We witnessed several successful enbloc of industrial buildings in Balestier, the 6 Jalan Ampas industrial building early this year and the recent 21 Kim Keat Road site. We are seeing the area to be slowly rejuvenating and making its way to high rise residential area after the Urban Redevelopment Authority announced the area to be considered rezoning for residential use in 2008. Today I made a trip down to capture the area before all the changes take place. 
If you are driving along Kim Keat Road, you will reach Lorong Ampas once …

There are some road names that have been  Singapore history with the city’s rapid urban development and rejuvenation. If you are still looking for a lane named Jalan Bunga Raya in Balestier and off Irrawaddy Road, you may want to know that this road has been long gone over taken by a high rise residential development currently in construction. Domus, as the name of the new development, is a 29 storey residential development of 109 units which will be completed in the year of 2013.
 
 
Jalan Bunga Raya was previously a …

I am not sure how many of us ever pay any attention to the URA Concept Plan which is being reviewed every 10 years. The Concept Plan is a strategic land use plan that will guide Singaproe’s development over the next 40 to 50 years in all land use such as housing, businesses, transport, infrastructure, recreation, and community needs. In real estate business, it is important to identify the gist of the Concept Plan which will mould and shape the Master Plan of Singapore in many ways.
Just in case that you are …

HDB flat upgraders are making up 44% of private residential sales in March. This figure is considered very high considering the figure is only 33 to 34% in Jan & Feb, and even lower in the previous years.
Just take a look at the commentary in bold on the high percentage of HDB buyers in the appended article. Many HDB upgraders are rushing into the private property market thinking that they might miss the boat if they wait for longer. The fear of missing the boat is somehow amplified with the ever increase …

Plot ratio is very important in the developer’s acquisition for a piece of land. Basically the plot ration of a site is defined as the ratio of the gross floor area of a building(s) to its site area.
Plot ratio = Gross Floor Area / Site Area
Literally speaking, the higher the plot ratio, the more gross floor area the developer is able to build up to, therefore maximizing his profit return.
Typically, the higher the plot ratio will give rise to greater building height, except for areas with special height controls are …

With the successful precedent transaction of the 3 storey industrial terrace factory building at No. 6 Jalan Ampas on February this year, there is another industrial site in Balestier put up for sale.

It is a freehold industrial site at No. 21 Kim Keat Road at an asking price of $42 million. Within the same Balestier area, this site is potentially to be re-zoned under the Urban Redevelopment Authority planning to residential use of a gross plot ratio of 2.8
The asking price of 42 million works out to S$734 per square foot …

Parkway Hospital is setting itself as a premium world first class hospital with its soon completed Parkway Novena Hospital. In the recent soft launch, all 100 suites released ranged between 452 square feet and 1,431 sq ft and were priced between $3.588 psf and $3,828 psf, excluding GST, were sold out.
This may sound a good price that Parkway has managed to launch at: just imagine selling a medical suite with a price tag from $1.63 mil to $5.1 mil, not forget to mention it is sitting on a 99 years …

I have been away relaxing myself in the Chinese New Year season. Sorry if you have been checking out my blog yet have not been seeing my “presence”!!
Here I am continuing my study on Cube 8 from my previous article:

Cube 8 is a freehold condominium development located at 376 Thomson Road, Singapore 298130, in District 11, minutes’ walk to Novena MRT Station. With an expected completion in 2017, it comprises of 177 units in a 36 storey tower. Cube 8 is close to MacRitchie Reservoir Park and Novena Square Shopping …

 
Cube 8 artist impression
 

View of The Albany, Thomson Mansion & the Arte from PIE flyover
 This is the site that the new Cube 8 by CDL will be located. Currently it is sitting the old development of the Albany & Thomson Mansion. They were acquired by CDL in 2006 & 2007. The Albany was acquired for $65mil with a plot ratio of 2.8, with an additional of development charge of $174,000 (which is insignificant to the developer).

View towards The Albany & Thomson Mansion from Thomson Road, Google streetview
Not sure if you …

The fever for En-bloc is coming back, though there is more caution in the developers in acquiring the existing developments.
I would say enbloc is a unique phenomenon to Singapore, in which the private sector participate in bring about urban development. Prior to that, developers acquired lands solely from the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme. It had attracted much criticism, since Government paid too low a price and sold at too high a price for the land. Therefore URA looked into means to incentivize developers in rejuvenating existing residential areas, by …