DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 21th July 2017

Top Story

NUS-Redas property sentiment index at its highest since Q1 2010
Property market sentiment continues to improve, going by the latest reading of the quarterly sentiment index published by the developers’ body and the National University of Singapore (NUS). The current sentiment index improved to 6.1 in the second quarter from 5.2 in the first quarter. The future sentiment index also climbed, to 6.2 from 5.2 previously. As a result, the composite sentiment index, a derived indicator for the overall real estate market sentiment, went up to 6.1 from 5.2 previously.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/nus-redas-property-sentiment-index-at-its-highest-since-q1-2010

Singapore Economy

AI can almost double annual growth rate by 2035: Accenture
New research by Accenture has revealed that artificial intelligence (AI) could nearly double Singapore’s annual economic growth rates by 2035. It was also found that Singapore is at the vanguard of integrating innovation and technologies into the wider economy, ahead of some of the world’s largest economies such as the United States.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/ai-can-almost-double-annual-growth-rate-by-2035-accenture
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/ai-could-double-spore-growth-rate-by-2035

Country-specific risk factors increasingly more important in H2 2017: Allianz
Country-specific risk factors, rather than global macroeconomic news, will become more important to asset-allocation strategies for the rest of 2017. In its midyear outlook report issued on Thursday, Allianz Global Investors says the global economy has been in a cyclical “sweet spot” for more than a year.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/country-specific-risk-factors-increasingly-more-important-in-h2-2017-allianz

About 50% of companies here do not own business liability insurance: survey
Only 54 per cent of companies here have business liability insurance, a survey has found. QBE Insurance’s latest report, The Risks of Regret, found that in regional economies such as Indonesia, Hong Kong and Malaysia, business liability insurance ownership is 54 per cent, 47 per cent and 45 per cent respectively.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/about-50-of-companies-here-do-not-own-business-liability-insurance-survey

Singapore Real Estate

Albracca condo at East Coast sold for S$69.1m
The latest to join a recent spate of successful collective sales is The Albracca, a 10-storey residential development along Meyer Road at East Coast. It was sold on Thursday to Sustained Land for S$69.1 million by marketing agent JLL. Karamjit Singh, senior consultant at JLL, said this works out to S$1,409 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), inclusive of development charges of S$115,000 for intensifying the gross plot ratio to 2.1 from 2.09.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/albracca-condo-at-east-coast-sold-for-s691m
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/meyer-road-condo-sold-en-bloc-for-69m?login=true

Design impact the new focus of President’s Design Award
Designers who submit their works for the President’s Design Award (PDA) will now have to take an additional step of showing how their design has made an impact on society, businesses or the public sector, on top of the usual display of excellence in design craftsmanship. The DesignSingapore Council (Dsg) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the organisers of the PDA, announced a new judging criteria for the award, which is Singapore’s highest honour for designers and designs across all disciplines.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/lifestyle/design/design-impact-the-new-focus-of-presidents-design-award
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/top-design-award-to-undergo-redesign
http://www.todayonline.com/lifestyle/revamped-presidents-design-award-focus-transformational-impact-top-design-craftsmanship

BCA SkyLab turns one – and wins an award
The BCA SkyLab celebrated its first birthday with an award yesterday. Built by the Building and Construction Authority, the laboratory was one of 12 winners of this year’s Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES) Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards. Housed on the roof of a BCA building in Braddell Road, it gives researchers a place to test and develop energy-efficient building technologies and materials such as facades and air-conditioning.
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/bca-skylab-turns-one-and-wins-an-award?login=true

Value of transacted luxury properties up 45% in first half of 2017
High-end real estate transactions have gone up by 45 per cent in value in the first six months of the year, compared with the same period last year, according to List Sotheby’s International Realty, Singapore. The realtor, which specialises in luxury residential properties, noted that interest in exclusive good class bungalows (GCBs) and bungalows at Sentosa Cove has picked up in the first half of the year. Based on caveats lodged, 20 GCBs and seven bungalows at Sentosa Cove have been transacted in the first six months of the year, compared with 14 GCBs and none at Sentosa Cove over the same period last year.
http://www.todayonline.com/business/value-transacted-luxury-properties-45-first-half-2017

Hotel vagabond turns carbon-free with carbon credits
Hotel vagabond, a luxury boutique hotel, has become the first hotel in Singapore to become carbon-free after purchasing carbon credits which offset carbon emissions produced in the process of generating electricity that the hotel uses for the next two years. The United Nations-certified carbon credits were purchased from electricity retailer iSwitch, whose plan for the hotel also resulted in 20 per cent cost savings compared to the usual tariffs, said its director of marketing communications Valerie Loy.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/hotel-vagabond-turns-carbon-free-with-carbon-credits

Companies’ Brief

CapitaLand Mall Trust’s Q2 DPU up 0.4%
CapitaLand Mall Trust (CMT) reported on Friday a 0.01 Singapore cent increase of its distribution per unit (DPU) to 2.75 Singapore cents for the second quarter of the year. For the three months ended June 30, 2017, the indirect wholly owned subsidiary of CapitaLand Limited’s net property income stood at S$117.6 million, up 1.2 per cent from a year ago. Distributable income was up 0.1 per cent to S$97.2 million for Q2 2017.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/capitaland-mall-trusts-q2-dpu-up-04
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/capitaland-mall-trust-posts-04-rise-in-q2-dpu

Ascott Reit’s Q2 DPU down 14%; units close higher
Units in Ascott Residence Trust (Ascott Reit) rose two cents to close at S$1.195 on Thursday after the Reit announced a distribution per unit (DPU) of 1.84 Singapore cents for the second quarter of 2017. This was down 14 per cent from a year ago. However, excluding a one-off realised foreign-exchange gain and the effects of a recent rights issue, the DPU for Q2 2017 would have been 2.10 cents for a same store comparison, Ascott Reit said.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/ascott-reits-q2-dpu-down-14-units-close-higher

Keppel Corp Q2 earnings fall 22%
With a quick recovery in the offshore and marine (O&M) sector not in sight, Keppel Corporation is scouring for “new toplines” under a multi-business strategy to make up for the sector’s prolonged slump after reporting a 22 per cent drop in group net profit to S$160.28 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017. This includes doubling the S$25 billion assets under management of Keppel Capital, the group’s asset management arm, over the next five years.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/keppel-corp-q2-earnings-fall-22
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/keppel-corps-q2-profit-down-22-to-s160m
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/keppels-q2-earnings-fall-221?login=true

Manulife US Reit completes acquisition of 500 Plaza Drive in New Jersey
Manulife US Reit announced on Thursday that it has completed its maiden acquisition of 500 Plaza Drive in the United States, with the real estate investment trust’s (Reit) total portfolio valuation now standing at US$950.2 million. The 11-storey freehold office building’s occupancy is 98.9 per cent, and has a long weighted average lease expiry of 9.2 years based on committed leases as at March 31, 2017. It occupies 461,525 sq ft of net lettable area.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/manulife-us-reit-completes-acquisition-of-500-plaza-drive-in-new-jersey
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/manulife-us-reit-completes-acquisition-of-plaza

ZACD fund acquires Melbourne office block
Asset manager ZACD Group said on Thursday a fund managed by it has completed the acquisition of an office building in Melbourne for A$27.32 million (S$29.6 million). It said the transaction, which marked ZACD’s first foray into the Australian real estate market, was one of the largest in the outer Melbourne suburban office market in the past two years. The property is located in the heart of Cheltenham’s commercial precinct, in the Bayside Business Employment Area, located south-east of Melbourne’s central business district (CBD), it said.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/zacd-fund-acquires-melbourne-office-block
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/zacd-acquires-melbourne-office-building-for-a273m

Views, Reviews & Forum

Developers must get involved in safety meetings too
I am sceptical as to whether getting contractors, subcontractors, consultants and safety officers to attend a mandatory safety coordination meeting every day will reduce the number of accidents at construction sites (Worksites may have to hold mandatory safety meetings daily; July 18).
http://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/developers-must-get-involved-in-safety-meetings-too?login=true

HDB was describing a lease ownership
It is somewhat misleading to term HDB buyers “homeowners” rather than “lease owners”. The two terms mean very different things legally. Homeowners own the land outright and never have to return it or pay rent on it. They are restricted only by the prevailing laws of the land.
http://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/hdb-was-describing-a-lease-ownership?login=true