THEEDGE SINGAPORE | JUNE 22, 2009 • CC3
COVERSTORY
The crowd at the showflat on the first day of the soft launch of One Devonshire last Tuesday
More than just | BY CECILIA CHOW |
H
ong Kong-born, American-bred Richard Fan is incredibly bullish on the Singapore property market. Describing himself as an “international property investor”, Fan, who’s lived in Singapore for the last seven years, snapped up three apartments in the past two months. All three properties are located in the prime River Valley district: a two-bedroom apartment in UE Square condominium, a unit at Martin Place Residences, and his most recent purchase just last week, a three-bedroom apartment at Allgreen Properties’ One Devonshire project. A queue had formed overnight outside the One Devonshire showflat on the eve of the soft launch last Tuesday. Fan’s property agent had joined the queue. “Many people were jostling to get ahead of the queue, and my agent called and told me that I was fifth in line,” says Fan. That ensured he was among the first five to select an apartment of their choice when the showflat opened the next morning. “I haven’t seen a queue outside a showflat in a long time,” remarks a property agent. Even the marketing agents at Knight Frank had not expected a queue to build up overnight for the soft launch. An air-conditioned tent erected next to the showflat in anticipation of a spillover crowd on the weekend of
the official launch on June 20 and 21 turned out to be handy for the overnight crowd last Monday evening. Of the 108 units released for sale in the first phase of One Devonshire, 88 units were snapped up, with two-bedroom apartments going for $1.7 million to $1.9 million, and three-bedroom apartments from $2 million to $3 million. Peter Ow, Knight Frank’s executive director of residential marketing, says prices ranged from $1,600 to $2,050 psf. Two-bedroom apartments in prime districts are generally the most sought after by investors. At the 152-unit One Devonshire, there are 15 units of two-bedroom apartments of 904 and 914 sq ft. Demand for these units was so overwhelming that the marketing agents had to improvise a balloting system for the sale of the last five apartments. A Tiffany gift box, which was a decorative piece in the show flat, became a ballot box. The unit number and sale price of each contested apartment was pasted on the box, and those who were keen on that particular apartment were then invited to drop in their cheques. Once all the cheques were in, an agent would randomly pick a cheque from the box, like in a lucky draw. The question on top of everyone’s mind is whether the recent hot rush into property can be sustained. The unemployment rate in Singapore in 1Q2009 was 3.3%, and nominal earnings fell 3.7% y-o-y. The economy is also expected
While economic recovery is still hesitant, the smart money is trickling back into Singapore property. With prices creeping up, some are also seizing the opportunity to offload assets.
GWYNETH YEO/THE EDGE SINGAPORE
pent-up demand
KNIGHT FRANK
CITY&COUNTRY
Fan: What’s important right now is that prices have corrected 30% to 40% from the peak, and it’s a good time to buy
to contract by 6.5% this year. “We’re not out of the woods yet,” admits Chua Chor Hoon, senior director of research at DTZ. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty about the economic recovery.” Analysts, property consultants and homebuyers remain divided, and there certainly
hasn’t been a shortage of views. All kinds of recovery have been mooted, from a U-shaped, L-shaped, V-shaped to W-shaped one. “It’s hard enough to predict the bottom, let alone a recovery,” says Fan. CONTINUES NEXT PAGE