The Quayside Isle

 

THE QUAYSIDEISLE

 

 

 

 

ROMANTIC WATERFRONT VILLAGE MEETS TROPICAL PARADISE ..

.. a modern and intimate masterpiece, where human and natural elements intertwine.

 

Imagine the smooth fluidity of the sea, a lushly undulating landscape and a majestic gliding “seahorse” that anchors the peninsula. This is what visitors can expect at The Quayside Isle on Sentosa Cove. The concept blends elements from our natural environment into its architecture, enhancing the beauty and attraction of nature itself.

 

The grand design comprises a proposed seven-storey, 320-room five-star hotel, a three-storey waterfront commercial site and a six-storey condominium development.

 

Collectively, they represent the epitome of the tropical resort experience..

 

For a Private Prelaunch Preview on The Quayside Isle ,

Please call (65) 9858 0900  or  Click Here

 

For more info, visit Website: www.OneSentosa.com

 

 

Tax cut will enhance value

THE Government has responded to the weakening property market by slashing the charges developers pay when they enhance the value of a site by such things as building a bigger project on the land.The move to cut development charges, or DC as the fees are called, will give developers some relief but the effect will not be significant, given the weak market.

Dramatic reductions were made for non-landed homes – mainly private condominiums – with cuts of up to 30 per cent in prime areas and an average of 15 per cent islandwide.

Rates for this segment were also cut in the previous six-monthly review last September, when they were reduced by an average of 6 per cent. The rates for other property segments were largely unchanged then.

In the latest review, on average, cuts of around 10 per cent were made for development charges in the hotel and hospital sector and about 4 per cent for commercial property projects.

The National Development Ministry sets the rates every March and September, taking into account market values, in consultation with the Chief Valuer. The new rates apply from tomorrow.

While the cuts mean developers will save on developing sites, the impact will be muted.

The savings are not enough to warrant any rush by developers to reinitiate collective sales or change their development plans, said Jones Lang LaSalle’s local director and head of research, South-east Asia, Dr Chua Yang Liang.

The lower DC for commercial sites would also have little impact in the next six months as developers will be concentrating on office and retail projects already under construction rather than acquiring land, said CBRE Research’s executive director, Mr Li Hiaw Ho.

The biggest cuts in the non-landed homes segment are in areas with luxury residential projects that have seen the greatest price correction over the past six months, said Jones Lang LaSalle.

Areas in District 11 and the Marina Bay vicinity have seen prices plunge around 20 per cent, it said.

‘While transactions have been few and far between in the light of the present poor market sentiment, it is widely understood that land values have become depressed and will start to moderate during the course of this year,’ said Mr Li.

The comparatively lower prices for new residential launches in the past six months were probably the main reason for the cuts in DC for non-landed residential use, he said.

In the commercial use segment, the core central business areas of Raffles Place, Marina Bay and Marina Centre saw DC cuts of 15 per cent to 16.7 per cent, said CBRE.

In the Orchard Road and surrounding areas, the DC has fallen by around 15 per cent to 17.6 per cent. However, islandwide, the average cut is only 4 per cent.

Charges for the hotel and hospital use segment have been cut by 7 per cent to 11 per cent. There were no cuts six months ago. The current cut was expected, due to the likely fall in demand for hotel rooms, given the drop in tourism, said Mr Li.

Two property segments have had no changes to their DC – industrial land and landed homes – but they are unlikely to remain untouched for long.

Knight Frank’s director of research and consultancy, Mr Nicholas Mak, said the DC for the landed homes and industrial segments are ‘very likely to come down’ the next round.

Further DC cuts are also expected in the non-landed homes, commercial and hotel sectors, he said.

Source : Straits Times – Feb 2009

S’pore is tops in industrial competitiveness

Ireland and Japan came in second and third, according to a UN survey

SINGAPORE came out top in terms of industrial competitiveness, a United Nations (UN) survey has found.

The 2009 Industrial Development Report, which ranked 122 markets, said that the city-state took pole position in 2005 and 2000, based on an index that assesses national industrial performance across a five-year period.

Ireland and Japan came in second and third, while Switzerland, Sweden and Germany followed behind.

Developed by the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), the competitive industrial performance (CIP) index considers factors such as industrial capacity, manufactured export capacity, industrialisation intensity and export quality.

In the report, UNIDO pointed out that the United States was the only mature industrial power that saw a deterioration in its relative position. This resulted from the improved performance of South Korea and Taiwan.

Among the top 60 countries, the largest improvements were seen in Qatar (up 23 places), Cyprus (18), Iceland (13) and Slovenia (10).

Among the bottom 60, several African countries, including Mozambique, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire, improved their rankings considerably – by 21, 18 and 13 places, respectively.

Manufactured exports in those three countries grew much faster than manufacturing value added (MVA), while the share of primary exports in total exports declined sharply.

East Asia leads the developing world in the CIP index, where the four mature ‘tigers’ continue to dominate the rankings.

However, Hong Kong has dropped in industrial competitiveness, while China continues its impressive performance and is in 26th position in the 2005 ranking.

Sub-Saharan Africa lagged behind all other regions. Most of the region’s countries cluster at the bottom of the CIP index.

Latin America continued to lose ground to East Asia. The best three performers in the region – Mexico, Costa Rica and Brazil – lost several positions in the rankings.

South Asia does not perform well on the CIP measure. India leads the CIP in the region but lost three positions in the global rankings, despite its strong information technology and electronics sectors.

In the Middle East and North Africa, Tunisia and Morocco continued to improve in industrial competitiveness.

They have emerged as small dynamic economies and are able to compete in global markets not only in basic manufacturing, but also in sophisticated products.

Source : Business Times – Feb 2009

Singapore tops in innovation and competitiveness

Singapore is the world leader in terms of innovation and competitiveness while South Korea ranks fifth and Japan ninth, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Other countries in the top 10 of the study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) were Sweden (2), Luxembourg (3), Denmark (4), the United States (6), Finland (7), Britain (8) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) region of Canada, Mexico and the United States (10).

Other Asia-Pacific region countries in the top 40 included Australia (19), China (33) and India (40). The 15 Western European countries in the European Union, the EU-15, ranked 18th.

The study by the ITIF, a non-partisan think-tank based in Washington, used 16 indicators in six key areas to come up with the rankings: human capital, innovation capacity, entrepreneurship, information technology infrastructure, economic policy factors and economic performance.

Measured differently, in terms of progress on the 16 indicators over the last decade, China topped the rankings, and the United States finished 40th, the ITIF said.

Singapore was second followed by Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Russia, Cyprus and Japan. India ranked 14th, South Korea 17th and Australia 32nd. The EU-15 region ranked 28th in terms of change since 1999.

“This study is based on the importance of benchmarking global competitiveness and innovation on a variety of factors, not simply policy factors or economic performance,” said ITIF president Rob Atkinson.

“In today’s global economy, it’s important to look at the competitiveness of the United States, Europe, Asia and the rest of the world based on a variety of factors – not just one.”

“We found that the United States performs well when compared to the rest of the world, leading Europe, but is not the runaway leader that some recent studies have found it to be,” Atkinson said.

The ITIF said that “if the EU-15 region as a whole continues to improve at this faster rate than the United States, it would surpass the United States in innovation-based competitiveness by 2020.”

“All of the 39 other countries and regions studied have made faster progress towards the new knowledge-based innovation economy in recent years than the United States,” it said.

The ITIF outlined “key policies that need to be pursued to turn around the decline in US innovation-based competitiveness.”

They included incentives for companies to innovate at home, being open to high-skill immigration, fostering a digital economy, supporting the kinds of institutions that are critical to innovation and ensuring that regulations and other related government policies support, not retard, innovation.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – Feb 2009

More mass market projects to launch

Developers are planning to launch more mass market projects this weekend to take advantage of a recent surge in buying interest.

Hiap Hoe Group, a niche developer, will officially launch its 118-unit The Beverly, located at Toh Tuck Road, this Saturday. The starting selling price is $648 per square foot (psf), which Hiap Hoe says is an ‘attractive starting selling price’.

‘We have designed The Beverly for those looking for affordable, high-quality residential developments in a good location,’ said Teo Ho Beng, the company’s managing director.

The Beverly’s two, three and four-bedroom apartments range from 1,120 sq ft to 4,187 sq ft, while its double-storey penthouses range from 2,099 sq ft to 3,757 sq ft and are each outfitted with a private roof garden and pool.

On the other side of the island at Pasir Ris, Sustained Land Pte Ltd will also officially launch Coastal Breeze Residences come this weekend. Two and three-bedroom units at the 63-unit development will sell for $610-$660 psf.

Sustained Land has sold 13 units in Coastal Breeze Residences since the start of 2008 in a soft launch. The units, which were mostly prime apartments on higher floors, went at an average price of $690 psf.

The remaining units are mostly three-bedders between 1159 sq ft and 1356 sq ft in size and there are also duplex penthouses. In terms of absolute value, for example, the price for a three-room 1159 sq ft unit starts at $712,000.

Meanwhile, the UOL Group is expected to launch its 646-unit Double Bay Residences in Simei sometime next week. Market talk has it that the project could be launched at $650-680 psf.

The three projects are coming hot on the heels of two successful launches earlier this month. Units at Frasers Centrepoint’s Caspian condominium near Jurong Lake and Alexis @ Alexandra, a project by joint venture partners Yi Kai Group and Fission Group, sold quickly upon the projects’ launches.

One market insider said that developers are taking pricing cues from each other, and making sure their newly launched projects are priced to sell. ‘There is a sense that people will only be willing to buy projects in the $600-plus psf range, and also only units that don’t cost too much in total. People don’t really want to pay more than $600,000 or $700,000-plus in these times,’ he said.

Developers are also throwing in more upmarket features into their mass market offerings to entice buyers. Each of The Beverly’s 118 apartments is served by private lifts that open into the lobby of its interior. UOL’s Double Bay Residences will also offer extras such as full-length windows in the kitchen, the company has said.

Source : Business Times – Feb 2009

Home Loans .. Do your homework

Some mortgage rates are rising; shop around before making a choice

As global interest rates fall, you would expect more homeowners to be tempted into taking up mortgages pegged to the Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (Sibor) or Swap Offer Rate (SOR).

After all, the three-month Sibor rate is currently around 0.68 per cent – just shy of its all-time low of 0.63 per cent.

However, instead of resulting in lower mortgage rates, interest payments on these pegged loans have surprisingly started to rise.

Rather than passing on savings from cheaper inter-bank lending, most financial institutions are now charging higher premiums above Sibor and SOR to reflect higher default risk, given that the economy has turned.

Banks have turned increasingly cautious over lending.

Last July, someone taking out a mortgage with DBS Bank would have paid a rate of Sibor plus 1.25 percentage points for an 80 per cent loan.

Today, DBS‚ mortgage rates start at Sibor plus 1.75 percentage points, with no lock-in period.

That means the total interest rate paid would now be 2.43 per cent, up from 2.25 per cent last July.

Similarly, spreads over SOR have widened.

Tellingly, some financial planners Today spoke to suggested that home-buyers should consider fixed-rate loans instead.

“Personally, I would lock in for as far as possible,” said Mr Sani Hamid, Financial Alliance‚s director of wealth management.

That is because Sibor rates – while now low – rose to as high as 3.1875 per cent in 2005.

At DBS, Sibor fixed rate mortgages start at 3.25 per cent for a one year lock-in period on an80 per cent loan.

In contrast, fixed rate mortgages charge interest rates at a stable interest rate that is fixed and guaranteed in the first few years. This means that the monthly instalment amount is fixed for this period.

This brings about stability and certainty about how much you will be expected to pay in the long-run.

Another tip: Shop around for – and even ask – for the best rates possible in the competitive markets, note financial planners. You may just get a rate that is better than those published.

Source : Today – Feb 2009

China property recovery not expected till H2

Prices need to fall further before buyers are attracted, says Goldman Sachs

China’s real estate developers do not expect the property market to recover until at least the second half of this year, as prices need to fall further before attracting more buyers, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

‘A sustainable property market is out of sight,’ Goldman Sachs analysts Thomas Deng and Kinger Lau write in a report, which was based on observations from company visits in southern China and published yesterday.

Home prices in China fell 0.9 per cent in January, the second consecutive monthly decline and the longest losing streak since the government started issuing the data in August 2005. Property prices more than quadrupled in the five years through 2007 as urban incomes rose.

Goldman Sachs said that a recent increase in property transactions is not evidence of the market bottoming out. The analysts visited China Vanke Co, the nation’s largest publicly traded developer, Shenzhen Investment Ltd and Gemdale Corp.

Sale volumes in the southern city of Shenzhen, bordering Hong Kong, more than doubled to 787,800 square metres in December from 358,300 sq m in November and 338,000 sq m in October, according to a report by property agency DTZ earlier this month. House prices in the city dropped 16 per cent in January from a year earlier.

Source : Business Times -  Feb 2009