singapore property weekly issue 242

8/20/2019 Singapore Property Weekly Issue 242

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Issue 242Copyright © 2011-2014 www.Propwise.sg. All Rights Reserved.

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CONTENTS

p2 4 Property Implications of the New

Downtown Line 2

p9 Singapore Property News This Week

p12 Resale Property Transactions

(December 23 – December 29)

Welcome to the 242th edition of the

Singapore Property Weekly .

Hope you like it!

Mr. Propwise

FROM THE

EDITOR

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 242

Page | 2Back to Contents

By Property Soul (guest contributor)

In the last week of 2015, the Land Transport

Authority (LTA) called everyone to “Give Your

Car A Break” and take a free ride on the

newly opened Downtown Line 2 (DTL2).To

show my support, I took a bus to the first

station Bukit Panjang, then got on the DTL2

train and traveled twelve stations to the last

stop Chinatown, while keeping tabs on the

exact time needed to reach every station, just

to confirm with SBS Transit’s saying that “It’s

closer than you think”.

4 Property Implications of the New Downtown Line 2

http://propertysoul.com/http://propertysoul.com/http://propertysoul.com/http://propertysoul.com/


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Four reasons why DTL2 makes us proud

DTL2 deserves to be taken seriously by

everyone because of:

1. The investment

It cost a hefty $20.7 billion to build the whole

downtown line which is significantly higher

than the initial estimate of $12 billion.

2. The odds

The LTA has overcome many obstacles to

open DTL2 on schedule, including higher

construction costs, delays caused by a

bankrupted contractor, longer work days for

construction workers, and more

inconvenience for residents along Bukit

Timah Road.

3. The length

The 16.6 km long DTL2 is made up of 12

stations, 1 depot at Bukit Panjang, and 3

interchanges at Botanic Gardens (Circle

Line), Newton (North-South Line) and Little

India (North-East Line).

4. The time-saved

If I stay at Bukit Panjang, it only takes 16

minutes to get to Botanic Gardens, where I

can then change to the Circle Line. And 22

minutes is all I need to reach Newton to

change to the North-South Line, with onemore minute to reach Little India for the

North-East Line. It takes 29 minutes to arrive

and go shopping at Bugis. If I work at Suntec,

it takes me 31 minutes to reach my office.

Even if my workplace is in the CBD, it is only

36 to 39 minutes to reach Downtown and

Telok Ayer.


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Small booklets with the words “I love

Downtown Line” were distributed to people

who went for the DTL2 open house. There

are four things I really love about DTL2:

1. Enhanced bus services

A new bus service 979 is introduced to

provide connectivity for Yew Tee and Choa

Chu Kang residents to the Bukit Panjang

MRT/LRT station. Seven more bus routes are

amended to make it more convenient for residents to use the downtown line.

2. Good facilities

There are elevators inside and outside the

stations for those who need them. Toilets are

available at all stations which are critical for the kids, the elderly and the pregnant.

Covered overhead bridges are available at

stations like King Albert Park, Tan KahKee

and Botanic Gardens to shelter passengers

from sunshine and rain.

3. Long escalators

At every DTL2 station, passengers typically

have to ride on three long escalators, witheach escalator at least three storeys high,

before reaching the ground. They can

continue their calls, read Whatsapp

messages and watch Korean drama without

being interrupted, if they don’t mind taking

another three minutes to reach the ground.

4. Very auspicious

Ever wonder why there are 12 stations but we

have a DT13? The answer: There is no DT4

(though there will be DT14, DT24 and DT34).

It is most likely for auspicious reasonsbecause four in Chinese is associated with

death. Thirteen is a good number so there is

DT13 for Rochor Station.


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Four implications on properties near DTL2

stations

So what has the completion of DTL2 done to

properties nearby?

1. It benefits the commercial properties

Shops and eateries near DTL2 are the

winners. Small shopping centers like Sime

Darby Centre, Guthrie House, Sixth Avenue

Centre and Coronation Shopping Plaza that

use to serve the neighbourhood can now

expect a bigger crowd thanks to the well-

connected DTL2.

Here are the landmarks immediately outside

the main exits of each DTL2 station.

SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY I 242


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2. It is no longer exclusive

Prestigious areas like Sixth Avenue, Watten

Estate, Robin Road, etc. that were once

exclusively reserved for the well-to-do are

now made accessible by DTL2. During the

one-week open house, the once quiet

neighbourhood suddenly became hectic by

passengers getting out from various stations.

However, just like Tokyo and Kaohsiung,

there are some areas that still look quiet andempty even though there is a station there.

For DTL2, such stations could be Cashew

Station and Tan KahKee Station on weekends

due to the low resident population and it

being a school zone.

3. It is not necessary to move to CCR

If my girls’ PSLE results are good enough to

get into the prestigious girls’ schools, we no

longer have to upgrade our homes and move

to District 10, 11 or 21. Thanks to the DTL2

stations built along Bukit Timah Road,it now

takes less than 15 minutes to go from Bukit

Panjang to Tan KahKee. So why pay the

premium to move to the CCR?

4. Is it worth paying for proximity to the

MRT?

I have touched on this topic in my earlier blog

post “Should property owners be happy about

the new Thomson-East Coast Line?”.

By 2030, the Singapore MRT network will

have 6 rail lines, 28 interchanges, 146

stations and 186 MRT+LRT stations. One can

hardly find any residential area in this little red

dot unreachable by a station. The question is

how fast one can get from home to the

workplace with minimum line changes.

When the government announced the

building of DTL2 in 2009, speculation in a hot

SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY I 242

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property market immediately drove the cash-

over-value of HDB flats in Bukit Panjang from

$25,000 to $40,000.

According to SRX, as of November 2015,

both the resale market value and rental of

HDB flats in Bukit Panjang are still under the

national average. For private properties, the

gross market rental yield for leasehold

apartment in Singapore is 3.5 percent while

the yield of leasehold properties in BukitPanjang is 3.2 percent.

People do look for convenience when they

buy a home. Properties near to a train station

can definitely command a premium and hold

their value. But do take note that people want

to be close enough for the convenience butalso far enough to get away from the noise

and the crowds.

By guest contributor Property Soul, a

successful property investor, blogger , and

author of the No B.S. Guide to PropertyInvestment.


http://propertysoul.com/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://aktive.com.sg/store/no-b-s-guide-to-property-investment/http://propertysoul.com/


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Singapore Property This Week


Residential

Private home price flash estimates fall by

0.5% in Q4 2015

According to flash estimates by the URA,

private residential prices have fallen by 0.5%

in the last quarter of 2015. Year-on-year,

private home prices have fallen by 3.7%.

Since Q3 2013, private home prices have

fallen by 8.4%. On the other hand, HDB

resale prices have increased by 0.2% in Q4,

a first in 10 quarters. Eugene Lim from ERA

believes that this reflects that the market is

stabilizing. Ku Swee Yong from Century 21

echoed Lim’s sentiments. Ku added that

since the price decrease is within acceptable

limits, cooling measures will stay for a longer

period. In Q4 last year, the price index for

landed properties fell by 10.4% from Q3

2013, compared to a 7.6% decline in the non-

landed price index in the same period. This

showed that the landed property market was

more affected by the cooling measures.

(Source: Business Times)

Flash HDB resale prices increase by 0.2%

in Q4 20115

estimates by HDB showed that HDB resale

prices have increased by 0.2% in Q4 last

year, resulting in a total of a 1.5% fall in

resale prices over the whole year.


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Compared to 2014, prices have fallen by

1.3% and as expected, resale volumes fell

slightly in the traditional lull month of Dec.

However, compared to a year ago, resale

volume shows more buyers returning to theresale market; with an increase by 8.4% in

resale volume as 1,404 units were sold in

Dec 2015 compared to 1,295 units in Dec

2014. Market experts expect either a

stabilised performance or a slight decline in

HDB resale prices in 2016.


Commercial

Value of shophouse deals increase by 8%

in 2015In 2015, the value of shophouse transactions

rose by 8% from $606.2 million in 2014 to

$655.60 million. Yet, only a total of 103

caveats were lodged last year, down from 112

in 2014, suggesting bigger-ticket shophouses

changed hands in 2015. According to market

watchers, there has been heightened interest

for this property asset class from ultra highnet worth investors and family funds. CBRE’s

Sammie Lim predicts that the volume and

value of shophouse deals will remain stable

this year. Despite the recent increase in

volume and value of shophouse transactions,

market experts said that since theimplementation of the total debt servicing

ratio framework in June 2013, the number of

caveats lodged have fallen by 22-23 deals

per quarter. The value of the transactions

have also fallen from $287-464 million to

$124- 204 million, over the same period.



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singapore property weekly issue 242

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