Category Archives: Property Market / Real Estate

Pssst, want to buy ‘fraction’ of a condo?

Firm marketing shares in apartments; industry watchers still wary

A new way of selling condominium units here has emerged amid the recent resurgence in the property market.

Registered three months ago, Primespace Investments Pte Ltd is marketing ‘shares’ in apartments to investors with at least $62,000 to spare.

It has two studio units available – one at One-North Residences in Buona Vista and the other at One Shenton near Raffles Place.

While Primespace says it is selling ‘fractional ownership’, investors will not own the properties directly. The apartments will be bought and held by other private limited companies, and what investors pay for are shares in those vehicles. BT understands investors will not lodge caveats on the properties.

Each of these companies’ share capital will be split into 15 lots. An investor has to pay $62,000 for one lot in the company which owns the One-North unit, or $110,000 for one lot in the company that owns the One Shenton unit.

After the share capital is allotted to investors, Primespace will continue to manage and rent out the properties. It says it will distribute rental income to investors every year, and it is offering a guaranteed yield of 5 per cent for the first year of investment. If an apartment’s value increases by ‘a certain level (usually 40 per cent)’, Primespace will sell it and share the profit among investors. Continue reading

CDL sells over 200 units at Hundred Trees

SALES at City Developments Ltd’s (CDL) Hundred Trees condo in the West Coast area crossed the 200-unit mark by 6pm yesterday.

MORE TO COME
The developer will release more units to cater to the ‘overwhelming response’ to the West Coast project

As at that time, CDL had released 280 of the total 396 units in the 956-year leasehold condo, the developer said in a release yesterday evening.

Earlier yesterday afternoon, CDL said that it had released a selected number of units for soft launch at an average price of $895 per square foot (psf).

However, BT understands that the above pricing was for the initial batch of about 150 units released on Thursday for a preview to former owners of Hong Leong Garden Condominium (from whom CDL bought the site for the project), CDL staff and a few special guests.

A further 130 units released yesterday were probably priced slightly higher, market watchers reckoned.

CDL is also offering interest absorption scheme (IAS) in exchange for a 2.5 per cent price premium. CDL did not provide a breakdown on how many buyers picked up their units on IAS.

Although IAS was scrapped on Sept 14, a developer can still offer the scheme if before that date, it had entered into an agreement on this with a partner bank and had already offered units in the development for sale under IAS before Sept 14.

BT understands that Hundred Trees’ 200-unit sales figure as at 6pm yesterday includes nearly 40 units sold on Thursday. All 22 one-bedroom units have been sold and the two-bedders are substantially sold too. Continue reading