DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 27 Nov 2019

Singapore Real Estate

URA master plan formalised; Railway Station Staff Quarters, Bukit Timah Fire Station gazetted for conservation
[Singapore] An urban master plan that will guide Singapore’s development in the next 10 to 15 years was formalised on Wednesday. Under the gazetted Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) Master Plan 2019, the former Railway Station Staff Quarters and Bukit Timah Fire Station have also been gazetted for conservation, the authority said in a statement on the same day.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/ura-master-plan-formalised-railway-station-staff-quarters-bukit-timah-fire

JTC launches Woodlands Industrial Park site for tender
JTC has launched a Woodlands Industrial Park site for tender under the second half of its 2019 Industrial Government Land Sales (IGLS) programme. Woodlands Industrial Park E7/E8 has a 20-year tenure and a site area of 0.77 hectare. It is zoned B2 for industrial purposes and has a 2.5 gross plot ratio.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/jtc-launches-woodlands-industrial-park-site-for-tender

Singapore Economy

Singapore Oct factory output beats expectations with 4% growth
Singapore’s factory output grew an unexpected 4 per cent year on year in October, defying economists’ expectations of a 1.4 per cent fall and outstripping September’s revised figure of 0.7 per cent growth. Even excluding the volatile biomedical manufacturing sector, output was up 0.2 per cent, according to Singapore Economic Development Board figures on Tuesday.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/singapore-oct-factory-output-beats-expectations-with-4-growth
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/singapore-manufacturing-output-beats-forecasts-with-4-rise-in-oct
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/manufacturing-output-october-increase-12126280
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/singapore-manufacturing-output-continues-growth-trajectory-4-october

Government working on strong Budget that Singapore economy needs: PM Lee
Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat and various agencies are working towards preparing a Budget which will be strong, and suitable to the state of the world and what the Singapore economy needs, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told reporters on Tuesday at the conclusion of his five-day visit to South Korea. He said that with major economies like the US, China and Japan slowing, it is not surprising that the Singapore…
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/government-working-on-strong-budget-that-singapore-economy-needs-pm-lee
https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/budget-will-be-strong-suited-to-what-economy-needs-pm

Companies’ Brief

Keppel Infra Trust unit gets 1-year loan payment extension for Basslink undersea cable
Keppel Infrastructure Trust’s (KIT) Australian unit, Basslink, has got a one-year extension on the maturity date of a loan for its undersea electricity cable, it said in a bourse filing on Wednesday. Basslink, an undersea power cable company, said financiers of the cable, the Basslink Interconnector, have also extended the waiver of all breaches and events of default under the project by a year.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/keppel-infra-trust-unit-gets-1-year-loan-payment-extension-for-basslink-undersea

Values, vision form Soilbuild’s foundation
One doesn’t have to be in the construction and real estate industry to know the importance of a good foundation to a building. But it certainly helps to know how to apply the same principle to one’s business: by establishing it on the right values from the start. For Soilbuild Group, a foundation of honesty and hard work was all that executive chairman Lim Chap Huat had when he and two co-founders started out in 1976.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/hub-projects/enterprise-50-2019/values-vision-form-soilbuilds-foundation

Investing in agents, tech for the future
Local property agency Huttons Asia is looking to hire more property agents at a time when more buyers and sellers are opting to do without them, and star agents have left the firm, according to its chief executive. “We’re definitely recruiting,” said chief executive officer Goh Kee Nguan. “I think we recruit both traditional, non-traditional agents, all sorts of agents. I think we’re very open, so we definitely want as…
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/hub-projects/enterprise-50-2019/investing-in-agents-tech-for-the-future

S-Reits advance amid weaker market
Singapore equities put in a mixed performance as investors continue to grapple with the ever-changing narrative of US-China trade talks. That said, units in real estate investment trusts (Reits) traded decidedly higher after US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said the central bank is likely to hold interest rates in the coming months.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/s-reits-advance-amid-weaker-market