Daily Archives: 10 Sep 2009

Hotel in Little India up for auction

TEKKA Hotel, comprising nine adjoining two-and-a-half-storey shophouses off Serangoon Road, will be put up for auction at an indicative price of $17 million to $19 million.

The refurbished pre-war property in Belilios Lane is on nine titles and has a 99-year leasehold tenure from March 8, 1995. It is in the Little India conservation area under the 2008 Master Plan and is zoned for commercial use. The hotel has 50 guest rooms and six retail and restaurant spots, spread over a gross floor area of 20,397 sq ft. An assumed price of $18 million would translate to about $160,000 per room. The shops on the ground floor are tenanted and fetch combined rent of $54,900 a month. The last tenancy expires on Sept 30, 2012.

Colliers International is auctioning the hotel on Sept 23. Its deputy managing director of agency and business services Grace Ng said that in line with Singapore’s aim to attract 17 million visitors a year by 2015, demand for hotel accommodation could spill over to city-fringe areas. Tekka Hotel is strategically located in a vibrant area with a rich cultural heritage, she said. And with more budget-conscious tourists from countries such as China, India and Vietnam, ‘budget hotels will be a popular choice’. Continue reading

Don’t overlook mortgage insurance

Your death could cost your family their home if you are not covered, says JASON ONG

RECENTLY, my client Mr Wong called me for mortgage insurance advice. He had just bought a semi-detached house for close to $2 million. He took a loan of $1.2 million over 15 years, and was looking for a mortgage reducing term insurance that will pay off his mortgage in case of his death or total and permanent disability (TPD) while the loan is not fully paid.

Mr Wong told me that he will never forget the time that he and his younger siblings lost their family home when his father died of a heart attack some 30 years ago, leaving his mother struggling to raise the four of them.

Certainly, he does not want this to happen to his homemaker wife and three children.

‘When I pass away, the last thing that I would want to put my family through is to also lose the roof over their heads,’ he said.

In Singapore, mortgage insurance is not made compulsory for private property owners and those who are not using CPF to pay their monthly HDB housing loan repayments. However, the Home Protection Scheme, or HPS, is mandatory for HDB/HUDC flat owners who service their mortgage loans with CPF funds.

Many private property owners baulk at mortgage insurance either because of inertia or misconception that it’s an unnecessary cost. Without mortgage insurance coverage, however, life could be a lot harder financially for the family if things go wrong. Continue reading