Issue 51

Copyright 2011-2012 www.Propwise.sg. All Rights Reserved.

CONTENTS
p2 p5 p10
Singapore Property News This Week How Much Additional Buyers Stamp

FROM THE

EDITOR

Welcome to the 51st edition of the Singapore Property Weekly. Hope you like it! Mr. Propwise

Duty Do You Need to Pay?

Resale Property Transactions (April 25 April 30)

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 51

Singapore Property This Week

Residential
Free six-month stay at Koh Brothers Groups Fiorenza at Florence Road Koh Brothers Group is offering a six-month stay to a family of three at its newly completed freehold Fiorenza at Florence Road in exchange for feedback so that the developer could incorporate the feedback into future projects. The 28-unit development = launched in April 2009 has sold all but two identical units, including the furnished concept home and one unfurnished one, which are priced around $1.6 million and $1.4 million respectively. The 1,367 sq-ft twobedroom concept home offers the latest home automation ware, a jacuzzi, Italian designer furniture, cutlery and even a gaming system. Interested parties have to submit a 100-word essay at the Koh Brothers office between 2pm and 6pm on May 19.

Over 200 Eight Riversuites units sold

Over 200 units of 99-year leasehold 862-unit Eight Riversuites condo project in Whampoa near Boon Keng MRT Station was reported to have been sold. The average price is said to be around $1,300 to $1,400 psf after a 5 per cent early-bird discount. 19 of the units are strata terrace homes, with the rest being apartment units in two 28-storey and two 30storey blocks.

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 51 Most of these units are two- and threebedroom apartments with each accounting for about 35 % of the total 862 units. The one-bedroom units (around 450 sq ft) and two-bedroom units (around 700 sq ft) with average prices of $600,000 and $900,000 respectively are the most popular, however. The expected breakeven cost for the project is $1,150 psf. 99-year leasehold Tampines EC site next to Tampines Trilliant attracted a $233.5m top bid The top bid of $233.5 million, or $373.40 psf ppr for the EC plot next to the Tampines Trilliant project was a joint bid from Singxpress Property Development, Amara Holdings' Creative Investments and Kay Lim Realty. It beat out the second highest bid by just 1.2%. It attracted a total of six bids within
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an 8% range, reflecting the sites popularity, which could be attributed to its proximity to educational institutions including Temasek Polytechnic, United World College of South East Asia and ITE College East and the Tampines Regional Centre. A total of 580 units could potentially be built on the 223,356.3 sq ft site which 2.8 gross plot ratio allows for a of 625,397.7 sq ft GFA. The site has an expected breakeven cost of $680$700 psf and an expected launch price of more than $750 psf. Commercial

Burlington Squares 66 strata office units sold to Guthrie-Sun Venture

The 66 units were sold at $89.3 million or $1,318 psf of strata area to Guthrie and Sun Venture, which may sell these units if there

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 51 are attractive offers. However, their current plan is to enhance the value of the units, which are 90% occupied and offers a net yield of 3.5-4% on the purchase price. These units are located on the fifth to 12th floors of the mixed development and accounts for 35.4% of total share values. The venture has also either sold or issued options on all 86 office units at $1,650-2,350 psf or an average price of $1,900 psf and 11 of the 77 retail units at around $2,300 psf at 10-storey, 999-year leasehold The Adelphi near City Hall MRT Station, which was acquired last year. It is asking for $67 million ($62 million or $2,000 psf for all the fourthlevel units and $5 million or $4,300 psf for two ground-floor units) for its remaining ground-floor units. Q1 sees 5.4% fall in prime office rents Prime office rates decreased by 5.4% in Q1 2012 from Q4 2011, while Grade A office rents continued to fall, with a decrease of 3.6% from last quarter to $10.60 psf per month. Vacancy rates have also increased to 7.3 per cent, an increase of 57 basis points up from Q4 2011 and an increase of 162 basis point from Q1 2011, leading to 3.8 million sq ft worth of vacant space. Quarterly net absorption is 587,000 sq ft, indicating a strong demand but this is likely to change for the worse for the rest of the year. However, rents are not likely to fall by as much as those after the global financial crisis since rents between prime and Grade B spaces are so different.

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 51

How Much Additional Buyers Stamp Duty Do You Need to Pay?

By Mr. Propwise
I recently attended an interesting talk by a Real Estate lawyer who went into the technical details of the Additional Buyers Stamp Duty (ABSD) that many of us would not know well. In this article I will share some of what I learnt. However, I am not a lawyer and cannot guarantee the accuracy of everything that Ive shared. Please treat it only as a guide if you are looking to buy a property please seek competent legal advice. The below may contain some errors so if youre a lawyer or real estate professional please email me at info@propwise.sg if you spot any.

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 51 How well do your know your co-investor? One of the common areas of confusion is on the applicability of the ABSD when buying a property with a co-investor. In general, the highest ABSD that would be levied on any one of the buyers if they were to buy individually will apply on a residential property bought by unmarried co-investors. For example, if two Singapore citizens were to buy a property together, the 3% ABSD will apply if one of the buyers owned two or more residential properties. If a PR and Singapore citizen bought together, the ABSD would apply if the PR already owned one residential property. In a weird twist, foreigners buying residential property have to pay the 10% ABSD from their first property unless they come from one of the countries that Singapore has a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland. In that case they will be treated like a Singapore citizen and only have to pay the 3% ABSD from their third residential property onwards. The speaker pointed out that a PR of the United States would not be eligible for this special treatment and would be taxed at 10% right from the first residential property. For married couples buying together, it depends on the residency status of the buyers. For example, if the couple consists of a PR and a Singapore citizen or a Foreigner with FTA status, they do not have to pay the 3% ABSD until after the Singapore citizen or Foreigner with FTA status reaches their quota

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 51 of two properties. So when buying property with another person, you would need to be very clear about exactly how many properties they already owned and/or co-owned, and their exact citizenship status. Not knowing this in advance could land you a big tax bill that you were not expecting! Are you sure you are buying residential property? The ABSD is applicable on the purchase of residential property, but there is sometimes ambiguity in what exactly the definition of a residential property is. In general you can consult the URAs zoning to determine this, but there are some cases where it is not clear. For example, you could have a residential property that has been temporarily approved for commercial use. Or the property could be located in a mixed-use zone and is being used for commercial purposes (e.g. Soho @ Central). Or it could be in a commercial zone with partial residential use (e.g. a shophouse). The tax implications for each of these could vary. So what do you do when you are unsure? The safest way is to submit a Legal Requisition to the URA and wait for their reply, which usually takes less than a week. Another way that buyers can protect themselves is to write the type of property they are buying into the contract (e.g. Option to Purchase), so that if there is any discrepancy they still have some recourse to cancel or alter the terms of the deal with the seller. Also a competent real estate agent and conveyancing lawyer should be able to help
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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 51 figure these issues out. Creative structuring of the deal could save you some tax Especially if you are already being taxed at the 10% rate for the ABSD, you can consider using a company to purchase the property. You would still have to pay the 10% ABSD upfront, but future buyers can then avoid this tax by transacting in the shares of the company to take effective ownership of the company. In this way, the stamp duty only needs to be paid once and you could conceivably get a higher price of the property due to this tax savings. But there are costs. Firstly, you can only get a maximum 50% Loan to Value financing from the bank as a non-individual buyer. Secondly, you will not be able to use your CPF to buy the property. Thirdly, there are costs associated with setting up and maintaining a company that could range in the thousands of dollars. The takeaway from the talk was that you had to be very careful when buying a residential property, especially if you were buying it with

someone else. Evasion of stamp duty and/or

providing false information are offences with a hefty penalty you could be fined up to S$10,000 and/or imprisoned for up to three years. There were also hefty penalties for

unpaid duty. With the imposition of the ABSD,

the transacting of real estate has become more complicated, so please consult a legal professional when doing so!

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 51

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 51

Non-Landed Residential Resale Property Transactions for the Week of Apr 25 Apr 30
Postal District 1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 Project Name MARINA BAY RESIDENCES THE SAIL @ MARINA BAY MERAPRIME MERAPRIME RIVER PLACE QUEENS QUEENS THE ANCHORAGE QUEENS CARIBBEAN AT KEPPEL BAY THE PARC CONDOMINIUM BOTANNIA MURANO THE SPECTRUM TREASURE PLACE REGENT PARK FABER CREST THE INFINITI BURLINGTON SQUARE BURLINGTON SQUARE BURLINGTON SQUARE THE BENCOOLEN GOLDEN MILE COMPLEX CITYLIGHTS CITYLIGHTS Area Transacted Price Tenure (sqft) Price ($) ($ psf) 1,066 678 840 840 786 1,410 1,195 1,550 1,184 1,281 1,302 1,259 1,055 1,087 1,389 1,130 1,249 1,345 872 732 861 1,249 2,196 560 721 2,480,000 1,172,940 1,288,000 1,278,000 960,000 1,710,000 1,420,000 1,800,000 1,360,000 1,838,000 1,570,000 1,410,000 1,180,000 1,130,000 1,300,000 1,050,000 1,150,000 1,200,000 1,200,000 940,000 1,038,888 1,000,000 1,537,000 988,000 1,080,000 2,327 1,730 1,534 1,522 1,222 1,213 1,188 1,161 1,149 1,435 1,205 1,120 1,119 1,039 936 929 921 892 1,376 1,284 1,206 801 700 1,765 1,498 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 FH 99 99 FH 956 FH FH FH 99 99 FH 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 Postal District 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 14 14 Project Name KENTISH COURT ORCHARD VIEW ORCHARD VIEW ORCHARD VIEW THE TRILLIUM CAIRNHILL CREST TIARA ASPEN HEIGHTS D'GROVE VILLAS CLIFTEN ALLSWORTH PARK ALLSWORTH PARK VALLEY PARK QUEENSBERRY LODGE GLENTREES PARK INFINIA AT WEE NAM SKY@ELEVEN ZEDGE ROSEVALE AMANINDA MEDGE ST FRANCIS LODGE BALESTIER TOWERS THE WATERINA WING FONG MANSIONS Area Transacted Price Tenure (sqft) Price ($) ($ psf) 1,141 2,530 2,530 2,530 2,217 1,733 1,345 1,130 2,702 1,066 1,033 1,033 1,216 614 1,345 1,001 2,271 603 1,442 1,249 861 1,216 1,496 1,001 700 1,008,000 6,250,000 6,085,000 6,000,000 4,790,000 3,380,000 2,220,900 1,735,000 5,400,000 1,580,000 1,480,000 1,430,000 1,650,000 823,000 1,750,000 1,725,000 3,747,150 988,000 2,100,000 1,680,000 1,100,000 1,000,000 1,230,000 1,128,000 640,000 883 2,471 2,406 2,372 2,160 1,950 1,651 1,535 1,999 1,483 1,432 1,384 1,357 1,341 1,301 1,723 1,650 1,639 1,456 1,345 1,277 822 822 1,127 915 99 FH FH FH FH FH FH 999 FH FH 999 999 999 FH 999 FH FH FH FH FH FH FH FH FH FH

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 51

Postal District 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 16 17 17 17 17 18 18 18 18 18 19 19 19 19 Area Transacted Price Tenure (sqft) Price ($) ($ psf) 1,528 1,636 1,249 495 721 1,076 2,486 2,863 667 1,507 990 1,066 936 1,206 1,959 657 1,023 1,216 1,281 990 1,023 958 1,119 1,711 1,044 1,668 1,066 1,173 1,250,000 1,200,000 1,918,000 660,000 950,000 1,250,000 2,700,000 3,088,000 705,000 1,560,000 990,000 880,000 905,000 975,000 1,540,000 690,000 978,000 1,120,000 1,038,000 880,000 860,000 750,000 855,000 1,068,000 1,030,000 1,535,000 960,000 1,020,000 818 733 1,536 1,333 1,317 1,161 1,086 1,079 1,056 1,035 1,000 826 966 809 786 1,051 956 921 810 889 841 783 764 624 986 920 901 869 99 102 FH FH FH FH FH FH FH 99 FH FH 99 99 99 FH FH FH FH 99 99 99 99 101 99 999 999 99
Postal District 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 21 22 22 22 22 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 25 26 26 Area Transacted Price Tenure (sqft) Price ($) ($ psf) 1,496 1,023 1,152 883 1,442 1,970 1,345 1,227 1,119 1,227 1,163 1,981 1,507 1,356 2,077 1,647 1,324 1,227 1,259 1,539 1,270 1,550 1,249 1,216 1,153,000 780,000 868,000 858,000 1,328,000 1,780,000 1,050,000 1,330,000 1,100,000 1,000,000 900,000 1,080,000 1,560,000 1,388,000 1,800,000 1,425,000 1,080,000 930,000 955,000 1,160,000 938,888 1,070,000 1,380,000 900,000 771 763 754 972 921 904 780 1,084 983 815 774 545 1,035 1,023 866 865 816 758 758 754 739 690 1,105 740 99 99 99 99 FH 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 FH 999 999 999 999 99 99 99 99 99 FH 99

Project Name SIMSVILLE EUNOSVILLE AMBER RESIDENCES PALM GALLERIA TEMBELING RESIDENCE HAIG COURT HAIG COURT ONE FORT D'SUNRISE CASUARINA COVE LE M RESIDENCE STILL MANSIONS BAYSHORE PARK TANAMERA CREST FAIRMOUNT CONDOMINIUM ESTELLA GARDENS FERRARIA PARK CONDOMINIUM FERRARIA PARK CONDOMINIUM EDELWEISS PARK CONDOMINIUM THE TROPICA CHANGI RISE CONDOMINIUM MELVILLE PARK EASTPOINT GREEN TAMPINES COURT SUNGLADE KENSINGTON PARK CONDOMINIUM RESIDENCES @ JANSEN CHUAN PARK

Project Name CHUAN PARK EVERGREEN PARK REGENTVILLE THE GARDENS AT BISHAN SIN MING PLAZA THE GARDENS AT BISHAN BISHAN PARK CONDOMINIUM CAVENDISH PARK THE LAKESHORE THE MAYFAIR THE MAYFAIR LAKESIDE TOWER GLENDALE PARK HILLINGTON GREEN CHESTNUT VILLE CASHEW HEIGHTS CONDOMINIUM HAZEL PARK CONDOMINIUM THE WARREN GUILIN VIEW THE WARREN THE MADEIRA ROSEWOOD SUITES THE CALROSE CASTLE GREEN

NOTE: This data only covers non-landed residential resale property transactions with caveats lodged with the Singapore Land Authority. Typically, caveats are lodged at least 2-3 weeks after a purchaser signs an OTP, hence the lagged nature of the data. Page | 11

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