DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 2nd October 2018

Singapore Real Estate

Home prices flatten in Q3 as curbs arrest gains
The July cooling measures are starting to show in the moderation in the pace of the quarter-on-quarter increase of the official private home price index: Growth was 0.5 per cent in the third quarter. Most property consultants interpret the latest flash estimate from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) as the beginning of a period of stable prices.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/home-prices-flatten-in-q3-as-curbs-arrest-gains
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/private-home-price-gains-slow-in-q3-on-cooling-measures

HDB resale prices down 0.2% in Q3, reversing uptick in Q2
HDB resale prices declined 0.2 per cent in the third quarter of this year from the previous three months, returning to the downtrend after a brief flirt on the upside, going by official flash estimates released on Monday. Prices of resale HDB flats had inched up 0.1 per cent in the second quarter of this year from the previous quarter – their first increase after nine quarters of decline – raising expectations that HDB resale prices may have bottomed out.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/hdb-resale-prices-down-02-in-q3-reversing-uptick-in-q2
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/hdb-resale-flat-prices-resume-slide-with-02-dip-in-q3

3 office floors of The Octagon up for bulk sale with S$45.5m indicative price
Three freehold office floors of The Octagon at 105 Cecil Street have been put up for bulk sale via tender, marketing agent Cushman & Wakefield announced on Monday. The tender exercise for the 14th, 15th and 17th floors of the 25-storey office building will close on Nov 1, 2018, at 3pm. The Octagon is located at the junction of Boon Tat Street and Cecil Street, within walking distance of the Raffles Place and Telok Ayer MRT stations, and has two levels of basement car parks for season parking.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/3-office-floors-of-the-octagon-up-for-bulk-sale-with-s455m-indicative-price
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/3-freehold-office-floors-at-the-octagon-up-for-sale

Oxley’s Mayfair Gardens 40% sold in weekend launch
Oxley Holding’s Mayfair Gardens condominium project was 40 per cent sold during its launch weekend, said the firm on Monday. Homebuyers snapped up 87 out of 215 units from Sept 29 to Sept 30, for an average price of S$1,900 per square foot. Units sold ranged from one-bedroom to four-bedroom apartments. Three of the six penthouses were also sold. The buyers comprise 85 per cent Singaporeans while the remaining 15 per cent were permanent residents and foreigners.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/oxleys-mayfair-gardens-40-sold-in-weekend-launch

Companies’ Brief

CapitaLand takes 50% stake in co-working operator
CapitaLand has – through subsidiary CL Kingdom Investment – invested S$13.5 million for a 50 per cent stake in The Work Project Kingdom (TWPK), and will extend another S$13.5 million in shareholder loans to the co-working operator. The property developer has been issued 13.5 million shares at an issue price of S$1 each in TWPK. The remaining 50 per cent stake in TWPK is held by a party unrelated to CapitaLand.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/capitaland-takes-50-stake-in-co-working-operator
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/capitaland-takes-50-stake-in-co-working-operator-the-work-project-kingdom

Heeton Holdings acquires serviced apartment in Scotland
Heeton Holdings has acquired Stewart Apartments in Edinburgh. This is the group’s first hospitality asset in Scotland. Stewart Apartments – which will be renamed the Stewart Aparthotel – is situated in the New Town sector of Edinburgh. The property has 31 apartment units, and will be managed by Heeton’s hospitality division under the brand Heeton Concept Hotel.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/heeton-holdings-acquires-serviced-apartment-in-scotland

Keppel Land to co-develop commercial project in Bangalore
Keppel Corporation’s property arm Keppel Land has entered into a joint venture with Indian property developer Puravankara Limited to buy a 3.09 hectare site in Bangalore and develop Keppel’s first commercial development in India, the group announced on Monday. The two have entered into agreements through Keppel Puravankara Development (KPDL) to acquire the prime site in Yeshwantpur, Bangalore, from Metro Cash and Carry India Private Limited (MCCIN) for about 4.05 billion rupees (S$81 million).
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/keppel-land-to-co-develop-commercial-project-in-bangalore
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/keppel-in-tie-up-to-develop-its-first-commercial-project-in-india

SPH launches new digital photo marketplace; signs deal with A*Star
Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has launched Photonico, a new digital photo marketplace featuring Asian contemporary culture and heritage photography which aims to become the go-to place for high-quality stock images in Asia. Led by SPH’s newly formed digital media product division, a team of photographers, designers, SPHTech engineers and editorial staff collaborated to create www.photonico.asia.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/sph-launches-new-digital-photo-marketplace-signs-deal-with-astar
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/sph-launches-digital-photo-marketplace-photonico-0

OCBC cancels sale of stake in Hong Kong Life Insurance
OCBC Bank on Monday announced that it has terminated the sale of its 33.33 per cent stake in Hong Kong Life Insurance Limited, on the basis that the closing conditions of the sale had not been satisfied by the long stop date of Sept 30. In accordance with the terms of the share sale agreement, the buyer, First Origin International Limited, has forfeited its deposit of HK$710 million (S$124 million) to the sellers, OCBC’s subsidiary OCBC Wing Hang Bank Limited (OWHB) and four other financial institutions.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/ocbc-cancels-sale-of-stake-in-hong-kong-life-insurance

Katrina acquires first Japanese restaurants for S$952,767
Restaurant operation Katrina Group is acquiring its first Japanese establishment with an agreement to buy the two-restaurant Tomo Izakaya business for S$952,767 in cash, according to filings with the Singapore Exchange on Monday night. The purchase price comprises S$575,000 as an initial purchase price plus the target’s estimated net tangible asset value as at Sept 30 of S$377,767. The consideration will be adjusted if the actual net tangible asset value of Tomo Izakaya differs from the estimated value by S$10,000 or more.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/katrina-acquires-first-japanese-restaurants-for-s952767
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/katrina-buys-its-first-japanese-restaurants-for-952767

Thakral unit invests in a hotel and two office buildings in Osaka, with combined value of 5.46b yen
Mainboard-Listed Thakral Corporation has invested in a hotel and two office buildings in Osaka, Japan with a combined value of 5.46 billion yen (S$66 million). Thakral Corp is a real estate investment and lifestyle brands marketing firm. The Hotel WBF (White Bear Family) Namba Motomachi and the office building Utsubo East Building were acquired under a new pooled investment structure. The other office building, Legal Itachibori Building, is being acquired from the group’s current pooled investment vehicle that has a different shareholding pattern from the new pooled structure.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/thakral-unit-invests-in-a-hotel-and-two-office-buildings-in-osaka-with-combined

VIEWS, REVIEWS, FORUM & Others

New framework to take Singapore funds industry to new level
Singapore passed into law on Monday a new type of entity – the Variable Capital Company – that will be a game changer for the Republic’s fast-growing fund management industry. The Variable Capital Companies (VCC) Bill, approved by Parliament on Monday, aims to boost the fund management ecosystem by encouraging funds to both incorporate and operate in Singapore, placing the Republic in the same league as global fund domicile centres like Cayman Islands, Dublin and Luxembourg.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/banking-finance/new-framework-to-take-singapore-funds-industry-to-new-level

Asia-Pac family offices outperform global average
Family offices in the Asia Pacific achieved the strongest performance among their global peers with a 16.4 per cent portfolio return for 2017, driven by equities and private equity. The global average family office return, according to the latest edition of the Global Family Office Report, was 15.5 per cent. The report was published by UBS and Campden Wealth.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/consumer/asia-pac-family-offices-outperform-global-average

No hidden components, perks in ministers’ salary: DPM Teo
All the bonuses paid to an entry-level minister form part of his S$1.1 million annual salary norm, and are not in addition to that amount, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said in Parliament on Monday. He also said that all components of a political office holder’s annual salary are set out in the 2012 White Paper titled “Salaries for a Capable and Committed Government”. This was submitted by an independent committee after it held extensive consultation with Members of Parliament (MPs) and the public.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/no-hidden-components-perks-in-ministers-salary-dpm-teo
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/dpm-teo-explains-clean-wage-system-for-ministers

Older rental blocks eligible for next Home Improvement Programme
Older rental flats will be eligible for Home Improvement Programme (HIP) II, a second round of upgrading for Housing Board flats that are around 60 to 70 years old. Speaking in Parliament on Monday, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said these blocks would benefit from the programme, just as many of them are eligible for the ongoing HIP I. HIP II will be launched in about 10 years’ time.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/older-rental-blocks-eligible-for-next-home-improvement-programme

The slippery slope of a trade war
“We will prevail.” This has become the mantra in Washington and Beijing as relations between the two largest economies in the world careen down the path of a full-blown trade war. As damaging as a trade war will be for the global economy, it is arguably part of a volatile sequence of events that suggests the US and China are sliding precariously into a new Cold War, the portents of which extend far beyond the rectification of the American balance of trade.
https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/the-slippery-slope-of-a-trade-war