Singapore Real Estate
Singapore building sector seen shrinking 10.3% in 2020
Singapore’s construction sector is poised to take a hard hit from the Covid-19 outbreak in the short term, and is now expected to contract sharply by 10.3 per cent this year in real terms, according to Fitch Solutions.
https://www.businesstimes.com.
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Singapore Economy
Singapore Q1 unemployment rate up 2.4%; Q2 numbers to worsen as virus hits
Singapore’s total employment for the first three months of 2020 registered its sharpest quarterly contraction in 17 years amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, and authorities warned the labour market in the months ahead could soften further.
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March visitor number to Singapore hits 17-year low amid pandemic
The number of visitors to Singapore in March plunged 85 per cent from a year ago to 240,000, the lowest since the Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in 2003. Visitors from China, which accounted for 20 per cent of total tourist arrivals in Singapore, numbered just 1,500 as Beijing imposed travel restrictions on its people to contain the coronavirus from spreading.
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Oil price slump hits Singapore’s wholesale fuel traders
The slump in oil prices will weigh on Singapore’s economic growth and manufacturing output, and if they stay low for longer, may cut profits of lenders as well. While the mention of oil in Singapore is usually linked to big names in the Republic’s offshore rig-building and refining industry, a high-profile bankruptcy has put the spotlight on trouble brewing in the fuel trading business.
https://www.straitstimes.com/
Singtel, StarHub-M1 bag 5G licences; some see pandemic hobbling roll-out
The first 5G operating licences were provisionally handed out on Wednesday, in a move that analysts lauded as a shot in the arm for telcos. That’s even though they warned that the coronavirus pandemic could pose financial challenges to deployment of the new wireless technology.
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Companies’ Brief
CapitaLand Commercial Trust Q1 DPU down 25% to 1.65¢
CapitaLand Commercial Trust (CCT) posted a 25 per cent fall in distribution per unit (DPU) to 1.65 Singapore cents for the first quarter ended March 31, due to its retention of taxable distributable income and its decision to withhold distribution of tax-exempt income “as a matter of prudence” amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
https://www.businesstimes.com.
Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust posts Q2 DPU of 1.9 Australian cents
Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust’s (FLCT) distribution per unit (DPU) rose 4.4 per cent to 1.9 Australian cents for its second quarter ended March 31, from 1.82 Australian cents a year ago. However, in Singapore-dollar terms, DPU fell by 1.7 per cent to 1.73 Singapore cents, from 1.76 Singapore cents previously, the manager announced on Thursday.
https://www.businesstimes.com.
Keppel’s Q1 profit falls 21% on absence of divestment gain
Keppel Corp posted a 20.9 per cent drop in quarterly net profit to S$160.5 million from a year earlier, mainly due to the absence of gain from the partial divestment of a Vietnam township project that had boosted profit previously. Revenue for the first quarter ended March 31 rose 21.3 per cent to S$1.86 billion, led by higher revenues from offshore & marine projects, property trading projects in Singapore, the power and gas business, and with the M1 consolidation.
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Views, Reviews, Forum & Others
How the coronavirus crisis differs from other global downturns
Mark Twain supposedly said: “History doesn’t repeat but rather it rhymes.” While there’s no evidence whether the respected writer did or did not say this, the logic behind the statement stands. History tends to move in cycles – and often the cycles seem very similar.
https://www.businesstimes.com.
‘Business as usual’ is being transformed by pandemic
One of the consequences of the coronavirus crisis has been that a number of previously unthinkable political and economic outcomes have rocked the globe. Even a few weeks ago, few would have predicted the scale of change that has ensued from massive government intervention in many economies, to the fact that late last month at least a quarter of the global population was in some form of lockdown.
https://www.businesstimes.com.
Tapping the SDR to help contain Covid-19 economic fallout
Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that, between now and the end of 2021, global gross domestic product (GDP) will suffer a cumulative loss of more than US$9 trillion.
https://www.businesstimes.com.
Update on COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) situation
690 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore, taking total to 15,641
Foreign workers made up the most of the 690 new Covid-19 cases here on Wednesday. This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 15,641. There were 660 new cases involving foreign workers living in dormitories. Those living outside dormitories made up 19 cases.
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Shanmugam: Fake news used to stir up unhappiness in dorms
Some people have been spreading fake news about the situation in foreign worker dormitories here, to incite fear, panic and hopefully, violence, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam yesterday. These individuals, who the authorities understand are both local and foreign, have been circulating such falsehoods in the form of videos, photos, and even doctored images of news channels, he said.
https://www.straitstimes.com/
Major effort under way to determine extent of Covid-19 infection among Singapore’s population
Singapore has taken the fight against the coronavirus to the next level, with a major effort to determine the extent of Covid-19 infection among the population and where weak links exist. A key focus is to find out how many have been infected but did not show any symptoms, and were therefore not tested for the virus.
https://www.straitstimes.com/
Singapore in a good position to do mass Covid-19 testing, say experts
Singapore has the capability to do tens of thousands of Covid-19 tests daily, industry players said, noting that increased testing could be a key enabler for the country as it looks to gradually lift the circuit breaker measures. “We are in a good position to do mass testing,” Dr Ong Siew Hwa, director and chief scientist of home-grown biotech firm Acumen Research Laboratories (ARL), told The Straits Times.
https://www.straitstimes.com/
*For more information, please visit the Ministry of Health (MOH) website at www.moh.gov.sg and refer to go.gov.sg/mohupdates for updates on the COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) situation
Global Economy & Global Real Estate
Lockdown forces Spain’s old-fashioned property market to modernise
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Nearly half of global workforce risk losing livelihoods: ILO
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US recession begins with economy shrinking annualised 4.8% in Q1
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US Federal Reserve warns virus ‘poses considerable risks’
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Biggest mall operator in US plans to reopen 49 of them from Friday
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US dollar hovers above 2-week low before Fed meeting
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ECB action to save eurozone now only delays future dilemma
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Hong Kong economy to shrink between 4% and 7% in 2020, says finance chief
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Additional Articles of Interests – Local & Overseas Real Estate
Local & Overseas Real Estate – Full Article
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