Hotel deals, new condo launches, and tax takings

COMMERCIAL markets in major cities in the US and elsewhere are not in good shape. Demand for office space shrank as remote working took hold, and malls suffered from consumers’ migration to online retail. Yet, in Singapore, landlords have largely been spared. In The Level Ground, Leslie Yee writes that there are factors specific to Singapore that help drive long-term demand for office and retail space here, which ensures that quality assets stay relevant and in demand.

German asset manager Union Investment put its Singapore property on the market last week. VisionCrest Commercial along Penang Road is up for sale at a guide price of over S$470 million. The freehold building is part of a mixed-use strata subdivided complex developed by Wing Tai on the former Cockpit Hotel site. Union Investment Real Estate plans to distribute returns to its investors and recycle capital within the Asia-Pacific region.

UOL Group sold its Parkroyal on Kitchener Road hotel for S$525 million, in a deal that came as a surprise. The sale to an entity of Worldwide Hotels, the owner of Hotel 81 in Singapore, marked the biggest single-asset hotel transaction in Singapore and the second-biggest in Asia-Pacific in 2023. At 24 per cent above the property’s latest valuation of S$423 million, the sale will yield a massive divestment gain for UOL. Are more disposals to come in the name of the group’s “reconstitution of its overall property portfolio”?