DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 15th, 16th & 17th December 2018

Singapore Real Estate

Tender for Pasir Ris Central white site draws just three bids
A 3.8 hectare white site at Pasir Ris Central drew fairly subdued interest from developers with a lower-than-expected three bids at the close of the tender on Friday. Among the bidders was Far East Organization, while Singapore Press Holdings and Kajima Development submitted a joint bid. The third bid was from Phoenix Residential and Phoenix Commercial; both companies are owned by Allgreen Properties and Kerry Properties, which are in turn linked to Robert Kuok.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/tender-for-pasir-ris-central-white-site-draws-just-three-bids
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/three-bids-submitted-for-pasir-ris-central-white-site

Duck & Hippo founder sets another record price for shophouse
Duck & Hippo group founder James Heng continues to pile up on conservation shophouses. He is paying S$14 million for 31 Keong Saik Road. This works out to about S$4,300 per square feet based on estimated built-up area for the three-storey freehold property – surpassing the S$4,259 psf he paid for 21 Boon Tat Street in September this year. That price was already a new high for conservation shophouses in Districts 1 and 2, said property agents.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/duck-hippo-founder-sets-another-record-price-for-shophouse

Singapore Economy

Singapore economy: 7 factors to watch in 2019
Barring surprises, the main forces that could affect the Singapore economy next year have already been dominating headlines in 2018.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/infographics/singapore-economy-7-factors-to-watch-in-2019

Companies’ Brief

AIMS property fund sees opportunities in Australian commercial real estate downturn
Dual-listed AIMS Property Securities Fund is “strategically positioned” to take advantage of a downturn in the Australian commercial real estate market, which has begun to show signs of weakening, chairman George Wang wrote in a letter sent to unitholders. He said that the tightening of bank lending is expected to “play a large role” in the downturn of Australia’s commercial real estate market.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/aims-property-fund-sees-opportunities-in-australian-commercial-real-estate

Colliers aims to make *SCAPE ‘hip and exciting’
Colliers International has been appointed leasing and tenancy manager for *SCAPE for two years in a bid to help the Orchard youth hangout tap millennial demand. Colliers envisions *SCAPE to be “a hip and exciting venue with a wide range of attractive experiential offerings, be it music, dance, sports, gaming or F&B,” the company said in a statement.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/colliers-aims-to-make-scape-hip-and-exciting

Genting theme park plans ‘all in place’, slated to open in early 2019
Genting’s theme park “remains very much part of our plans” and will be ready by early 2019, said Lim Kok Thay, its chairman and chief executive officer. In fact, he was hoping that the theme park would open in January next year, but “this latest twist caught us by surprise”.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/genting-theme-park-plans-all-in-place-slated-to-open-in-early-2019

Focus on training sales staff, empowering home buyers
Home-grown real estate firm PropNex was set up in 2000 and listed on the Singapore Exchange on July 2 this year. It started with just over 3,000 agents and has since expanded operations and now has more than 7,600 agents, making it Singapore’s largest listed real estate agency.
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/invest/focus-on-training-sales-staff-empowering-home-buyers

AF Global sells London hotel for £84.4m
AF Global has agreed to sell its full ownerships rights to the Crowne Plaza London Kensington hotel in the United Kingdom for £84.4 million (S$146 million) in cash, the property and hospitality group said on Monday (Dec 17). Those rights are the primary asset of LC London, AF Global’s wholly owned subsidiary that is being sold to a buyer who was selected following a competitive bid process. The sale will represent a net gain of about $14.4 million.
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/af-global-sells-london-hotel-for-ps844m

VIEWS, REVIEWS, FORUM & Others

New real estate sectors reflect changing lifestyles in Asia
More than half of the world’s population live in the Asia-Pacific, of which a significant proportion are young people. In fact, this region is home to more than 700 million citizens aged 15 to 24. On the flip side, we are ageing rapidly. According to figures from the UN, by 2050 there will be 1.3 billion people in the Asia-Pacific aged over 60 – which will amount to 25 per cent of the region’s population.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/new-real-estate-sectors-reflect-changing-lifestyles-in-asia

All together now: The growing co-living scene in Singapore
There used to be a time when conventional wisdom warned against getting into a car with a stranger. But in an age where the likes of Grab and WeWork have transformed social norms, living with strangers is a concept that’s started to gain traction too. Of course, co-living isn’t new to Singapore, nor is it an entirely new proposition.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/brunch/all-together-now-the-growing-co-living-scene-in-singapore

The bubble’s losing air. Get ready for a crisis
The “everything bubble” is deflating. The fact that it’s happening relatively slowly shouldn’t blind us to the real threat: The world is dangerously underestimating how hard it’ll be to deal with the fallout once it pops. Frothy markets can’t disguise the warning signs. The shift to tighter monetary policies in the West is putting pressure on global equity and real-estate values. Even more critically, it’s weakening credit markets. Over-indebted emerging markets face headwinds from rising borrowing costs and dollar shortages.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/banking-finance/the-bubbles-losing-air-get-ready-for-a-crisis
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-12-15/central-banks-have-few-options-to-deal-with-another-crisis

Farewell, Black Lion of Moulmein: Old compound of Communicable Disease Centre closes
From smallpox, plague, diphtheria, thyroid, cholera and malaria in the early 1900s, to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Nipah virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and the threats of a flu pandemic in recent years, the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) has been through them all. After being at the forefront of fighting major infectious diseases in Singapore for more than a century, the gates of the old compound located in Moulmein Road finally closed as operations ceased last Thursday.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/farewell-black-lion-of-moulmein