DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 5 Feb (wed) 2020

Singapore Real Estate

Two shophouses off Serangoon Road up for sale with S$6.6m guide price
A corner pair of freehold shophouses at 24 and 26 Moonstone Lane is up for sale as a bundle with an indicative price of S$6.6 million, marketing agent CBRE said on Tuesday. The two-storey shophouses occupy a total site area of about 2,877 square feet (sq ft) and have a combined existing built-up area of about 4,628 sq ft.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/two-shophouses-off-serangoon-road-up-for-sale-with-s66m-guide-price

Developers likely to proceed with launches amid virus outbreak
Residential projects slated for launch in the next couple of weeks appear likely to go ahead as planned for now. However, visitorship to showflats and transaction volumes could decrease amid concerns about the coronavirus outbreak, analysts say.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/developers-likely-to-proceed-with-launches-amid-virus-outbreak

Retail rents up but not much cheer for landlords
Have Singapore retail rents finally bottomed? That is a question some people have been asking after the Urban Redevelopment Authority recently released data showing a 2.9 per cent rise in the retail rental index for the Central Region in 2019 – reversing the 1 per cent fall in 2018. Last year’s retail rental gain was most pronounced in the prime Orchard Road shopping belt.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/retail-rents-up-but-not-much-cheer-for-landlords

Liquidity still aplenty for Singapore, with investors in the hunt for real estate yield
The economic impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak is expected to be short-lived, based on the current situation. The Singapore government has succeeded in putting in place multiple lines of defence to prevent the spread of the virus. Singapore currently has 24 confirmed cases of the virus, including the first four cases of local transmissions announced on Tuesday evening.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/liquidity-still-aplenty-for-singapore-with-investors-in-the-hunt-for-real-estate-yield

Yield from CPF may surpass that for private homes: Study
In property-crazed Singapore, owning real estate isn’t always the high-yielding investment you might think. The rate of return for private apartments in the Republic has slipped since 2011, when measures to cool the market were introduced by the Government. In fact, some units now have a lower yield than the country’s national retirement plan…
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/yield-from-cpf-may-surpass-that-for-private-homes-study

Singapore Economy

Construction workers’ leave of absence raises fears of project delays
Construction players are bracing themselves for possible missed deadlines, with some workers stuck in mainland China or away from work and the epidemic shaping up to be a force majeure event. The sector employs 341,200 foreigners – three-quarters of the construction workforce – although there is no public breakdown of their nationality.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/construction-workers-leave-of-absence-raises-fears-of-project-delays

Manufacturers’ group says delayed return of China workers affect 1-in-10 staff
Singapore manufacturers have been hit harder than other industries by the sudden shortfall of mainland Chinese rank-and-file workers here, The Business Times (BT) has learnt. With the continued spread of the coronavirus globally that began life in Wuhan, Singapore last week rolled out travel curbs like a freeze on new work permits from mainland China,
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/manufacturers-group-says-delayed-return-of-china-workers-affect-1-in-10-staff

Commodities to take bigger hit from coronavirus than from Sars: analysts
Ripple effects of the novel corona-virus are being keenly felt in global commodity markets, and market observers are expecting it to have a longer and larger impact than the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2002 and 2003. “The baseline is that the impact on commodities this time round is more told The Business Times on Tuesday.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/commodities-to-take-bigger-hit-from-coronavirus-than-from-sars-analysts
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/dbs-commodities-to-take-bigger-hit-from-coronavirus-than-from-sars

Companies’ Brief

GuocoLand unit to issue S$200m 3.4% notes
GLL IHT, a wholly-owned subsidiary of mainboard-listed property developer GuocoLand, will issue at par S$200 million worth of new notes maturing on Aug 10, 2025. The 5.5-year unsubordinated, unsecured notes carry a fixed coupon of 3.4 per cent to be paid semi-annually in arrears, according to a term sheet seen by The Business Times.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/guocoland-unit-to-issue-s200m-34-notes

Corporate turnaround whizz will need luck as WeWork’s new CEO
Sandeep Mathrani knows what it is like to lead a company out of trouble. His former employer, General Growth Properties (GGP), had been flattened by the economic recession of 2008.GGP, the second-biggest owner of shopping malls in America, named him as chief executive officer in 2011, as it was emerging from what was then the biggest real estate bankruptcy in US history.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/corporate-turnaround-whizz-will-need-luck-as-weworks-new-ceo

Manulife US Reit lowers Q4 DPU on enlarged unit base
Manulife US Real Estate Investment Trust’s (Manulife US Reit) distribution per unit (DPU) fell 5.9 per cent to 1.44 US cents for its fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2019, from 1.53 cents a year ago. This was mainly due to an enlarged unit base following a placement and preferential offering to partially fund its US$198.8 million acquisition of 400 Capitol Mall, it said in a bourse filing on Wednesday.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/manulife-us-reit-lowers-q4-dpu-on-enlarged-unit-base

Rich Capital, related parties facing legal suit by Batam project partner
Rich Capital and other parties are being sued by Karya Indo Batam (KIB) for alleged conspiracy and project mismanagement, among other things. KIB is involved in a property development project in Batam with an indirect subsidiary of Rich Capital, Oxley Batam Pte Ltd. The two parties had formed an equal joint-venture company, Oxley Karya Indo Batam (OKIB), to undertake the Oxley Batam Convention City Project.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/rich-capital-related-parties-facing-legal-suit-by-batam-project-partner