Turfed out
WHERE champion racehorses once pounded the turf and sent divots flying in Kranji, some 20,000 to 40,000 new homes could sprout up. An enormous piece of land has been freed up with the just-announced plans to close the Singapore Turf Club.
Horse-racing, the sport of kings, has been in decline for years in Singapore. As race sponsors left the scene and prize money dwindled, many punters - and horse-owners - have already taken their money elsewhere. The last race will run in 2024, after which, 300-plus jobs will be lost and the process of exporting 700 horses by 2026 begins. Reality hit the local horse-racing fraternity hard, even though rumours had been swirling for some time. Relive the glory days in our short history of Singapore horse-racing.
Plans to redevelop the 120 hectares of land centre on residential use, which analysts figure will focus on public housing. Some reckon that there may be room, too, for retail and hospitality or recreation ventures, in keeping with wider plans to build up the northern region and capitalise on Causeway traffic, Ry-Anne Lim reports. Woodlands will also house an agri-tech hub, as well as future developments around the immigration checkpoint.
It will be years before these plans come into play. The Turf Club will only hand back the site in 2027, and it will take years more of preparation and feasibility studies before the land parcels are ready for sale to provide more housing for Singapore residents.
Affordability and access have been thorny issues in property-mad Singapore. In our focus on affordability, might we be missing other details of a bigger picture? Rising prices beg the question: are Singapore homes truly expensive, or are property seekers looking for more than basic housing needs? PropertyGuru’s Lee Nai Jia reminds us that housing affordability encompasses more than just price. Economic opportunity, social aspirations, and social mobility are integral components of the affordability equation.
Meanwhile, Yong Jun Yuan tackles a big hairy question: should young couples take the plunge and BTO early? Setting up to get in line for a build-to-order HDB flat - by the third date, say! - does give young people a leg-up in the property game. But is it the right thing to do?
Many Singapore property groups have made much headway in greening buildings. They score on ESG ratings and are keen to champion going green, but building social inclusiveness? Not so much. Fancy new condos are built for exclusivity, and prime office buildings are pitched at users with strong credit standing who can pay. More can be done to push property companies towards greater inclusiveness, writes Leslie Yee in The Level Ground.
Leslie also makes the case in his Hock Lock Siew column for closer scrutiny of privatisation of property-linked groups. Top Global is a case study of why companies should be made to sell their investment properties before going private. Sukmawati Widjaja, the sister of tycoon Oei Hong Leong and daughter of the late Eka Tjipta Widjaja, played by the rules when she privatised Top Global. Post delisting, the group has put its strata assets at 15 Scotts Road on the market and has steadily sold units for almost S$90 million. Could it have unlocked value for shareholders had it offloaded these assets before going private?
Jelita Shopping Centre, a two-storey Holland Road building iconic for its ’80s era architecture, has been put up for sale with an S$85 million guide price, Kalpana Rashiwala reports. But Holland residents won’t lose their 24-hour Cold Storage. Jelita owner DFI Retail plans to lease back space to continue operating its supermarket. The property does have significant redevelopment potential and is zoned for commercial and residential use.
How might developers act in the wake of the government’s latest move to curb buying with higher additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) rates? A poll by the National University of Singapore found property players strategising to defer launches and possibly offer some discounts to recalibrate pricing.
One boutique developer has had little choice, and has ended up in liquidation. As a result, its 48 unsold strata-titled semi-detached units in its cluster housing project Eleven@Holland are on the block in a mortgagee sale, as Jessie Lim finds out.
State-owned “black and white” houses have been thrust into the limelight, after news emerged that cabinet ministers K Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan have been renting two such properties from the government. An inquiry has been initiated, the outcome of which is expected to emerge in the next Parliament sitting in July. Till the details surface, don’t miss our dive into these colonial era residences, how big they are, where their rents are at, as well as the pros and cons to living in a piece of Singapore’s history.
If the shoe fits…
You’ve no doubt read about how commercial real estate is “the next shoe to drop”. For many players, it has.
- Mapletree Industrial Trust’s third-largest tenant entered US court-supervised Chapter 11 process this week. The tenant, a global colocation provider, contributed about 3.2 per cent of MIT’s monthly gross rental income as at Mar 31, 2023.
- Digital Core Reit’s manager warned its DPU could halve as its second-largest tenant went bust. The tenant, understood to be Nasdaq-listed data centre operator Cyxtera, has facilities spread across six of the Reit’s data centres, representing 26.6 per cent of the Reit’s total portfolio value as at end-2022.
- Citi Research downgraded its call on Suntec Reit to “sell” from “neutral” on Jun 1, slashing target price to S$1.13 from S$1.41 in anticipation of a potential downcycle in the office property market.
- Hong Kong’s office towers, among the most expensive commercial real estate in the world, have never been this empty
And on Jun 5, the Financial Times reported that US lenders were preparing to sell off property loans at a discount, even when borrowers are up to date on repayments. That banks holding performing loans are rushing for the exit is a sign of determination to cut exposure to the teetering commercial real estate market, the FT said. Red flags all round.
