The Singapore Government announced a set of property cooling measures effective 6 July 2018 aimed at moderating home price growth. The authorities raised the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD)  by 5 percentage points for owners of second and subsequent residential properties purchases as well as lifting Loan-to-Value (LTV) limits by 5 percentage point for all new housing loans. On the other hand, developers will now incur a higher remissible ABSD of 25 percent, on top of an additional 5 percent non-remittable ABSD for enbloc transactions. DBS expects the combined impact of the measures to hit buyers’ sentiments significantly, and projected that total sale volumes to fall to 9,000 to 10,000 units in 2018. Meanwhile, the curbs added further pressure on developers as the revised ABSD i

Last Thursday, the Singapore government made a surprise announcement that it is increasing the buyer stamp duty for private properties and tightening the loan-to-value limits. This comes as private property prices have risen to a four-year high after a frenzy of collective sales. These new regulations will not only affect property prices, but have also impact on some companies listed on the stock market. Here’s a quick list of stocks represented in the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI) that might be affected. Property stocks Perhaps the biggest hit will be the property stocks that have residential development projects in Singapore. The new regulations will affect demand for residential property in Singapore and in turn, affect prices. Already, property developers have been courting home bu

On Friday last week, property stock giants – City Developments Limited (SGX: C09), CapitaLand Limited (SGX: C31) and UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) – plunged 15.4%, 6.0% and 13.5% respectively. This was a knee-jerk reaction to the surprise news that the Singapore Government is implementing additional property cooling measures. Investors are anticipating lower demand for Singapore residential property and lower returns on investments for future residential projects in Singapore. This is due to the fact that demand will be dampened and that developers will also have to incur an additional 5% stamp duty when they purchase land banks. That said, the reaction from the market seemed too drastic in my view. Here are a few reasons why. Other revenue streams All three property companies have mult

Property stocks in Singapore nose-dived dramatically on Friday, following the announcement of new property cooling measures in Singapore. The Singapore government made a surprise announcement to increase the buyer stamp duty by 5% for everyone, except for Singaporean and permanent resident first-time home owners. In addition, it also tightened the loan-to-value limits by five percentage points. This would have an impact on investors looking to buy a second investment property in Singapore and also increases the down payment needed to purchase a home. This will most certainly put investors off, and also make it more difficult for home-buyers to purchase a private property due to the higher initial down payment. The lower demand for private homes will, in turn, affect property developers who

The Singapore stock market, as represented by the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI), tumbled 2.4%, or around 77 points, to 3,191.8. Other than trade war fears between the US and China, the market was spooked by the announcement of higher stamp duty rates and tighter loan limits for residential property purchases here. For the week, of the 30 index components, 20 were in the red while the remaining 10 were in the green. The big decliners among the Straits Times Index companies were property stocks. City Developments Limited (SGX: C09) plunged 13.4% to S$9.46; UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) tumbled 12.1% to S$6.70; and CapitaLand Limited (SGX: C31) slipped 5.4% to S$2.99. Keppel Corporation Limited (SGX: BN4), which has a property arm, was the third biggest loser of the index, falling 8% to S$6.

Singapore property stocks have plummeted today. At the time of writing, the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI) component stocks, CapitaLand Limited (SGX: C31), UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) and City Developments Limited (SGX: C09) have fallen 5.03%, 9.81% and 16.15% respectively. So why is this happening? Property cooling measures The government announced two surprise property cooling measures that became effective today. This is aimed at ensuring price escalations do not go out of hand. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) chief, Ravi Menon, warned investors to be careful as euphoria has led to aggressive bidding by developers for both en-bloc sale tenders and government land sites. The Singapore property market has also seen a resurgence in prices and transactions over the past year as pric

As at the time of writing, the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI) has tumbled 2.2%, or 72.6 points, to 3,1841. However, the property developers in the index, such as City Developments Limited (SGX: C09), UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) and CapitaLand Limited (SGX: C31) have taken a bigger beating. Those shares are down from 5% to 17%. Ok, What Happened?   Yesterday, the Singapore government announced that it is raising the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates and tightening the Loan-to-Value (LTV) limits for residential property purchases. In its statement, the Singapore government said that private residential prices have “increased sharply by 9.1% over the past year” and warned that the “sharp increase in prices, if left unchecked, could run ahead of economic fundamentals and

Investors Takeaway: 4 Big-Name SG Stocks That MUST Be In Your Portfolio Keppel Corporation (Keppel Corp) According to CIMB, Keppel Corp has the potential to declare higher dividends on the back of stronger gains from its asset recycling, along with stronger recovery in offshore and marine (O&M) margins. With the OPEC striking a new deal on production output, higher oil prices should support the demand for rigs. This will eventually lead to more de-risking of its jack-up inventory, resulting in improvement in operating leverage. Apart from its offshore and marine business, CIMB notes that Keppel Corp is also a proxy to ride the property cycle in Singapore and emerging markets with its land bank of 61,000 homes. BUY, TP $10.00 Sheng Siong Group (Sheng Siong) Following a slowdown in

Shares of property developers fell sharply after the Singapore government announced new measures to cool down a heated property market. The new set of rules include higher stamp duties and tighter requirements around the loan-to-value limits on residential property purchases. Before the implementation, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) had warned of “euphoria” and “excessive exuberance” in the property market. As of 10:45 am today, shares of City Developments Limited (SGX: C09) and UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) had fallen 15.8% and 12.5%, respectively. CapitaLand Limited‘s (SGX: C31) shares also dived 4.1%. Singapore’s banks, which provide housing loans, were not spared either. DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05) fell almost 3% while its peers Over

Property Stocks Cooling Measures Measures To Cool The "Euphoria" in Singapore Property MarketThe Government announced adjustments to the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates and Loan-to-Value (LTV) limits on residential property purchases, to cool the property market and keep price increases in line with economic fundamentals.The new rates are effective 06-Jul-2018, but there will be a transitional provision for cases where an Option to Purchase (OTP) has been granted by sellers to potential buyers on or before 05-Jul-2018.Check out the list of current projects of key SGX listed developers including CapitaLand, City Developments, UOL Group / UIC, GuocoLand, Bukit Sembawang, Oxley, HongKong Land, Chip Eng Seng, Roxy Pacific, Far East Organisation according to Maybank Kim E

If you’re thinking of buying a private property for rental income or investment purposes in 2018, it is worth noting that the rental market is still not very strong. In the near-term, you should not expect super attractive yields from your properties. With rising interest rates, it might be prudent to also be conservative when counting on rental income to service any debt obligations. However, if you are in the market for a condominium to live in, then the property market is still a viable option today. Here are four condominiums due to launch in the second half of 2018 that have the lowest indicative prices. Whether these condos are worth their asking prices is something prospective homebuyers need to carefully evaluate for themselves. Read Also: En-Bloc Fever 2017: How Mu

The world-renowned investor, Warren Buffett, counts Benjamin Graham as his investing mentor. Graham is often touted to be the father of the value investing discipline, where its practitioners aim to purchase a stock for less than its intrinsic value. That happens when we purchase a dollar worth of assets for 50 cents. And in doing so, we also give ourselves a margin of safety of 50% – this “safe distance” can help to minimise the downside risk of the investment. With the concept of buying assets below their worth in mind, let’s look at three property-related companies that are selling for below their book values (a company’s book value is its total assets minus its total liabilities). Company 1: Hongkong Land Holdings Limited (SGX: H78) Hongkong Land is a property investment,

According to Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) data, the private residential property price index rose 3.9 percent quarter-on-quarter in 1Q18, ahead of its initial 3.1 percent flash estimate. The stronger-than-expected rebound signals that the four-year slump is indeed over and Singapore’s residential property market is in the early stages of a recovery. Property prices fell 12 percent between 3Q13 to 2Q17 due to a deliberate soft landing “engineered” by the government, owing to growing excess supply of new homes. The tightening cycle has finally come to an end and the supply of new homes is expected to fall meaningfully while improved affordability should also drive pent-up demand. Sentiments among property buyers and developers have improved as transaction volumes are startin

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

It is important to know what a particular company does and how it makes money before investing in it. Investing in a business without such knowledge is akin to travelling to an unknown territory without a map. On that note, let’s check out what business UOL Group Limited (SGX: U14) is involved in and how it generates its revenue. With a track record of more than 50 years, UOL is a property company with an extensive portfolio of development and investment properties, hotels and serviced suites. The portfolio also includes properties held under United Industrial Corporation Ltd (SGX: U06), UOL’s listed subsidiary. Let’s take a look at the table below for the revenue contribution of each business segment for the financial year ended 31 December 2017 (FY2017):Source: UOL Annual Report F

Wee Cho Yaw is listed as the sixth richest man in Singapore, with a net worth of close to $5.8 billion. He is most well-recognised as the chairman emeritus of United Overseas Bank (UOB), which his father co-founded in 1935. Besides UOB, Wee Cho Yaw also owns diverse stakes in other private and listed companies. In our 4 Stocks This Week Column, we take a look at four other listed companies he has a stake in. They include, United Overseas Land (UOL), United Overseas Insurance (UOI) and United Industrial Corporation (UIC). In addition, his holdings in these four companies also gives him major stakes in several other listed entities such as UOB Kay Hian, Haw Par, Singapore Land and others. #1 United Overseas Bank Limited (SGX: U11) With a market capitalisation of close $46.7 billion, UOB is t

In the next few years, demand for primary homes will continue to trend higher, according to DBS. DBS notes that the demand will come from both population growth and home upgraders who are in the market to upgrade to private properties. Over the next 12 years, DBS foresees a CAGR of 1.5-3.2 percent for property prices as Singapore’s property growth story continues to unravel. Investors Takeaway: 5 Property Stocks To Ride On The Upcycle DBS believes that companies that own properties with dominance in the respective submarkets across the island are the ones that will be empowered to ride the Singapore growth story. In addition, the companies need to have a forward-looking management team that is always casting an eye towards future-proofing their portfolio to ride the next phase of economi

5 top office Reits deliver minus 3.2% return in 2018 THE five largest office real estate investment trusts (Reits) on the local bourse with assets in Singapore have brought home an average negative total return of 3.2 per cent year-to-date as of May 3. This brings their one-year and three-year total returns to 14.3 per cent and 21.8 per cent respectively. They maintain a 5.6 per cent average distribution yield. The four that have reported their results for the first three months of 2018 averaged a distribution per unit (DPU) of 2.09 Singapore cents, down an average 4.5 per cent from the year-ago period. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Straits Real Estate eyes adaptive China retail STRAITS Real Estate (SRE), a subsidiary of Straits Trading Company (STC), is exploring

The calls to go “long” on the property sector have been going on for a while now. While investors tend to go for blue chip property counters the like of City Developments and UOL Group, these “obvious” choices have all seen a run-up in their share price ever since the sector bounced back from its doldrums, leaving behind laggards and more obscure counters that are waiting for value to be realised. Amara Holdings Amara Holdings is principally engaged in property development, as well as hotel investment, management and operation. The home-grown group operates four hotels under the Amara brand – 2 in Singapore, 1 in Bangkok and another in Shanghai. On the domestic front, slower growth in the supply of new hotel rooms mean that the company may ride along the trend of higher revenue

With more than two-thirds of the Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI) having reported, the first-quarter earnings season will enter the home straight next week. Genting Singapore (SGX: G13) will be the first blue chip to report next week. In February, the integrated resorts owner lifted its dividends, even though earnings fell 17%. It said that it had seen a stronger underlying performance from the leisure and hospitality segment, thanks to higher business volume. Singapore’s second-largest bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (SGX: O39), will also report on Monday. The bank soundly beat analyst estimates in the fourth quarter, when it posted a 31% jump in net profits. It said it had seen sustained growth momentum in banking, wealth management and insurance. But will it be able to compl