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Published November 30, 2006

MCL, Ho Bee team up to buy Holland Hill Mansions New condo on site set to sell for average of at least $1,300 psf   MCL LAND is partnering Ho Bee Investments for its $292 million acquisition of Holland Hill Mansions. This is not the first tie-up between the two developers. Their maiden joint-venture was in 2000, when they developed the 716-unit Rio Vista condo in Hougang. 'And it won't be the last,' MCL chief executive officer Koh Teck Chuan said yesterday. On the freehold Holland Hill Mansions site, the two partners plan to develop about 180 to 200 biggish apartments with balconies. They plan to launch the District 10 condo within a year. The breakeven cost is expected to be about $1,050 per square foot and the expected average selling price will be at least $1,300 psf, according to Ho Bee executive director Ong Chong Hua. The project will comprise units of three bedrooms (these will be about 2,000 sq ft), four bedrooms (about 2,300 to 2,500 sq ft) and penthouses The site is zoned for residential use with 1.6 plot ratio (ratio of potential maximum gross floor area to land area) and has a 12-storey height limit. BT reported yesterday that the $292 million price for the 243,525 sq ft freehold site reflects a unit land price of about $750 psf per plot ratio. No development charge is payable, even if MCL and Ho Bee use an additional 10 per cent gross floor area for balcony space. The $750 psf ppr for Holland Hill Mansions is 36 per cent higher than the $550 psf ppr unit land price MCL paid for the nearby Waterfall Gardens and a couple of smaller adjoining sites at Farrer Road in February. Both deals were brokered by DTZ Debenham Tie Leung. The firm's director Tang Wei Leng says owners of the existing 116 apartments at Holland Hill Mansions will receive sums ranging from $1.77 million to $3.89 million per unit. The sole penthouse owner will walk away with $6.25 million and the owner of the only shop in the development will pocket $1.35 million. Ms Tang estimates these sums are easily double the values of the respective units had they been sold individually.

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ELECTRIC NEWS DISPUTE OVER SIGLAP BUNGALOW Contractor: Work done, so... Pay up Owner: No, you... Messed up By Crystal Chan November 30, 2006

PAY me in full for building your bungalow. No, there were defects and I'm suing you for damages. Mr Yen's bungalow in Siglap. -- GAVIN FOO A dispute over the building of a two-storey Siglap bungalow has led to a contractor and an auditor suing each other. Emma Contract is suing Mr Yen Heng Fook, 52, a partner at audit firm Ernst & Young, for an alleged unpaid bill of about $152,000. Mr Yen had hired the contractor to build his house, and construction work had been carried out from February 2002 to June 2003. Emma Contract said its contract with Mr Yen stated it would be paid $488,615.56, but claimed in court papers that Mr Yen has paid only $336,607.75 to date. MOVED IN Mr Yen, who is also an executive committee member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, has since moved into the house with his family. The 6,976 sq ft house is slightly larger than two basketball courts. In its suit, which was filed on 23 Jun, Emma Contract is demanding what it claims is $152,007.81 in unpaid charges, interest. It alleged that Mr Yen made irregular and delayed payments. After failing to get Mr Yen to pay the outstanding amount, it took legal action against him for breach of contract through lawyer Andrew Tan Tiong Gee. When contacted at his office, Mr Yen, who is also the head of the small and medium enterprises services department at Ernst & Young, said: 'It's not that I don't want to pay. Emma Contract didn't do up the house according to the architect's drawings. 'The company claimed I didn't pay, but I have receipts to prove my case. I'm a professional too, and I also want my clients to pay after I do work for them.' He said there were instances of delays and defects in the construction - the completion of the house was delayed by 112 days - and the contractor did not ask for more time to finish the job. He added that the contractor did not perform certain tasks that were requested. A sink was not installed according to his requirements and there was patchy paintwork on the walls. Other alleged defects include cracks on the wall in his study, stained ceilings and corroded metal railings. Mr Yen is now counter-suing Emma Contract and its owner, Mr Max Han Fuquan, over what he claims is defective work, for damages of $157,525.88. NO CONTRACT 'I'm counter-suing him as I need the money to repair the defects,' Mr Yen said. In the court papers, Mr Yen refuted claims that he breached their agreement and denied signing any contract with the contractor. Instead, he stated that if there was any contract, it was signed between him and Mr Han, not with Emma Contract. So technically, the company has no claims against him. Mr Yen also denied owing the company $152,007.81, adding that his own calculations showed he only owed $83,708.48. He claimed that, to date, he has made 17 cheque payments totalling about $373,000 and cited the cheque numbers in his defence. WEAR AND TEAR Responding to Mr Yen's allegations, Emma Contract insisted that it signed a contract with him. The company also denied that Mr Yen owed less than what it is asking for. It added that any delays in the work were caused by his requests for unique patterns and designs of wrought-iron fixtures. It also claimed that the patchy paintwork, stained ceilings and corroded metal railings resulted from normal wear and tear. If there are any defects, Emma Contract stated, Mr Yen should prove his case, especially when his family has been living in the house since 16 Jun 2003.

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Singapore News

Holland Hill Mansions sold enbloc for S$292m By Loh Kim Chin, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 29 November 2006 2022 hrs SINGAPORE: Holland Hill Mansions has been sold for S$292 million in a collective sale. That works out to about S$749 per square foot per plot ratio. The successful buyer is a company jointly owned by MCL Land and Ho Bee Investment. The freehold property sits on a land area of nearly 250,000 square feet. It has a plot ratio of 1.6 and is located near the junction of Holland Road and Farrer Road. The buyer plans to build a 12-storey condominium with about 200 units aimed at the high-end segment of the market. - CNA/so

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Nov 30, 2006 One last hotel site on Sentosa NEWLY revamped Sentosa is done with its hunt for investors, save for a 5ha hotel site on one of its three beaches. The site, at Tanjong Beach, is reserved for a beach resort-style hotel, but proposals will be sought only next year, Sentosa Leisure Group's property director Gurjit Singh said yesterday. He said the group is waiting for the winner of the integrated resort to be crowned. 'Then we will be able to understand how to position the site,' he told reporters at the Leisure Invest Asia conference. Sentosa had a bumper year last year, setting records with 5.2 million visitors and $520 million in earnings. It also drew $3.1 billion in net investments, a 68 per cent jump over the previous year. Copyright © 2006 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved. Privacy Statement & Condition of Access

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Published November 30, 2006

HDB calls re-tender for 250 unsold flats   THE Housing & Development Board is calling a re-tender to appoint housing agencies to sell 250 unsold flats on the open market, the government body said yesterday. The flats are in Jurong West, Sengkang, Bukit Merah and Geylang. The move follows the HDB's decision earlier this year in April to not award the December 2005 tender to appoint agencies for unsold HDB flats, with the board concerned about the zero-commission and negative-commission bids received. It said it would call a re-tender when it had addressed the matter. In light of this, the HDB said yesterday it will impose the condition that appointed housing agencies will not be allowed to collect any commission from the buyers. 'Housing agencies participating in the tender should therefore quote the commission they wish to charge HDB for their role in selling the flats,' the statement said. 'HDB will then select the successful tenderers taking into account their compliance with the tender conditions and the commission rates quoted.' The 250 flats have remained unsold after repeated offers to public applicants under HDB's sales exercises. The unsold flats are generally five or more years old. As they will be sold with the same terms and conditions as other resale flats, they will be priced at market value as set by professional valuers, the HDB said. The flats will be progressively released for sale over the next year. Agencies interested in participating in the tender can download a copy of the tender documents from www.gebiz.gov.sg. The tender application will close at 4pm on Dec 20.

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Nov 29, 2006 En-bloc sale: How 'financial loss' is defined I REFER to Mr Michael Rebaczonok-Padulo's letter, 'He stood to lose if collective sale had gone through' (ST, Nov 18), Mr Tan Koh Young's letter, 'Apartment owners in this mixed development lose out' (ST, Nov 18), Mr Adrian Tan Beng Kiat's letter, 'Authorities should clarify stance' (ST, Nov 25) and Mr Robert Stone's letter, '40% floor area but 5% share values' (ST, Nov 25). Under the law, the Strata Titles Board (STB) can disapprove an en-bloc sale application if an objecting owner can show that he will suffer financial loss or that the proceeds of sale are insufficient to redeem any mortgage or charge in respect of his unit. The Land Titles (Strata) Act (available at http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/) provides that an owner would be considered to have suffered a financial loss if the proceeds of sale for his unit, after any deduction allowed by the STB, are less than the price he had paid for the unit. The stamp duty and legal fees which an owner incurs when he purchases his unit have been permitted as deductions by the STB. An owner could furnish to the STB evidence of relevant expenditures incurred in relation to the unit for the board to decide what it will allow as deductibles. The law does not specify how the sale proceeds should be distributed among the unit owners. The distribution method is to be determined by those who sign the collective-sale agreement, i.e., the majority owners, usually in consultation with their property consultants. Nevertheless, the STB hearing the en-bloc sale application has to be satisfied that the transaction was made in good faith, taking into consideration, among other things, the method of distributing the proceeds of sale. Mr Adrian Tan asked how the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) arrives at a decision to allow for the lease on leasehold properties to be topped up. SLA will look at several factors, principally as to whether the landowner's proposal would result in land optimisation and whether it is in line with the Government's long-term planning intention. Mr Tan Koh Young and Mr Stone do not agree that share value should be used to determine voting rights for purposes of an en-bloc sale. They suggest that floor area be used instead. This matter is not so straightforward. For example, the owner of a shop in a mixed development may argue that the use of floor area is unfair to him as he had paid several times more for his shop on a per-square-foot basis, compared to a residential unit. In deciding on the method to determine voting rights, the Government had considered the experiences and practices of other jurisdictions and adopted share value as the basis. This approach has generally worked well. Nevertheless, we will take into account feedback as we review this and other aspects of en-bloc sales in the light of our own experience. Radha S. Khoo (Ms) Head (Corporate Communications) Ministry of Law Copyright © 2006 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved. Privacy Statement & Condition of Access

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Published November 29, 2006

Hong Leong clinches Mohd Sultan hotel site   THE Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has awarded the tender for a hotel site at Mohamed Sultan and Nanson roads to Hong Leong group's Republic Hotels & Resorts for $45.8 million or $5,578 per square metre. The tender for the 2,932 sq m leasehold site was launched on Sept 25. The Hong Leong group had put in the highest bid when the tender closed on Nov 21. Separately, URA also said yesterday that two reserve list hotel sites at Tanjong Pagar are up for application. Developers can submit a minimum bid and request that these sites be put up for tender. One is at Tanjong Pagar Road/Gopeng Street and the other at Tanjong Pagar Road/Tras Street. The 99-year leasehold sites are part of the government land sales programme for the second half of 2006. URA said yesterday that the new projects would help meet demand for hotel rooms, which is expected to increase given the Singapore Tourism Board's target of 17 million visitors by 2015. Together with existing hotels in the vicinity, developments at the new sites will help turn the area into a hotel cluster. The Tanjong Pagar Road/Gopeng Street site is about 0.24 of a hectare and has a gross plot ratio of 8.4, which translates to a maximum permissible gross floor area of 19,933 sq m. At Tanjong Pagar Road/Tras Street, the land is about 0.29 ha and has a gross plot ratio of 5.6, giving rise to a maximum permissible gross floor area of 16,047 sq m.

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Nov 29, 2006 Holland area condo sells out within 1 hour YET another condominium project has sold like hotcakes, this time in the Holland Road area. The Ford@Holland in Ford Avenue is a freehold project with 10 two-storey townhouses and 75 apartments. It is on the former Ford Mansion site and near the popular Holland Village. Developer Hoi Hup Realty had pre-sold about a quarter of the project to consultants and business associates, while the rest were mostly sold within an hour at the soft launch yesterday. The overall average price was $1,210 per sq ft. The townhouses cost $3.75 million to $4 million. But the apartments went for less, particularly the 50 studio units ranging in size from 420 sq ft to 614 sq ft. Ms Margaret Thean, the executive director of the project's marketing agent DTZ Debenham Tie Leung (SEA), said about 85 per cent of the buyers were locals. The rest were mainly Westerners and Indian nationals. 'It's mainly the location,' said Ms Thean. A market watcher said the prices were relatively high. 'It looks like nowadays people just buy for the sake of buying,' he said. The nearby 31-unit Urban Edge was also fully sold as of two days ago, reaching an average price of $1,150 psf. Another project near Orchard Road, the 32-unit Rhapsody on Mount Elizabeth, sold half its units at a recent soft launch. Knight Frank's director of research and consultancy, Mr Nicholas Mak, said some projects have sold out within a short time because the market is buoyant. However, it was unusual for a project to sell out in a hour when others are not experiencing the same hot response. Sales could depend on whether marketing of the project started early, he added. JOYCE TEO Copyright © 2006 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved. Privacy Statement & Condition of Access

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Nov 29, 2006 US housing slump likely to cause global slowdown But OECD expects the downturn next year to be mild and short-lived   OVERVALUED HOMES: The OECD warns that housing markets in countries such as the US may have reached unsustainable heights. -- REUTERS PARIS - THE US housing downturn will provoke a 'mild' but short- lived world economic slowdown next year, the Organisation for Economic and Cooperation (OECD) said yesterday. The OECD has also downgraded its growth forecast for the world's wealthiest nations. In its twice-yearly Economic Outlook, the organisation charged with improving the economic prospects of its 30 member states said it now expected growth of 2.5 per cent in the OECD area, down 0.4 percentage point from its May projection, but forecast a rebound to 2.7 per cent in 2008. OECD chief economist Jean-Philippe Cotis said: 'Rather than a major slowdown, what the world economy may be facing is a rebalancing of growth across OECD regions.' As economic growth in the United States and Japan slows, 'a solid upswing may be under way' in the eurozone. But initially this rebalancing 'would not be strong enough to prevent a mild and short-lived weakening next year in the OECD area', he said. While OECD slashed its US forecast to 2.4 per cent next year from May's 3.1 per cent, it raised the outlook for the eurozone by just 0.1 percentage point to 2.2 per cent. Japan, Britain and Canada were among those downgraded, but the outlook for Germany and Italy improved. Mr Cotis said the US had suffered a higher inflation shock than the OECD average because of its greater energy intensity, but he suggested that a mild economic slowdown could mean there was no need for the US Federal Reserve to raise rates again. However, OECD warned that 'if risks of higher inflation outturns materialise in the near term, the need for an initial further tightening of monetary policy cannot be ruled out'. The organisation cautioned against another interest rate rise in Japan because 'deflation is not over yet' and the 'the return to price stability is proving longer and less assured than expected'. It warned once again of the risk to advanced economies of overvalued housing markets. 'Prices may now have reached unsustainable highs in certain countries, notably the US, Denmark, France and Spain,' according to OECD's analysis. But OECD was hopeful of a gentle slowdown for the US housing sector, partly because households seemed well prepared to cope with a downturn. FINANCIAL TIMES Copyright © 2006 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved. Privacy Statement & Condition of Access

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