| IF you have a million dollars to spend, you can get someone to do the walking and, of course, the queueing. Businessman K H Lee splurged $1.34 million on a 1,744 sq ft unit at a luxury condominium last week. While scores of people camped for three nights to get their choice units at The Metropolitan, Mr Lee, 40, was sleeping soundly at home. Mr Lee, who owns a trading business, lives in a four-room HDB flat in the Telok Blangah area.  | | --Shin Min Daily News | 'I wanted a big apartment for my family. My agent queued up for me, got me a number and I went down to choose the unit,' he said. 'When I saw this project I liked it immediately. Plus, I was worried that prices might increase further, seeing how well the market has been performing.' Clearly, others with similar thoughts were waiting for developers CapitaLand and Lippo Group to release more units of The Metropolitan yesterday. Last week, people started queueing up at 3am for the soft launch units, and 188 out of the 250 preview units were sold. Currently, with all the units released, more than 60 per cent of the 382-unit project on Alexandra Road has been sold. The average price for this 99-year-leasehold condo is about $780 psf. Camping outside condo showflats has been almost unheard of since a wild property boom ended in the late 1990s. SPECULATORS BACK Now some speculators are making big profits. Some have raked in gains of up to $100,000 by selling their units in mid-tier projects such as Grandeur 8 at Ang Mo Kio and Twin Regency in Tiong Bahru even before they are ready. A property recovery is definitely on the cards, analysts say. Home prices here rose about 6 per cent in the first nine months of this year, compared to 3.9 per cent in the whole of last year. But Ms Tay Huey Ying, director for research and consultancy at Colliers International, believes the number of speculators is still small. She estimated that speculative sales made up about 5 per cent of all transactions this year, compared to about 26 per cent at the peak of the property boom in 1995. 'The buyers today are genuine purchasers who buy for owner-occupation. There are also some 'specu-vestors' who speculate on the market, but they have the money to hold the property,' she added. Investors have become more prudent, having learnt a painful lesson a decade ago. 'They also look at other forms of investment such as stocks and shares,' Ms Tay said. While home prices have been heading steadily upwards, it's not a runaway market with a 20 to 30 per cent price increase a year, said Mr Nicholas Mak, Knight Frank's director of research and consultancy. 'During a property bubble, there'll be cases of speculative buying where people are buying their third or fourth property for a quick sale and buying beyond their means. 'I don't think we're seeing something as serious as that, especially in the mass market and mid-tier (freehold condos outside districts 9, 10 and 11) market,' he added. Some projects such as The Centris and The Metropolitan have done well because they are located near MRT stations and they're new projects, he added. HDB PRICES STILL FLAT 'On the whole, HDB prices are still pretty flat. And I don't see a strong spillover of demand from HDB upgraders to the mass-market condos,' said Mr Mak. 'In the private residential market, prices for selected segments will increase but there's no fear of a property bubble.' | 
