DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 3th Sep 2019

Singapore Real Estate

Singapore hotel rates, bookings surge in July; stronger H2 expected
Singapore’s hotels appear to have garnered robust bookings for July and August, with expectations for a healthy performance in the second half of the year. Market watchers pointed to the peak travel season as well as diversion of traffic from Hong Kong as likely factors, but also warned that economic headwinds could pose a downside risk for the hotel industry.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/singapore-hotel-rates-bookings-surge-in-july-stronger-h2-expected

Singapore planning a subterranean future as it faces space constraints
Space-starved Singapore has expanded outwards by building into the sea and upwards by constructing high-rises but planners are now looking underground as they seek new areas for growth. The nation has carefully managed its rapid growth in recent decades to avoid the problems faced by other fast developing Asian metropolises, such as overcrowding and traffic chaos.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/singapore-planning-a-subterranean-future-as-it-faces-space-constraints

99-year Chinatown conservation shophouse up for sale at S$8.5m
A three-storey conservation shophouse located at Chinatown is up for sale via expression of interest with an S$8.5 million indicative price. This works out to S$2,660 per square foot (psf) with an estimated gross floor area of 3,196 sq ft, sole marketing agent CBRE said on Monday.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/99-year-chinatown-conservation-shophouse-up-for-sale-at-s85m
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/chinatown-conservation-shophouse-up-for-sale-with-85m-indicative-price

About 600 suspected cases of illegal short-term rentals investigated each year
Singapore — The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has investigated an average of about 600 suspected cases of illegal short-term accommodation a year in the last five years, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said. Among the cases investigated, 10 recalcitrant offenders have been charged in court while 14 people have been issued composition fines since May, he added.
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/about-600-suspected-cases-illegal-short-term-rentals-investigated-each-year

Singapore Economy

IRAS tax collection up 4.4% to S$52.4b in fiscal 2018/2019
The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) collected S$52.4 billion in tax revenue in the fiscal year 2018/2019, up 4.4 per cent from a year ago. The increase was underpinned by Singapore’s 3.1 per cent economic expansion in 2018, IRAS said on Monday in its annual report.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/iras-tax-collection-up-44-to-s524b-in-fiscal-20182019-0
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/iras-tax-collection-up-44-to-524b-in-fiscal-20182019

CPF bucks global trend with 6.6% growth in AUM
Singapore’s Central Provident Fund (CPF) bucked the global decline in assets under management (AUM) at pension funds, with its total assets growing 6.6 per cent year on year to US$287 billion in 2018. The city-state also maintained its spot at ninth place globally in terms of assets, according to the latest World 300 research from Willis Towers Watson’s Thinking Ahead Institute (TAI) released on Monday.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/cpf-bucks-global-trend-with-66-growth-in-aum
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/cpf-sees-66-growth-in-assets-bucks-global-downtrend

Companies’ Brief

Ascott set to open 4 new properties by end-2019
The Ascott Limited – Capitaland’s wholly-owned lodging business unit – will open a record four properties in Singapore this year, with another four under the Citadines and lyf brands expected to open by 2021, the serviced residence operator said in a news release on Monday. The four property openings in 2019 will add a total of 846 units. The first to open its doors is lyf Funan Singapore, followed by Citadines Balestier…
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/ascott-set-to-open-4-new-properties-by-end-2019

BreadTalk to buy food-court operator Food Junction for S$80m
Food and beverage (F&B) player BreadTalk Group is looking to buy the entire stake in Food Junction Management (FJM), which operates food courts and F&B outlets in Singapore and Malaysia, for S$80 million. BreadTalk announced on Monday morning that its wholly owned subsidiary, Topwin Investment Holding, had on Aug 30 entered into a sale and purchase agreement for the proposed acquisition of FJM from Food Junction Holdings.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/breadtalk-to-buy-food-court-operator-food-junction-for-s80m-0
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/breadtalk-plans-80m-acquisition-of-food-junction
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/breadtalk-to-buy-food-junction-food-court-11863368
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/breadtalk-enters-agreement-buy-food-junction-s80-million

Views, Reviews, Forum & Others

Asia should fix its mega cities, not move them
Asia’s biggest cities, from Shanghai to Dhaka, are struggling to manage the impact of decades of growth. Some are sinking. Most are traffic-choked. And almost all struggle with chronic air pollution. Worst of all, coastal cities face the threat of being inundated by rising seas. Indonesia’s capital Jakarta suffers these urban ills more acutely than most, which is why President Joko Widodo announced a plan recently to shift…
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/asia-should-fix-its-mega-cities-not-move-them

Time to relook paradigm on public housing
Forum writer Soo Weng Keong rightly pointed out that public housing is a form of social spending which is funded by taxpayers (Govt subsidy should not go to luxury seafront homes, Aug 30). The Government has announced that the goods and services tax will be raised from 7 per cent to 9 per cent some time between 2021 and 2025.
https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/time-to-relook-paradigm-on-public-housing

Wrong to withhold subsidies based on ‘lottery effect’
The suggestion by Mr Soo Weng Keong to get rid of the HDB subsidy for those flats to be built on the land where Keppel Club sits by virtue of the fact that these flat-owners will reap a handsome profit when they resell is untenable (Govt subsidy should not go to luxury seafront homes, Aug 30). His idea of having to moderate government spending in view of impending increase in social spending is laudable.
https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/wrong-to-withhold-subsidies-based-on-lottery-effect

Explainer: How 2 proposed tunnelling routes for Cross Island Line will affect wildlife, housing areas
Singapore — The authorities are inviting public feedback on two proposed construction choices for the future Cross Island Line. This is after the second stage of a report assessing the environmental impact of building Singapore’s eighth MRT line was gazetted on Monday (Sept 2). Gazetting allows public inspection of the report and feedback on its findings.
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/explainer-how-2-proposed-tunnelling-routes-cross-island-line-will-affect-wildlife-housing

Gain insights into the B2C space
The business-to-consumer (B2C) space has experienced its fair share of disruption, and it may not be so easy to make sense of such an uncharted marketplace, much less thrive in it. That being said, at an upcoming seminar entitled Making Sense of B2C Today, participants will be able to gain valuable insights from key industry players in the current B2C space.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sme/gain-insights-into-the-b2c-space