The 2 Things You NOW need to know about our Local Economy

1) En- Bloc Developments are doing fine... and if not, better...

Two collective sale sites eyeing high selling prices THE Urban and Redevelopment Authority (URA) is leading a team to Dubai to attract Middle East investors to Singapore.

THE collective sale frenzy may have cooled somewhat but a number of new sites have hit the market since new rules on these sales took effect earlier this month.

The latest are two sites in posh parts of town which were put up for sale yesterday - both are aiming for hefty sale prices. One of them, Villa delle Rose, located off Holland Road, has an indicative price of $700 million.

Owners of the other site, Elizabeth Towers, in the more central location of Mount Elizabeth, are hoping for a price of $673 million. In the past two weeks, a string of other collective sale sites have been put on the market, including Westwood Apartments on Orchard Boulevard, The Estoril on Holland Road and Royalville off Sixth Avenue.

Some of the latest sites for sale, such as Elizabeth Towers, still come under the old collective sale rules as the required minimum owner consent was obtained before Oct 4.

Property consultants have said that collective sale activity is likely to continue at a somewhat slower pace than the frenzy of sales seen earlier this year and last year. They say there are several reasons, including the fact that the new rules will make the process more transparent and, as a result, probably more cumbersome.

Still, owners continue attempting to sell their estates en bloc. Villa delle Rose's guide price works out to $1,758 per sq ft of potential gross floor area. A development charge of about $31 million is payable.

The estimated breakdown is between $2,200 per sq ft (psf) and $2,300 psf. Developers can expect to build 208 units, assuming an average size of 2,000 sq ft each, said CB Richard Ellis, which is marketing the site.

The 104-unit Villa delle Rose sits on 297,132 sq ft of land. Its sale tender closes on Nov 16.
In the Orchard area, Elizabeth Towers, a freehold 54,318 sq ft site, is up for sale at $2,666 psf of potential gross floor area. No development charge is payable.

The site can be built up to a plot ratio of 4.647, which would give it a gross floor area of 252,416 sq ft, said Newman & Goh, which is marketing the site.

Newman & Goh's head of investment sales, Mr Jeffrey Goh, said the site can be redeveloped into 101 apartments with an average size of 2,500 sq ft each and could fetch well above $4,000 psf. This is because nearby developments such as Scotts Square and Hilltops are selling well at $4,200 psf and above, he said.

The tender for Elizabeth Towers closes on Nov 21.

2) Construction frenzy will continue up to at least 2 years...

Constractors normally keep only a fleet of their own cranes but the bulk comes from a crane leasing company Tat Hong in Sungei Kadut. A year ago, hiring a crane was a cinch. Only about 70 percent of the cranes were leased out at any one time. Now, practically all the cranes are being rented out. As the company with the biggest fleet of cranes, Tat Hong is benefitting the most from the red hot crane market.

Korean construction company Ssangyong estimates that the number of cranes it needs for its projects today is more than double that two years ago.

Construction schedules has also been more intense. That squeeze, according to contractors, resulted in the rental prices going up.

On the ground, Tat Hong's teams of mechanics have been kept busy. Working in teams of two or threes, they rush around different job sites where their cranes are being used.

Contributing to the local demand is an international construction boom led by the Middle East, India and China. With projects going full steam in so many locations, leading crane manufacturers in Europe and Japan are struggling to keep pace.

Orders now for crane now, will be put on waiting lists till 2009. A year ago, if you had ordered it, you could get it in six months. And according to Mr. Sim, Managing Director of piling company Bachy Soletanche, "This is still the early stage of the "up" cycle for the construction industry" and predicts that the healthy outlook will continue for another three years.