FTrash To Enslave Sporns For Generations to Cum!

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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Nov 7, 2009
BUYING PRIVATE PROPERTY
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Set quota to help citizens
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->YESTERDAY'S report ('Developer makes surprise $251m offer') shocked me too, as the bid was three times the trigger price of $82 million. Would it be wrong to say that the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is also adding to the trend of ever spiralling property prices? In the open tender system, the highest bidder usually lands the deal.
The URA, which controls land parcels, should also consider the benefit to, and affordability of, property buyers at large.
Such a massive bid for land will surely ramp up the price of the development. The foreign element - foreigners with big bucks and deep pockets - will force Singaporeans to fork out even more to buy a home.
I suggest two measures to protect Singaporeans and offer citizens a fair chance to own private property:

Let URA control the land cost as per a median reasonable price. Replace bidding for land parcels with a balloting process for qualified developers to participate at the URA's called price. Balloting will introduce a level playing field and keep land prices sane.

Each development should set aside a minimum quota for Singaporean buyers to forestall a situation in which Singaporeans may be unable to afford private property and end up being tenants rather than home owners.
If there can be balloting for scarce resources like school admission and public housing, why not apply it to land sales as well?
If a quota system is effective in ensuring a multiracial mix in public housing, why not have the same to ensure a healthy mix of citizens and foreigners in private developments too?
Joshua Selvakumar

 

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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published November 7, 2009

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Cheung Kong is top bidder for Upper Thomson Rd condo plot
By KALPANA RASHIWALA
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THE top bidder for the 99-year condo site on Upper Thomson Road on Thursday has been revealed as a unit of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings.

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</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>This was confirmed yesterday by Raymond Chui, general manager of the group's Singapore-based unit Property Enterprises Development.
Cheung Kong unit Treasure Well Investments' bid was for $251.3 million or about $533 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) - the highest seen for a private housing site at a state land tender this year.
Mr Chui said the estimated breakeven cost of about $850 to $900 psf forecast by analysts quoted in the media was pretty accurate. 'We'll probably develop around 340 to 350 units,' he added.
Treasure Well's top bid was 21.5 per cent above the next highest offer, which was made by Singapore's Far East Organization.
When asked if Cheung Kong regretted having paid such a wide margin, especially in hindsight as the government announced its H1 2010 land sales programme the next day with substantial supply in the confirmed list, Mr Chui replied: 'We've done our sums. The site is in a very good location and we have confidence in the future of the Singapore property market.'
The Upper Thomson Road site is located opposite the Singapore Island Country Club's Island Golf Course and Lower Peirce Reservoir.
The group will also be developing a 295-unit condo on a 99-year-leasehold site facing West Coast Park and overlooking the sea.
That is likely to be launched next year, possibly in the second quarter, Mr Chui revealed.
The project will comprise fairly regular-sized units. 'Our showflat is not yet ready,' he added.
Cheung Kong clinched the West Coast site at a state tender in March last year, paying $110.44 million or $305 psf ppr.

Interestingly, it also outbid Far East Organization for that site, but with a much narrower winning margin of just 1.4 per cent.
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