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Danger lurks when property consultants also trade

Posted on 24 Sep 2014 | Comments Off

PROPERTY consultants may be tempted to invest in real estate, but to be a good consultant, one needs to be somewhat detached and not get carried away, says a veteran in the business.

“Some of them think that with the knowledge they have, it is a sure thing; so they start to take positions. They may get carried away and start trading in property. But in their job as a property consultant, they are not supposed to do that,” says Knight Frank Singapore’s executive chairman, Tan Tiong Cheng, when asked to offer advice to those planning a career as a property consultant.

Apart from clouded judgement, there could also be potential conflict of interest issues.

“As a property consultant or as an agent, you are supposed to serve your client, yet there have been cases where the agent took a position by buying the property from the client,” said Mr Tan.

He attributes Singaporeans’ keen interest in property to the state’s policy of encouraging home ownership, initiated decades ago. In itself, this is a good objective.

But with home ownership at very high levels, Singapore having limited land and Singaporeans seeming to think that the government always gets them out of difficult situations, the preoccupation with property investment could become excessive.

His advice to anyone looking for their dream home is: “When buying a property, the most important thing is to make sure that should you decide this is not your dream home, you are able to find other people who think it is their dream home.”

“Whatever property you buy, just make sure that there is a pool of similar-minded people, so that if you change your mind, you can offload it.”

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Posted in CEA, General

Tagged PROPERTY consultants, Property Investment, real estate investment, Tan Tiong Cheng

S’pore is 6th costliest for home, office rents

Posted on 24 Sep 2014 | Comments Off

The new Savills Live/Work Index has ranked Singapore the world’s sixth most expensive city for companies to locate employees, a position held since 2008.

The index measures the total costs per employee of renting living and working space on a US dollar basis in 12 world cities.

In Singapore, the combined cost of renting residential and office space per employee per year amounted to US$74,890 in June 2014.

Although the housing market here has slowed with prices dropping 4.2 percent in the first six months of 2014, residential values have increased 44.6 percent over the last five years, according to Savills.

The report stated that residential rents have fallen 3.5 percent in H1 2014, but climbed 4.6 percent since 2008.

On the other hand, while work costs have risen sharply with office rents growing 7.3 percent in the first half, this is still around 31 percent below 2008’s level.

“Fluctuations in total live/work costs reflect not only the strength of a city’s residential and office markets and occupier taxes and costs, measured at a local level, but also the impact of fluctuating exchange rates on the cost of doing business on a world stage,” Savills said.

Meanwhile, London has become the world’s most expensive city for companies to locate employees, overtaking Hong Kong, which had previously topped the ranking for an unbroken five-year period.

New York and Paris complete the pack of four leading cities, where the combined costs of renting residential and office space top US$100,000 per employee per year.