Complete Property Market Updates of Singapore

one-north aims to be a place where residents can work, live, learn and play seamlessly. CLARISSA TAN reports

IT’S Friday morning. Your alarm rings. You decide to swim a few laps, so you head for the rooftop pool. Then you stroll to work, which takes only a few minutes. Throughout the day, you rub shoulders with academics, media types, a few artists.

Later you want to welcome the weekend with a bang. A host of restaurants and bars are just a short walk or an MRT stop away. And while your workplace is an impressive, futuristic building, you can opt to dine in a cosy colonial setting.

Living in one-north will help you enjoy this kind of lifestyle, according to some property developers and consultants. The 200-hectare area around Buona Vista, which includes scientific research centre Biopolis and media hub Fusionoplis, aims to be a place where residents can ‘work, live, learn and play’ seamlessly.

one-north’s ’self-contained township’ concept and proximity to a research-and-development hub, the Science Park and education campuses are a draw for researchers, academics and professionals, says Ku Swee Yong, director of marketing and business development at property consultant Savills Singapore.

‘Singapore has just begun to reap the benefits of R&D in the pure sciences,’ he says. ‘one-north is expected to contribute the lion’s share in the commercialisation value of these efforts’.

Two residential projects are under construction at one-north - one-north Residences and The Rochester.

The Rochester, going by the job-home-leisure concept, is a mixed development that will comprise a condominium, a business hotel and a mall.

The cluster will have ‘unparalleled accessibility,’ says Jackson Yap, group managing director and chief executive of developer United Engineers.

‘There’s the East-West MRT line a five-minute walk away at Buona Vista station and the Circle Line to be running by 2011. It is also a short drive to Orchard Road and walking distance to Holland Village.’

The Rochester Condominium will have 366 units. Besides being near the sleek towers of Biopolis and Fusionopolis, it will be flanked by the lush Rochester Park, a green belt with colonial black-and-white bungalows that have been leased to food-and-beverage outlets.

‘It enjoys all the amenities of a mature residential estate with the greenery of the Rochester Hill in the background,’ says Mr Yap.

The Rochester Mall will be 100,000 sq ft and the business hotel, called Park Avenue Suites @ The Rochester, will have 350 rooms.

‘Apart from serving business travellers to one-north, the hotel will cater to medical tourists, with the National University Hospital and Gleneagles in the vicinity,’ Mr Yap says.

It will also attract ‘edu-tourists’ on short-term post-graduate courses at the nearby INSEAD business school and the National University of Singapore, he adds.

The entire project should be completed by 2011.

one-north Residences, developed by Vista Development, will have about 400 residential units and 20 street retail units. Its design concept leans towards glass and steel, with blocks connected by sky bridges, and fits in with the area’s master plan to create a ‘fenceless’ community.

‘Because there is a limited supply of residential projects there, demand for housing will be extremely great from expatriates who work there,’ says Emily Eng, associate director of the residential department of Knight Frank, the project’s marketing consultant and agent.

‘People who buy see the potential of the hub. After all, the government has committed to spend $15 billion to develop this city within the city.’

Savills’ Mr Ku says a development like one-north Residences will ‘allow like-minded experts and professionals to get together, mingle and socialise within a short walk of their home.’

Such is the concern for seamless interconnectivity that if you’re the sort who prefers to roll out of bed and into the office, you can opt to live in the very building where you work.

Fusionopolis, a twin-tower, 24-floor skyscraper dedicated to ‘infocomms’ or media and IT-related businesses, will house 50 serviced apartments. These units will have access to a rooftop pool, a clubhouse and skygardens - as well as five floors of entertainment and retail outlets including a supermarket, restaurants, a bookstore and a food court.

While one-north may look scientific, high-tech and top-speed at first glance, it also has a more laidback and historical side. Nestled in a green enclave is the Wessex Estate, a close-knit cluster of black-and-white houses and apartments built by the British in the 1940s.

While the various blocks of the Biopolis complex are given names such as Neuros, Genome and Chromos, the apartment buildings of Wessex Estate bear names that recall another time - Waterloo, Somme, Lucknow, Pegu.

And unlike the colonial district at Rochester Park, which now features restaurants and bars, the Wessex Estate is still very much residential and has a strong neighbourhood feel. The aim is to foster it as a home for artists, teachers, writers and actors. A few of the apartment blocks have been converted into work lofts for people involved in the creative and fine arts.

The Wessex Estate has always had interconnectivity of its own. For decades, its inhabitants could head down to the nearby Colbar (short for Colonial Bar), where pickled onions and fish-and-chips are on the menu.

The Colbar still exists and is as popular as ever, but recently it has been joined by two new restaurants, a cafe and a cocktail bar - all of them forming an area called the Village Square.

At sundown, when you chug your beer at the square, perhaps you will see the twinkling lights of the hovering skyscrapers.

Source : Business Times - 6 Jun 2008

Developers fear oversupply; the govt must offer some sites but may not waste prime sites

THE six-monthly Government Land Sales (GLS) programme announcement is just around the corner, and property industry players are once again voicing the familiar calls for the government to reduce its quantum of land sales, and to halt sales through the confirmed list - except for strategic reasons - and to instead offer sites only through the reserve list.

The players wanted this even when the market was buoyant. Given the subdued conditions now, they may have a stronger case for moderating the GLS programme in the second half of 2008.

But numbers alone won’t do. The focus must also be on the quality of sites on offer. The 99-year leasehold private residential sites offered by the state in H1 2008 yielded a mixed bag of results. Some have attracted numerous bids at high prices while others did not. In one case, the bids were too low for the government to make an award.

In other words, certain sites are in demand, others are not.

What kind of sites does the market want now?

There is enough supply of high-end private residential sites, so the government need not bother about supplying land in the prime districts.

As for the mid and mass markets, the locations in demand are near MRT stations, and/or with water views, in close proximity to major shopping centres, good schools and other amenities.

A site’s location could decide whether it’s likely to be sold under current cautious market conditions. A tender that closed in March for a condo site facing West Coast Park and overlooking the sea drew a dozen bids. In contrast, there were only two bids for a landed housing plot at Jurong West and the Government decided against awarding it.

These days, developers will only be drawn to land parcels with strong selling points.

Clearly, more waterfront housing sites will be welcome - a point catered for in the draft Master Plan 2008 revealed last month.

And given the rising private transportation costs, homes near MRT stations will probably command an even bigger premium than they do today.

Unattractive sites may attract bids that are too low for the Ministry of National Development to make an award. This could affect the already-fragile sentiment in the residential market. So the MND should focus on choice plots in its H2 2008 list, the argument would go.

CBRE’s update of the MND’s H1 2008 programme shows that five private residential sites have been sold so far through the confirmed list. These are in various choice locations outside the city - near Khatib MRT Station fronting Lower Seletar Reservoir, at Lorong 2/3 in Toa Payoh near Braddell MRT Station, at West Coast Crescent overlooking the sea, in Choa Chu Kang, close to Lot 1 Shoppers’ Mall and the MRT station, and Phase 2 of Sembawang Greenvale near the sea.

Developers have yet to make a single successful application for reserve list private housing sites in the H1 2008 slate - with the sentiment being weak and the reserve plots generally not boasting choice locations.

While the government launches plots under the confirmed list for tender according to a prestated schedule regardless of market demand, it releases reserve list sites only if there is a successful application by a developer who undertakes to bid at a minimum price acceptable to the state.

So will the MND release the sort of sites the developers want? As a seasoned market player puts it: ‘They’re very practical people. When the market sentiment is weak, why give away their good sites at subdued prices?’

Instead, the MND may offer more run-of-the mill sites. Such plots may draw poor interest, and this could affect sentiment. However, developers may still like the end result: not much new land actually being sold by the state.

Put simply, the outcome developers desire - of having less state land being sold - may be effected if the government offers a slate of mostly not-so-desirable plots.

The current weak demand makes it clear there’s no housing shortage in Singapore.

A moderation of land supply sold by the government would lend some support to the market. Another benefit if the government ends up selling less land is that it will provide some relief to the overheated construction sector.

On the other hand, the government may not be able to accede to developers’ calls not to sell land in H2 2008 through the confirmed list - as official data have so far not shown any decline in private home prices, despite thin sales volumes.

The government also has to balance the need to provide stability to home prices with the aspirations of Singaporeans who have yet to buy private homes.

The MND will likely be prudent and moderate the GLS programme for H2 2008. A shorter list of sites in both confirmed and reserve lists, with stronger emphasis on less choice locations, could do the trick.

Source : Business Times - 6 Jun 2008

Initial response may have been cool, but companies in Singapore are showing more interest in Nusajaya’s Southern Industrial and Logistics Clusters (SiLC), where land prices are on a climb.

And according to a diplomat, Malaysia’s political developments should not cloud prospects for the Iskandar Malaysia economic zone.

Nusajaya’s master developer UEM Land said yesterday that SiLC’s Phase 1 has sold over 52.5ha of land, valued at around RM145 million (S$61 million). Some 95 per cent of the buyers, or around 22 companies, are based in Singapore.

Buyers include engineering and construction services provider Yong Nam Holdings and container handling firm Stinis Singapore.

UEM Land was in town to market another 40.4ha of freehold land in SiLC. Prices are likely to be around RM26 psf, a 30 per cent jump from RM20 psf when the land was first sold early last year.

SiLC is a 525.3ha park for advanced technologies, nutrition and health and integrated logistics industries in Nusajaya, a township in South Johor’s Iskandar Malaysia zone. Phase 1 of the park spans 121.2ha and UEM Land expects the remaining land in this phase to be taken up by the year-end.

The roadshow also showcased various developments in Iskandar Malaysia, but a Reuters report on Monday cast doubts over the future of the economic zone. Some investors may be ‘worried that the plans will be shelved if Mr Abdullah loses power’, the report said.

Calling the Reuters report ‘frivolous’, Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore N Parameswaran said that the claims were ’something that investors need not be concerned about, because this is a project … which enjoys the support of the entire Cabinet’. Referring to political developments in the country, he said: ‘I don’t see that this will affect the project at all.’

The Reuters story also noted ‘lukewarm response from big investors in nearby Singapore’ to the Iskandar Malaysia project. Sharing his experience marketing the SiLC, UEM Land managing director Wan Abdullah said that it was because investors ‘want to see delivery’.

He pointed out that developments in SiLC are taking shape, and that ‘we will continue to further enhance and improve’.

He also said that SiLC’s Phase 2 is under construction and may offer ‘a new value proposition that would make the buyers happy and our shareholders happy’.

Source : Business Times - 6 Jun 2008

SIM Lian Land Pte Ltd yesterday emerged as the top bidder in a Housing & Development Board (HDB) tender for a Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) site at Simei Road.

The $52 million bid, or $137 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), was at the lower range of earlier market expectations. Industry observers projected in April that the site could fetch between $49 million and $76 million, or $130 to $200 psf ppr.

The fifth DBSS site, with a lease term of 103 years and a maximum allowable gross floor area of 380,300 sq ft, attracted another bid from AMK Development Pte Ltd. Its bid of $37.3 million, or $98 psf ppr, was 28 per cent lower than Sim Lian Land’s.

Managing director of Sim Lian Land Kuik Sing Beng told BT that the site is expected to yield about 340 units. Five-room flats would make up 60 to 70 per cent of the units, and the rest would be a mix of four- and three-room flats. Sim Lian Land plans to launch the units for sale next May.

Mr Kuik also said that the breakeven cost would be about $350 psf of sellable area. He noted that the selling price for resale flats in the Simei area is about $380 psf of sellable area.

Cushman & Wakefield managing director Donald Han believes that HDB is likely to award the site. He observed that in spite of the gap between the two bids, Sim Lian Land’s bid is in line with current market expectations.

According to Mr Han, the small number of bids reflects the cautious attitude that developers have adopted. Rising construction costs are also posing a challenge for developers, Mr Han pointed out. Echoing this, Mr Kuik said that construction costs have increased substantially in the past one year.

HDB is expected to make a decision in the next two weeks.

Source : Business Times - 4 Jun 2008

With projects held back, firms lease out units bought in collective sales

PROPERTY developers such as Koh Brothers and GuocoLand, which bought collective sale sites during boom times, are now becoming landlords as they wait out the market slowdown.

They are leasing out apartments they bought to existing occupants as a way to generate some income instead of simply leaving them vacant.

If the property upswing had continued, these developers might well have moved quickly to tear down the older homes to put up new developments.

But the sharp slowdown in home sales has put paid to such thoughts for now.

Market observers say renting is a nimble move given present market conditions.

For sellers of units in collective deals who have yet to buy a new home, it is a win- win situation as they would have collected their sale proceeds.

Take, for example, the consortium that bought freehold Lincoln Lodge for $243 million in June last year.

It has decided to allow occupants to keep renting homes for six months from the sale completion date of July 8, and thereafter on a monthly extension basis.

‘Upon requests by some of the sellers to stay on, and while waiting for approvals, we have decided to grant them this request by extending a lease,’ said Mr Francis Koh, Koh Brothers’ managing director and chief executive.

Rents at Lincoln Lodge range from $2,700 to about $4,500 for larger units.

In the middle of last year, at the height of the collective sale frenzy, Koh Brothers bought the Newton site with Heeton Holdings, KSH Holdings and Lian Beng Group for a record $1,449.30 per sq ft (psf) per plot ratio.

A Lincoln Lodge seller, who wished to be known only as Mr Tan, welcomed the rental move as sellers had collected sale proceeds in January, and those who had not bought a home could take their time.

‘It’s an option…I know someone who negotiated the rent down to $2,500,’ he said.

GuocoLand seems to be the early rental front runner.

It offered residents short-term leases at Sophia Court in Adis Road last year, followed by Leedon Heights off Holland Road earlier this year. The leases started in March at Sophia Court and yesterday at Leedon Heights. Both last till Jan 31 next year.

A three-bedroom unit at Leedon Heights costs $2,850 a month, while rents at Sophia Court range from $800 to more than $4,000 a month.

GuocoLand bought Leedon Heights in April last year for $835 million and Sophia Court in late 2006 for $230 million.

Renting out units is a way to ‘wait out the current quiet in the market’, said Knight Frank’s director of research and consultancy, Mr Nicholas Mak.

‘If developers were to launch their projects now, it may be challenging for them to reach their target price for some of the projects.’

Frasers Centrepoint said it may offer short-term leases to the former owners of the 185-unit Flamingo Valley, a freehold site in Siglap Road that it bought for $194 million in February last year.

‘We had 50 owners who wrote to ask us to extend their lease…They haven’t found anything suitable,’ said the firm’s general manager of development and property, Mr Cheang Kok Kheong.

He said the firm was likely to extend a lease of six months to a year. This would ‘give us more time to think about our plans’.

City Developments (CDL) has said it is still exploring the renting option.

Renting out apartments bought in collective sales is not new. CDL did so a few years back, when it rented out all 124 apartments in Kim Lin Mansion in Grange Road.

It had bought it in late 1999 for $251 million, or $996 psf of potential built-up area, but pushed it out for sale only at the height of the property boom last year. It fetched prices of $3,600 psf.

Win-win deal

·  Developers lease out units to generate income instead of leaving them empty as they sit out the market slowdown.

·  Sellers of collective sale projects who have yet to buy new homes can stay on in their existing units as tenants.

TOUGH TARGET

‘If developers were to launch their projects now, it may be challenging for them to reach their target price for some of the projects.’ - MR MAK of Knight Frank, on companies holding out for better prices

Source : Straits Times - 4 Jun 2008

THE son of property tycoon and City Developments executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng has quit as chief operating officer of Thakral Corporation.

Mr Sherman Kwek, 32, who was appointed in June 2006, ran the day-to-day operations of the property firm and set its strategic direction.

It was announced yesterday that he would be resigning ‘to pursue other business interests’. His last day will be on Sept 1.

Thakral is a unit of listed Hong Leong Asia, itself a company in the Hong Leong stable. Hong Leong Asia triggered a mandatory general offer for Thakral after it converted its bonds into shares.

Mr Kwek’s departure raised speculation that he could be taking a more high-profile role at some of the larger Hong Leong companies, such as City Developments, Singapore’s No. 2 property developer.

It is also possible, however, that he is planning to spend more time on the business of listed HL Global Enterprises, the former LKN-Primefield, where he is already a director.

HL Global operates hotels and also has property interests in Singapore, Malaysia and China. Its market capitalisation is about $150 million.

Mr Kwek could be tasked with growing this company to be a key part of the Hong Leong Group.

Source : Straits Times - 4 Jun 2008

A TINY studio under construction near Farrer Park may well be the smallest private apartment to be built in Singapore.

It squeezes a bay window, a teeny kitchenette, a bathroom and space for a bed into just 312 sq ft - about half the size of a squash court.

The unit - part of the new Kent Residences in Kent Road - is the most extreme example of an emerging trend in private housing: compact, capsule condos within the city.

Targeted at young singles and property investors, some new studios have shrunk in size to as little as 300 to 400 sq ft, as developers try to make their homes more affordable amid rising costs.

At least 20 new projects launched within the past year have had units smaller than 500 sq ft, which was almost unheard of before last year.

Half of these projects went even further, cutting their smallest units to under 400 sq ft, making them on a par with those in famously space-squeezed cities such as New York and Hong Kong.

Shoebox-sized studios are not entirely new here. A few older condos like Mountbatten Lodge have units less than 400 sq ft in size.

What’s new is the recent proliferation of such projects, especially in Farrer Park, Balestier and Dhoby Ghaut. Most are built by boutique developers and have under 100 units.

Thanks to the property boom last year, home prices in these areas start at just below $1,000 per sq ft (psf) and go up to $1,600 psf. For a 400 sq ft condo, this translates to well below $700,000.

‘Construction costs are going up and space is becoming very expensive, so developers have to offer something that is affordable for the majority of home-buyers,’ said Ms Peggy Ngiam, project director of Huttons Real Estate Group.

Her firm has marketed several projects with unusually small units, including Thomson V Two in Upper Thomson Road, where half the 74 units were under 500 sq ft, with the smallest just 355 sq ft.

With a typical unit priced at a mere $377,000, the project sold out within a day.

In fact, most of these boutique projects are fully sold, and the most recent launches have seen good take-up rates.

Ms Ngiam said buyers are a mix of locals and foreigners. Some are single professionals while others are investors looking for good rental yields.

At Citigate in Rangoon Road, which was launched on Monday, 22 of its 32 units were sold within a day. The smallest unit, a 441 sq ft studio, is expected to fetch rentals of $3,000 to $3,500 a month, she said.

Small units also reflect growing demand from singles who want to live in the city on a tight budget, said DTZ Debenham Tie Leung senior research director Chua Chor Hoon. She said developers focused on building large apartments last year and may now see a shortage of small ones.

But other experts warned that buyers may not realise how small these units really are.

‘In the last market run-up in 1996, when prices got higher and higher, the units got smaller and smaller,’ said Mr Colin Tan, head of research and consultancy at Colliers International. Even then, those units were rarely under 500 sq ft, and came without today’s bay windows and air-con ledges, which eat into liveable space, he added.

While most projects offer showflats, the smallest units are often sold on the basis of their floor plans. At Kent Residences, which has just 13 units, buyers were shown only a model of the project and its floor plans.

‘In most cases, when people see the finished flat they have bought off the plan, they say it’s smaller than they expected. Can you imagine what that would be like for a 300 sq ft unit?’ said Mr Tan.

AFFORDABLE SPACE

‘Construction costs are going up and space is becoming very expensive, so developers have to offer something that is affordable for the majority of home-buyers.’ - MS PEGGY NGIAM, project director of Huttons Real Estate Group 

______________________________________________________________________________________

A 300 sq ft apartment is roughly the size of…
·  Two of the Old Chang Kee kiosks in front of Ngee Ann City
·  Seven ping-pong tables
·  Ten standard-size office workstations
·  Half an average three-room flat, and about a quarter of an average five-room flat
·  Half the size of a squash court

Source : Straits Times - 4 Jun 2008

EVERGRO Properties, a subsidiary of Keppel Land, plans to raise about $170 million through a renounceable rights issue.

Evergro also intends to carry out a capital reduction exercise to write off accumulated losses of $36.5 million.

The fund-raising involves the offer of 761.8 million new shares on the basis of three rights shares for every two existing shares held.

Evergro, formerly known as Dragon Land, will announce finalised details of the rights issue ‘in due course’, and determine the issue price closer to the launch date.

It expects the issue price ‘to be at a discount of up to 15 per cent to the then-prevailing market price’. Shares of Evergro closed unchanged yesterday at 23.5 cents.

The China-focused property developer expects to receive net proceeds of about $169 million, of which 71 per cent will go towards land acquisition.

Evergro has a landbank of about four million square metres, and is looking to purchase around 10 per cent more land. In particular, the company will focus on land acquisition in Jiangsu for more residential and mixed-use projects.

Further residential developments around a golf course in Tianjin will take up another 11.8 per cent of net proceeds.

The remaining 17.2 per cent will be set aside for working capital needs. According to Evergro’s CEO Goh Toh Sim, the availability of land acquisition opportunities will determine how long proceeds from the rights issue will last.

Jittery stock market conditions have not deterred Evergro from conducting a rights issue. Mr Goh noted that there is strong genuine demand for mid-to-high end homes in China. Also, the stable property market presented a good buying opportunity.

‘For land acquisitions, you will not want to do it when the market overheats,’ he said.

Keppel Land, which holds a 71.37 per cent interest in Evergro, has made an irrevocable undertaking to subscribe for its full entitlement and make excess applications. Hence, all rights shares will be fully taken up.

Evergro also announced plans to reduce its issued share capital by $36.5 million, to write off accumulated losses of the same amount in their entirety.

‘This is to better reflect the financial position and share capital of the company as well as cancel or reduce any issued share capital which has been lost or is unrepresented by available assets,’ said the press release. The exercise will not involve share cancellation.

Source : Business Times - 31 May 2008

THANKS to a deferred tax credit of $14.82 million, Stamford Land Corporation saw a 28.7 per cent rise in net profit to $42.94 million for the financial year ended March 31.

Stamford said the deferred tax credit arose from recognition of unrecorded tax losses carried forward as ‘the anticipated future taxable profit will allow the deferred tax assets to be recovered’.

Revenue for the year dipped 7.3 per cent to $276.1 million and pre-tax profit fell 14.6 per cent to $28.5 million as the group had a lower inventory of completed residential properties for sale compared with last year.

Earnings per share rose to 4.97 cents from 3.86 cents.

Its hotel segment achieved a 17 per cent increase in revenue to $232.2 million due to better occupancy and room rates and translation of revenue denominated in Australian dollars and New Zealand dollars into Singapore dollars at higher exchange rates.

The trading segment posted a 22.6 per cent growth in revenue to $14.82 million due to higher contribution from the group’s travel and interior decoration companies.

But growth in these segments was offset by a 66.8 per cent slump in revenue in the property development and investment segment to $28.96 million as fewer units of Stamford Marque remained for sale.

Stamford Land is optimistic about the outlook for the hotel industry in Australia in view of limited new hotel rooms coming on stream, likely further improvements in revenue per available room, and continued strength in the Australian dollar.

‘The group expects positive results from its hotel owning & management segment in the next reporting period and the next 12 months,’ it said.

On the residential front, Stamford Land said its Stamford Residences Auckland is expected to be completed in October this year and it will recognise income from the sale of this project accordingly.

It has pre-sold over 70 per cent of the Stamford Residences and Reynell Terraces, Sydney, which is scheduled for completion in August 2011.

‘The trading segment is expected to further improve on its performance on the back of the strong Singapore economy,’ it added.

Stamford Land has proposed a final dividend of 1.5 cents per share and a special dividend of one cent per share. It paid out an interim dividend of 1.5 cents per share on March 12.

Shares in Stamford Land closed trading yesterday at 67 cents, down one cent.

Source : Business Times - 30 May 2008

HO BEE DIRECTOR RAISES DIRECT STAKE

MR DESMOND Woon Choon Leng, executive director at Ho Bee Investment, has been snapping up shares in the property developer this week.

On Tuesday, he bought 150,000 shares on the open market at 95.8 cents apiece.

Then on Wednesday, he bought another 250,000 shares on the open market at 93.7 cents apiece.

Ho Bee’s share price fell nine cents, or more than 9 per cent, during five straight days of losses that ended on Wednesday. The counter rose one cent to close at 93 cents yesterday.

These two transactions raised Mr Woon’s direct stake to 1.55 million shares, or 0.21 per cent, of the firm’s issued share capital.

In March, Ho Bee chairman and chief executive Chua Thian Poh bought 300,000 shares at 89.5 cents apiece through Ho Bee Holdings, further raising his deemed stake to 476.4 million shares, or 64.61 per cent, of issued share capital.

Ho Bee’s first-quarter results, announced earlier this month, were hurt by a drop in home sales. It reported a 62 per cent plunge in its net earnings to $26.1 million for the quarter ended March 31.

Revenue also fell 62 per cent to $94.2 million, mainly due to the lower recognition of revenue from its property development project, The Coast at Sentosa Cove.

While it warned that the property market is expected to remain soft in the near term, it expects earnings to be supported by recognition of income from the sale of its residential projects, which include Vertis at Amber Gardens and Quinterra in Holland Road, in the next few years.

Source : Straits Times - 30 May 2008