DAILY NEWS

Daily News – 9th January 2019

Singapore Real Estate

Condo resale prices drop 0.8% in Dec
After a small uptick in November, resale prices of private non-landed homes in December resumed the mild downtrend they have been in since last July’s cooling measures, flash estimates by real estate portal SRX Property on Tuesday showed. Condominiums and private apartment resale prices fell by 0.8 per cent last month from the previous month.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/condo-resale-prices-drop-08-in-dec
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/condo-resale-prices-resume-slide-down-08-in-december

Golden Mile Complex to be potentially conserved, used for integrated development
The iconic Golden Mile Complex may be developed as an integrated development with a gross floor area (GFA) of 85,977.5 sq m – should it be sold en bloc, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has advised. But the project’s main building must be conserved. The 85,977 sq m is a sizeable increase from the existing GFA of 50,085 sq m, according to the website of State of Buildings, a heritage project supported by the National Heritage Board.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/golden-mile-complex-to-be-potentially-conserved-used-for-integrated-development
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/developers-get-more-clarity-on-golden-mile-en-bloc-site

RV Altitude, Fyve Derbyshire and Fourth Avenue Residences poised to kick off 2019 launches
RV Altitude, Fyve Derbyshire and Fourth Avenue Residences are gearing up for launch next week, setting the stage for the first string of property launches for 2019. Roxy-Pacific Holdings’ freehold developments RV Altitude and Fyve Derbyshire are slated to commence sales on Jan 18 and Jan 19 respectively at an average price of S$2,900 per square foot (psf) and S$2,380 psf respectively.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/rv-altitude-fyve-derbyshire-and-fourth-avenue-residences-poised-to-kick-off-2019

Singapore Economy

Singapore calls on Asean countries to tap new trade route to access western China
Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing has urged officials from Asean to consider using a new land and sea trade corridor linking western China to South-east Asia, as it is faster without costing more than the existing route via the Yangtze River. This opens up tremendous opportunities for new products, including perishable produce, he said at a forum on the new trade route held in Chongqing on Tuesday.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/singapore-calls-on-asean-countries-to-tap-new-trade-route-to-access-western-china
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/spore-chongqing-to-boost-trade-flows-data-exchange

Companies’ Brief

ESR, AXA IM and sovereign fund in logistics venture
Asia-Pacific logistics real estate platform ESR, AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets (AXA IM), and a major sovereign wealth fund have entered into a logistics joint venture, and have acquired for US$1 billion six logistics properties in Japan completed by ESR.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/esr-axa-im-and-sovereign-fund-in-logistics-venture

Nasdaq-listed Equinix to invest US$85.3m to build fourth data centre in Singapore
Nasdaq-listed Equinix plans to build a fourth data centre in Singapore at an initial cost of US$85.3 million. The seven-storey facility in Tai Seng Industrial Estate, called SG4, is expected to open in the fourth quarter of this year. The first phase of SG4 will provide more than 45,400 square feet of co-location space, offering an initial capacity of 1,400 cabinets, the interconnection and data centre company said in a media statement on Tuesday.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/technology/nasdaq-listed-equinix-to-invest-us853m-to-build-fourth-data-centre-in-singapore
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/equinix-investing-116m-to-build-fourth-data-centre-in-spore

Views, Reviews, Forum & Others

Singapore’s low P/Es, robust yields a draw for longer-term investors
In a year beset by trade conflicts, weakening growth in China and Brexit uncertainties, Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 9.8 per cent, but still outperformed the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index in 2018. All sectors traded lower, but banks, Singapore real estate investment trusts (S-Reits) and index heavyweights were the most resilient in 2018.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/executive-money/singapores-low-pes-robust-yields-a-draw-for-longer-term-investors

Recession likely in next 2 years
You might say a person is fundamentally healthy so long as you cannot yet say what will cause his death. Likewise, an economic recovery is healthy if it is not clear what will cause the next recession. By this standard, the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, though disappointingly slow, has been healthy for most of the past decade.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion/recession-likely-in-next-2-years

Four funeral parlour sites to be launched amid rising demand
Four new sites in Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Batok, Mandai and Woodlands — situated away from residential areas — will be parcelled out over the next decade or so for funeral parlours. This is to meet the expected rise in demand for such spaces with a greying population here.
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/four-funeral-parlour-sites-be-launched-amid-rising-demand
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/new-funeral-parlour-complexes-planned-ang-mo-kio-11098918