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Monthly Archives: September 2009

In response to ST journalist Fiona Chan’s article

Posted on 23 Sep 2009 | Comments Off

I refer to the report “Are private homes getting out of reach?” dated 19 Sept 2009 by Ms Fiona Chan (read article here)

Of being upset

Ms Chan reported that I was ‘upset’ with two independent conclusions indicating that private properties are more affordable now. It goes beyond that. There were specific statements made especially by Mr Kit Wei Zheng that were outright wrong or simply unreasonable.

For example, Mr Kit stated categorically in both of his letters that 9 out of the past 11 years have seen salaries outgrow property price increases. We both did the sums for the past 10 years and found this to be wrong. Mr Kit also insisted in using the bubble year of 1996 as the base year to judge all other years which is unreasonable because when you crash your car going at 240 kmh, you don’t use 240 kmh as your safety speed limit. So while Ms Chan is right about there being many ways to calculate housing affordability, certain statements are factual in nature and can only be right or wrong.

Shifting base year from 1990 to 1998

Ms Chan wrote that it is not fair to compare current property prices with those 20 years ago because Singapore is such a young nation. This statement is not valid in and of itself. Is it meaningless to compare Singapore’s GDP today with our GDP 20 years ago simply because we are so ‘young’? Is it meaningless to compare our heathcare standards today with those of 20 years ago? National statistics like birth rate, death rate and home prices are compared right from the very first day. There is no expiry date so to speak of. Continue reading →

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Posted in HDB

Tagged HDB, Housing Development Board

City Dev buys partner’s half-share in Futura JV

Posted on 23 Sep 2009 | Comments Off

Elad Group’s stake in Leonie Hill condo firm amounts to $35.1 million

CITY Developments Ltd (CDL) has bought partner Elad Group’s half-share in their equal joint-venture company that owns the Futura condo site at Leonie Hill in Singapore, for about $35.1 million.

Futura: City Dev and Elad paid $287.3 million for the freehold residential property in October 2006

The two bought the freehold residential property for $287.3 million in October 2006 at $1,179 per square foot per plot ratio.

The cash consideration for the half-share, which was arrived at on a willing buyer, willing seller basis, represents a discounted value of the aggregate capital contributions of Elad Group Singapore to the joint-venture company, K-El Sun Investments, CDL said in a statutory filing with Singapore Exchange yesterday evening.

‘Elad remains our partner in the South Beach consortium,’ a CDL spokeswoman said in response to BT’s queries on the status of the group’s other joint venture involving US-based Elad Group, which is owned by Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva.

In December last year, BT reported that Elad was said to be looking for buyers for its one-third stake in the South Beach project as well as its half-share in Futura.

CDL teamed up with Elad and Dubai World to clinch the plum South Beach site opposite Raffles Hotel at a state tender in 2007 during the property bull run for almost $1.69 billion.

The three hold equal shares in the joint venture.

In November last year, CDL announced a deferment of the project’s construction until construction costs ease. The project was originally slated for completion by 2012, although the consortium has up to 2016 to complete the development under the sales terms for the 99-year leasehold plot. Continue reading →