Remember just years ago that no lease top-up was granted for Marina House’s application for lease top up was being turned down, although HMC Building nearby (being developed into Lumiere condo) got a lease top-up to 99 years earlier?
In the land scarce Singapore, people are getting more receptive to leasehold properties, being it commercial or residential. Therefore if your property is sitting on leasehold and expiring soon, you might be considering applying for lease topping up. And the approval rate is very much dependent on the government’s long term planning …

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 …

From the earlier article on sale of Colorscan building at 21 Kim Keat Road, it has been successfully acquired by a boutique developer BS Capital for just over $36 million or $670 per square foot of potential gross floor area, including an estimated development charge of almost $25 million.
Looking at the recent transactions of the residential aparment, D Lotus which is located just across the road Ampas Road, the prices have been pretty good at more than $1100 psf for relatively small units. Unsurprisingly, the successful buyer BS Capital is …

It is expected the property price at Potong Pasir area to move upwards with another aggressive bidding of property developer at $607 per square foot at the residential site at Upper Serangoon. The site is sitting just next to the Potong Pasir MRT station, and within a private residential area of Sennett estate. The land parcel has a site area of about 0.5 ha with a maximum permissible gross floor area (GFA) of 17,402 sqm. The site is easily accessible via major roads and expressways such as Upper Serangoon Road, Pan Island …

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 …

As reported in the earlier posting on the potential enbloc for several apartments in Balestier, Diamond Tower has managed to ink the first residential deal for the area.
The existing Diamond Tower is just sitting next to the up and upcoming Zhong Shan Park, which houses 2 hotels and a public park. The deal has not been finalized since the proposed collective sale of Diamond Tower will be subject to approval from Strata Titles Board as its owners have not unanimously consented to the sale.

EL Development has inked a deal to buy …

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 …

You might have noticed that there is this industrial building, Leong On Building, sitting beside the up and coming Zhong Shan Park site. It looks pretty out of place, and will be even so after the completion of Zhong Shan Park. I would have thought that it would have been more efficient and integrated in terms of planning if the site to be amalgamated with the Zhong Shan Park during the URA land tender. However the wish was somehow not materialized.

However the owners of Leong On Building will be very …

Golden Wall Flatted Factory is an 8 storey industrial building situated off the Balestier Road. From the look of it, the building is in need for a fresh layer of paint coat. Most of the factories in Balestier are pretty run down and lack of maintenance. This is one of the potential problems that en-bloc or collective sales could bring. With URA’s plan on re-zoning of industial plots to residential zoning, I believe many owners of the industrial buildings in Balestier are looking into  getting the new right owner with the right pricing. …