DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 5th October 2017

Top Story

Unsustainable to increasingly buy land at higher prices, warns Redas chief
The head of the developer’s body on Wednesday cautioned that the trend of land-hungry developers increasingly buying private residential sites at higher prices has “many significant associated risks”. “Notably, it is not sustainable to continue at this rate. With property measures in place, slow growth in Singapore’s population and manpower curbs, we do not see runaway demand in sales transaction volume and property prices in the next few years,” said Augustine Tan, president of the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (Redas).
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/unsustainable-to-increasingly-buy-land-at-higher-prices-warns-redas-chief

Redas president sounds cautionary note despite upturn in URA’s Q3 private home price index
Despite the recent upturn in the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) private home price index, the developers’ body is sounding a cautionary note. “…private housing rents are still falling and vacancies remain high even as new completions are adding to current inventory at a time when multinational companies are either downsizing or recruiting headcount at a cautionary pace,” Augustine Tan, president of the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (Redas), said on Wednesday.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/redas-president-sounds-cautionary-note-despite-upturn-in-uras-q3-private-home-price
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/question-mark-over-sustainability-of-land-bids
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/amber-park-sale-sets-freehold-enbloc-record-redas-president-says-surging-land-bids-not
http://www.todayonline.com/business/surging-singapore-land-bids-are-unsustainable-warns-executive

Singapore Economy

Corporate-startup programmes should focus on the startups, not the corporates
This week, ST Engineering launched Innosparks – an incubator for healthcare, workplace safety and security startups – in an event officiated by Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran. The Singapore-listed engineering group said that it would commit up to S$500,000 to each startup to get their idea to market within 18 months. With Innosparks, ST Engineering joins a growing crowd of large corporates that have in recent years launched corporate accelerators and incubators, or carved out corporate venture capital funds, to nurture startups that can boost in-house innovation or even disrupt their industry.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/corporate-startup-programmes-should-focus-on-the-startups-not-the-corporates

DBS, OCBC launch products to help busy executives
Local banks DBS and OCBC have come up with yet more tools to help busy executives. bDBS on Wednesday said its latest online tool will help CFOs (chief financial officers) and corporate treasurers cut through the tedium of keeping up with the latest regulatory, tax and market changes in the different countries they operate in.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/banking-finance/dbs-ocbc-launch-products-to-help-busy-executives
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/dbs-introduces-online-tool-for-cfos-to-cut-through-tedium

Hey Siri, transfer money: OCBC introduces voice commands for business transactions
OCBC’S business customers will soon be able to conduct fund transfers and check their account balances, all without lifting a finger. Starting Oct 9, over 120,000 Singapore-registered users of OCBC’s Internet business banking portal Velocity@ocbc can use their iPhones’ smart assistant Siri to perform banking transactions.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/hey-siri-transfer-money-ocbc-introduces-voice-commands-for-business-transactions

Singapore Real Estate

Singapore real-estate investors shining on global stage
Singaporean investors now collectively own the largest pool of foreign real estate assets among Asian investors. Their cross-border capital is still flowing abroad even as new trading routes and opportunities have emerged. Singaporean cross-border investors now own 3,290 properties around the world, going by holdings data from Real Capital Analytics (RCA) as at Oct 2. This pool of assets is the largest of any Asian buyer group, followed by mainland Chinese investors.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/singapore-real-estate-investors-shining-on-global-stage

All remaining 7 ex-HUDCs have started en bloc process
As the collective sales market picks up, more former Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) estates are jumping on the bandwagon to go en bloc. A check conducted on Monday (Oct 3) showed that all remaining ex-HUDC flats are already at some point of the process.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/all-remaining-7-ex-hudcs-have-started-en-bloc-process-9275154

Industry welcomes new law to protect buildings against attacks
Designing buildings with security in mind will help save lives and reduce longer-term security costs, said Mr Desmond Choo, chairman of the North East Community Development Council. Addressing delegates from the building, architecture, security and facility management industries at an industry convention yesterday, he pointed to the devastating attack by a lone gunman who killed 58 people at a music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday.
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/industry-welcomes-new-law-to-protect-buildings-against-attacks?login=true

CDL, Hong Leong unit bag Amber Park with ‘aggressive’ S$906m bid
AMBER PARK, a 200-unit development at Katong, has been sold via a collective sale to a joint venture between a City Developments (CDL) subsidiary and Hong Realty, the private real estate arm of Hong Leong Group. The S$906.7 million price tag makes it Singapore’s largest freehold collective sale by dollar value to-date, knocking Leedon Heights off the spot. The latter had fetched S$835 million from developer GuocoLand in 2007. The Amber Park deal also marks the 15th successful collective sale this year – including industrial and mixed-used developments – amid a revived property market.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/cdl-hong-leong-unit-bag-amber-park-with-aggressive-s906m-bid
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/amber-park-sold-for-s9067m-to-cdl-in-largest-freehold-enbloc-sale-by-dollar-value
http://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/amber-park-sets-freehold-collective-sale-record
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/amber-park-sold-for-s-906-7m-in-record-freehold-en-bloc-sale-9277902

Views, Reviews & Forum

Long-term eldercare: More options now, but more data also needed
With 100,000 people now aged 80 and older, does Singapore have enough places for the frail elderly? More transparency in information would help families make better decisions.
http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/long-term-eldercare-more-options-now-but-more-data-also-needed

Smarter transport to ease traffic woes
Economic progress can seem like a double-edged sword – we relish the opportunities for career and lifestyle choices offered by our expanding cities, but urban transportation woes can sometimes make us wonder if it’s all worth it. The Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) celebrates its 50th anniversary this year – and there is much to be proud of. In simple economic terms, Asean’s GDP growth over that period from US$37.6 billion to US$2.6 trillion has set the region firmly on the path to advanced standards of living. But this progress has undeniably come at a price.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion/smarter-transport-to-ease-traffic-woes