Residential
Rents for private non-landed homes fall by 1.1% in Nov
In November, private non-landed home rents fell by an estimated 1.1% month-on-month, while HDB rents fell by 0.5% in the same period. Year-on-year, rents have fallen 5.6% and 4.1% respectively for private non-landed homes and HDB flats in November based on flash estimates by SRX Property. To capitalise on declining rents, Eugene Lim from ERA Realty believes that most tenants are taking shorter leases. According to the Business Times, 3,304 rental transactions involving private non-landed homes were completed in November. This was 7.8% lower than in the previous month. Ong Kah Seng from R’ST Research said that the fall in rents is likely to be due to steeper competition among landlords during this lull period.
(Source: Business Times)
Clementi housing site won for $302.1 million
In a recent state tender, a 99-year leasehold private residential site at Clementi had attracted a top bid of $302.1 million or $615.04 psf ppr. The site had attracted a total of 6 bids. According to Michael Ng from Singapore Land and United Industrial Corporation, bid prices for the site were affected as authorities had said that there will be a mandatory prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction (PPVC) requirement. Ng believes that developers who are not familiar with PPVC may not have placed a bid for the site. He added that if the PPVC requirement was not included, the top bid could have exceeded $700 psf ppr. Market experts believe that the breakeven price for the project would stand at $1,100 psf. The site is likely to be developed into two 40-storey towers with about 500 units.
(Source: Business Times)
Resale price index for non-landed private homes in CCR increased by 1.6%
According to SRX Property’s flash estimates, the resale price index for non-landed private homes in the core central region (CCR) and rest of central region (RCR) had increased 1.6% and 2.3% respectively from December 2014 to November 2015. However in the same period, the outside central region (OCR) resale price index for non-landed private homes fell by 2.6%. Wong Xian Yang from OrangeTee said that this could be because resale prices in the CCR and RCR had experienced bigger drops last year, compared to in the OCR. Nonetheless, Wong believes that the surge in completed private homes across Singapore next year will negatively affect prices. Furthermore, as 55% of the 22,351 private homes slated for completion next year will be located in the OCR, resale prices in that region are expected to fall further. According to the flash estimates, the overall resale price index for non-landed private homes had fallen by 1.3% year-on-year in November.
(Source: Business Times)
Commercial
Office rents expected to fall in 2016
Market experts predict that office rents will continue to fall in 2016 due to weakening demand and a surge in the number of expected office completions next year. Savills Singapore estimates that in Q4 this year, the overall CBD Grade A average monthly rental value for a 5,000 sq ft lease is $9.36 psf, which is 5.3% lower than from a year ago. Furthermore, JLL predicts that there will be a 14.4% full-year drop in the CBD Grade A average office rental value to $10.32 psf as at Q4 this year. Chris Archibold from JLL said that in the coming year, the surge in office supply will put pressure on the market as vacancy rates increases. Moray Armstrong from CBRE added that weak demand from industries, such as the energy and commodities industry and the financial sector, will negatively affect office rents.
(Source: Business Times)