Daily Archives: 17 Oct 2009

Tender for Laguna Park closes with no winner

The company that had submitted the higher of two bids withdraws, citing funding difficulties

LAGUNA Park, which went up for collective sale last month at $1.2 billion, has failed to attract a buyer so far.

WHAT NEXT?
The majority owners of Laguna Park now have about a month to enter into any private treaty deal before the agreement expires in December

The 528-unit leasehold project at Marine Parade remains unsold after the company that submitted the higher of two bids faced funding problems.

At the close of the tender on Tuesday, two submissions were received for the property, said Credo Real Estate, which is marketing the development.

One submission was from a locally incorporated company that offered $1.728 billion – well above the owners’ reserve price of $1.2 billion. The company’s main shareholders are understood to be based in Indonesia.

The other submission was from a prominent local developer, which expressed an interest in negotiating.

BT understands that the developer was not willing to meet the reserve price.

Credo conducted negotiations on the terms of the sale with the Indonesian-owned company, which was to re-submit the tender deposit in the owners’ prescribed format.

However, on Thursday evening, the offerer’s lawyers wrote to the owners’ lawyers saying that the offer had been withdrawn because the offerer faced ‘difficulty in its bankers processing the funds and remitting them to Singapore’.

Credo is now conducting negotiations with the local developer, said Credo managing director Karamjit Singh. Continue reading

Hold your horses, house-hunters

IT seems that now one can get a home loan in 15 minutes, if you believe the latest hype from Standard Chartered Bank. Okay, so it’s not really a water-tight yes from the bank but just approval in principal (AIP). But why is the bank doing it, other than to trump some rivals who can provide AIP in 60 minutes?

Why the rush to let prospective borrowers know their credit’s good for that dream home in less time than it takes to wash one’s hair? A decision such as buying a house with the attendant mortgage burden of the next 20-30 years or so around one’s neck should be a measured one.

It’s already strange enough that house hunters are nowadays lured to view show flats erected in posher areas, far away from the actual site, so one forgets that your dream flat is actually plonked off the Ayer Rajah Expressway. That you have to then jostle with other hopefuls to look at the model of the development can be pretty stressful, to the point of hysterics, some have said.

Serious house buyers should do their research before venturing to showrooms. Figuring out if one could afford the purchase would be the most critical element. Continue reading