APAC Realty Ltd (SGX: CLN) has had a bumpy start to life as a listed a company. Since its initial public offering (IPO) in the later part of last year, its share price has tumbled 26% as investors grew concerned about the impact of the additional property cooling measures. However, last month, the real estate brokerage company announced two new business initiatives that could potentially provide new avenues of growth. Joint venture office in China The group has entered into a joint venture agreement to take a 40% stake in a business set up in Hainan to conduct brokerage services and conduct training and licensing for real estate agents. Through the joint venture, APAC Realty will take its first steps in expanding its business in the China market. Its other two partners in the joint venture

It is no secret that Singaporeans love to invest in properties. And who can blame them? Over the past decade, Singapore’s property market has skyrocketed. A growing economy, scarce land supply and low-interest rates have resulted in increasing demand for property. These in turn have propelled prices of property in Singapore to among the most expensive in the world. Investors who had purchased property a few decades ago would likely have made a killing. However, despite its marvellous track record, there are limitations to investing in property in Singapore. For one, investors require a large capital outlay. There are also additional stamp duties for permanent residents and Singaporeans buying their second property. Additionally, property is an illiquid asset that can take months or even

APAC Realty Ltd (SGX: CLN) is a real estate brokerage company that operates under the ERA brand name. It has the second highest number of real estate agents in Singapore. In 2016, it commanded a 37.5% market share of transaction value in the Singapore residential market. In the first half of 2018, the group delivered a strong performance as net profit attributable to owners spiked 8.7% on the back of an optimistic real estate market. Recently, I also wrote an article on three reasons why I believe APAC Realty would make a good long-term investment. But every company and investment comes with its own set of risks and potential pitfalls. In this article, I will highlight three potential downside risks that could hamper APAC Realty’s future earnings growth. Government intervention and poli

APAC Realty Ltd (SGX: CLN), a real estate brokerage company that operates through the ERA brand, has seen its share price tumble 26% since its listing late last year. The drastic drop in the share price was mostly due to the surprise announcement of additional property cooling measures and its competitor, PropNex Ltd (SGX: OYY), going public in July this year. However I feel that the large sell-off may have been overdone. Even with the near-term uncertainty in the local property market, I believe investors who are willing to play the long game will be rewarded in the future. Here are three reasons why. Long-term growth in the local property market As we all know, Singapore’s property market tends to do well over the long-term. Limited land supply, a bustling economy and low interest ra

APAC Realty Ltd (SGX: CLN), a real estate services provider that operates under the ERA brand name, went public in late 2017. It has three main business segments, namely, real estate brokerage, franchise agreements and training, valuation and other ancillary services. Earlier this month, the group released its earnings update for the second quarter of 2018. Here are some key highlights from its report: 1. In the second quarter of 2018, revenue jumped 24.2% to S$122.0 million, up from S$98.2 million. Cost and expenses rose 27.4%, resulting in a 4.5% decline in profit before tax. Net profit attributable to shareholders declined 9.3% to S$7.7 million for the quarter. 2. For the six-month period from January to June, revenue increased 37.4% to S$227.3 million, up from S$165.4 million in the co

I wasn’t intending on a post so quickly after the previous one. But this is quite crazy. Some recent positions have done really well, really quickly. I’ve written, in real time, about each of these positions in InvestingNote. First, I bought some shares in Singtel at $3.12, trading it a mere 2 days later at $3.25, which is pretty good. I don’t really wanna write too much about this cos lotsa guys own Singtel, and it hasn’t been very rewarding. Many tortured souls out there, don’t want them coming up to me with pitch forks. Next, I built a small position in Falcon Energy, betting that they’d manage to restructure their debt successfully. They’re still not out of the woods yet, but at least they managed to increase their liquidity with a $23mil inje

What a time for PropNex to list on the SGX!Within days more property cooling measures were announced and PropNex share price tanked over 20% in a day!//=d.offsetWidth&&0>=d.offsetHeight)a=!1;else{c=d.getBoundingClientRect();var f=document.body;a=c.top+("pageYOffset"in window?window.pageYOffset:(document.documentElement||f.parentNode||f).scrollTop);c=c.left+("pageXOffset"in window?window.pageXOffset:(document.documentElement||f.parentNode||f).scrollLeft);f=a.toString()+","+c;b.b.hasOwnProperty(f)?a=!1:(b.b[f]=!0,a=a

My initial draft did not conclude this purchase as another Big Idea. But after completing the draft, I decided that this investment is a Big Idea.I will not be hiding the identity for this company because, at this point in time, I will have already revealed the company name on my Facebook Post.Big Idea 9 became the talk of the town once the cooling measures were announced by the authorities, and within the same period, a bigger rival got listed.This was evidenced from my research as well. There were so many articles written by analyst and bloggers (Thelittlesnowball, Motley Fool, Heartland Boy, PropertyinvestSG) that it was hard to find hidden information that could possibility sway me to the “other” side.Do note that this investment is very new and resulted in my portfolio increasing

The sudden Singapore property market cooling measures on 5th July 2018 had shocked the market as no one was expecting this measures. Many panicked causing a knee-jerk reaction which caused developers to launch 3 projects on the very night these measures were announced, find out more about these measures in this article and how it affects you. In any measure, there will be different impact on different groups of stakeholders. Inadvertently, there are winners, losers and opportunities created.   In this article, four main questions will be discussed 1.How does the cooling measures affect different groups of people? 2.What is likely to happen to a few market segments? 3.What are the side effects? 4.Are there any winners? For those who would like to read more about the cooling measures can do

On Thursday evening, the government announced a new series of property cooling measures which took effect on Friday, citing a sharp 9.1% rise in private residential prices over the past year and growing transaction volumes. The measures include significantly higher ABSD rates on property transactions and tighter loan-to-value (LTV) limits. Except for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents purchasing their first residential property, property buyers have to pay an additional 5% in Additional Buyers’ Stamp Duty (ABSD) when purchasing new properties, while entities would pay an additional 10%. Property buyers will also face additional restrictions when taking out a mortgage, as the LTV limits were tightened by 5% for all housing loans. The government said the move was necessary to prevent a p

According to SRX, the rental index for non-landed private residential units rose 0.2% in May 2018 compared to April 2018. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); In terms of rental volume of private non-landed residential units, overall numbers have fallen to 4,674 in May 2018 compared to the previous month (4,831) and the same month last year (4,929). The average number private non-landed residential leases inked over the last 12 months is approximately 4,880 per month. Also read: APAC Realty a good stock to invest in? The highest number of rental deals continue to be inked in the Outside Central Region (1,610 in May 2018), compared to Core Central Region (1,046) and Rest of Central Region (1,273). The index for Core Central Region properties stayed flat while that of th

The en bloc market continues its run with a number of projects being marketed, latest of which is Dalvey Court which is up for S$160m. The reserve price of S$160m for the 32 unit apartment in District 10 represents a land rate of about S$2,009 per sqft per plot ratio. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The project’s gross floor area of 7,401 sqm or 79,660 sqft can be redeveloped into an apartment with 93 units, each of which is assumed to have a unit size of 70 sqm. Located close to Botanic Gardens, Dalvey Court is near a stretch of high-profile schools such as St Joseph’s Institution, Singapore Chinese Girls’ School and Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road). Selegie Centre Just last week, news appeared that an en-bloc attempt is being done for Selegie C

JLL, Lendlease launch proptech accelerator in Singapore GLOBAL real estate giants JLL and Lendlease are partnering to launch an accelerator in Singapore to kickstart innovation in real estate, an industry said to have been slow to tech advancements. But unless both companies commit to a substantial investment and a long-term plan to “transform legacy businesses”, the accelerator will yield limited benefits, observers said. Propell Asia – described as the first Singapore-based regional property technology (proptech) accelerator – opens for applications on Monday. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); HDB closer to solar power target after awarding latest tender SOLAR panels are set to be installed in blocks of public flats managed by the West Coast

PropNex Limited is the latest stock initial public offering (IPO) on the Singapore Exchange. Shares of the home-grown real estate service group debuted at 68.5 cents on Monday and rose as high as 22% in its first day of trading before closing at 71.5 cents. The 2.125 million shares offered for public subscription was subscribed 24.6 times, indicating buoyant sentiment among investors for the PropNex IPO and the local property sector in general. If you’re looking at the PropNex IPO with interest, here are four things to know before you invest: 1. PropNex is the largest real estate agency in Singapore According to the independent market research report presented in the IPO prospectus, PropNex is the largest real estate agency in Singapore. As at 1 January 2018, PropNex has 6,684 agents und

Recently, while I was researching stocks to add to my portfolio, I came across a few Singapore-listed companies that I thought were interesting. A quick search on the internet also showed that not many investment analysts cover these companies extensively. In this article, I will discuss the fourth company that I like: APAC Realty Ltd (SGX: CLN). For the first three companies in this series, you can check out the following: 1) Company 1: Advancer Global Ltd (SGX: 43Q) – head here 2) Company 2: Samurai 2K Aerosol Ltd (SGX: 1C3) – head here 3) Company 3: United Global Ltd (SGX: 43P) – head here The business APAC Realty, which was listed on Singapore’s stock market in September 2017, is a real estate services provider with three primary business segments: real estate brokerage ser

PropNex Limited is gunning for a public listing in the Singapore stock market, amid a buoyant mood in the local property sector. If successfully listed, PropNex will join APAC Realty Ltd (SGX: CLN), which operates the second largest real estate agency in Singapore, as another real estate services provider on the local stock exchange. About PropNex’s business According to its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus, PropNex is an integrated real estate services group. It has four business segments, and they are real estate brokerage, training, property management, and real estate consultancy. PropNex’s primary business is in the “provision of real estate brokerage services comprising real estate agency and project marketing services.” It operates its real estate agency through its

The enbloc fever has yet to fizzle out leading into the second half of 2018. In the first week of June alone, another slew of properties have been reported to be up for collective sale. The properties– Spanish Village, Katong Plaza, Gilstead Court and Elizabeth Towers – are collectively asking for a total of $1.8 billion. Local investors are no strangers to Singapore’s land scarce property market. As enbloc activities ramped up since the start of this year, investors were also quick to jump on stocks of reputable developers the likes of City Developments and UOL Group. But as investors piled in on developers in Singapore, they left behind some overlooked counters that could also ride along the property upcycle. Amongst this group of “obscure” counters, APAC Realty stands out as i

The upcoming months are going to see heightened volatility as US and China both ratchet up their trade war rhetoric. Meanwhile, prospects of the Fed’s interest rate hike are also keeping the market on its feet as it prepares for the possibility of a total of four hikes this year. According to UOBKH, investors should be turning their focus towards mid-large cap picks that are cash generative and provide decent dividend yield to help protect any price downside. Investors Takeaway: 5 Dividend Plays In A Volatile Year City Developments With the largest residential landbank in Singapore, UOBKH highlights and recommends City Developments as the best proxy to Singapore residential recovery. Residential properties make up almost 40 percent of City Developments’ gross asset value. With risi

The number of new private homes sold in May jumped 53.1% compared to April and 7.9% compared to the same month last year, according to information released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Monday, 18 June. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Developers sold 1,121 private homes in May 2018, excluding executive condominiums, compared with 732 units in April. The number of units sold was also the highest since August 2017, when 1,246 new private homes were sold. Including ECs, 1,257 units were sold in May, a slight drop from 1,328 sold in April and lower than 1,416 sold in the same month last year. Categorized by location, the Core Central Region (CCR) saw 43 units sold; the Rest of Central Region (RCR) saw 286 units sold; the Outside Central Region (OCR) saw

APAC Realty is one of the leading players in the real estate brokerage industry in Asia. APAC Realty operates three main business segments – the real estate brokerage services; franchise agreements; and training, valuation and other ancillary services. In this post, I share more about the business model, recent developments related to the company and my views on the stock. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Basic information APAC Realty traded at S$0.89 as of 8 June 2018. The peak was at S$1.26 on 9 Mar 2018 and was priced at S$0.78 during IPO on 29 Sept 2017. The present share price is 14% higher than IPO and 29% lower than its peak. Also read: Keppel DC REIT’s acquisition of a data centre How does APAC Realty earn money? There are 5 ways APAC Realty earns t