The share of new housing loans with LTV ratios higher than 70 per cent has also fallen from a peak of 77 per cent in Q2 2010 to stabilise at about 66 per cent since 2012.

For outstanding housing loans, the share of loans with LTVs above 70 per cent has fallen from a high of 35 per cent in Q3 2009 to 26 per cent in Q3 2013. The share of housing loans in negative equity also remains negligible.

The average LTV ratio of outstanding housing loans was 47.3 per cent in Q3 2013. The asset quality of property-related loans remains robust with the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio at less than 0.5 per cent in Q3 2013.

Speculators seemed to have left the market in droves, with foreign buyers under 10 per cent. “Borrowers taking up a second or subsequent housing loan accounted for about 30 per cent of new housing loans in 2011. This share has dipped to 14 per cent in Q3 2013,” said the Review.

The share of foreign purchases in total transactions continues to be small, at 9 per cent in Q3 2013 following the implementation of additional buyer stamp duty.

Furthermore, the average loan tenure of new housing loans has shortened from 30 years in Q3 2012, to about 24 years.

While the NPL ratio for housing loans remains low, close monitoring is warranted, it said.

“Strains on borrowers can quickly materialise if the economic outlook and employment conditions worsen, or interest rates – and therefore mortgage repayments – increase.

The vast majority of mortgage loans offered by financial institutions in Singapore are floating-rate packages. As some households may have over-leveraged in order to buy properties which are priced higher now than before, strains can quickly materialise if interest rates rise after being at a low level for a prolonged period of time.”

The Monetary Authority of Singapore estimates that about 5-10 per cent of borrowers have monthly debt-servicing burden greater than 60 per cent and that the percentage of over-leveraged households could increase to 10-15 per cent should mortgage rates rise by 300 basis points.

The Review also noted the ample supply situation. In Q3 2013, there was a total supply of about 84,900 uncompleted private residential units from projects in the pipeline, an increase of about 13 per cent compared with the average supply in the last three years. Of these uncompleted units, about 37 per cent remained unsold in Q3 2013.

Apart from these, there were also 12,400 executive condominium (EC) units in the pipeline.

In addition, another 10,000 units will soon be added to the pipeline supply. In all, there will be about 107,400 private housing and EC units in the pipeline, many of which are expected to be completed over the next three to four years.

“While the property-related measures taken over the past few years have dampened momentum in the property market, vigilance is needed.

“Price levels remain high. The government will continue to monitor the property market closely, and if necessary, step in to ensure stability and sustainability in the property market,” the Review said.

Source: Business Times –4 December 2013

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