Regular readers of my blog would know that I often blog about anything that I can find that represents value to anyone looking for something out there. I have blogged a couple of times on stocks which I thought represents good value as well as food & beverages which I have shared not too long ago (here and here).
We all know how each individual sees value differently, but I think all of us know the difference between value and price. In this post, I will share another proposition on what I thought is a value purchase for a property located in one of the best district available in Singapore - District 9. More on the details will be shared later.
For the background, I am helping a close relative to sell her unit in the open market as she has urgent needs for cash flow issues to tide over, which is quite the reason why she might be letting go at quite an attractive price in my opinion. Regardless, I am just helping to sound out buyers who might be interested and I take no sort of rewards or commissions from the transaction, if any. I've personally seen the unit myself and I can guarantee that whatever is being published here is true upon my knowledge and understanding.
Property Sentiments
Everyone who are living in Singapore would have known how the property market has fared over the past couple of years. Sluggish sales, cooling measures, increase supply, are all typical form of words that you have heard a lot in the recent couple of years surrounding the property market.
Some of us may think that property price is unlikely to go anywhere up anytime soon, but there's one catch that we always need to think of as contrarians. Similar to stock purchases, a contrarian would buy when price has somewhat turn attractive (does not mean absolute bottom) and sell when valuations are stretched. Again, valuation is subjective so everyone has a different perception of what they think the value should be. I shall leave the discussion of this out for this purpose.
Interest rates are also going to go up in the next few years, so we know that loan mortgages repayment are probably going to go one way up from here, and every home buyers would not be a stranger to know that this is somewhat unavoidable.
Property Details
Anyway, for those who are interested, these are the detailed property details:
- Property Name: 8 @ Mount Sophia
- Property Type: Condominium
- District 9
- TOP Year: 2007
- Floor Area: 1,378 sqft / 128.02 sqm
- Tenure: 103 year leasehold
- View: Swimming Pool
- Room: 3 bedroom + 1 living room
- Next to Plaza Singapura and direct access to the mall via the carpark
- Amenities: Swimming Pool, Tennis Court, Gym, BBQ, etc
The owner (my relative) is opening up for sale at a price of $1,620/psf, which I think represents a pretty good value. Multiply that by the total area and the sum adds up to around $2.2m. Unfortunately, I am not equipped with so much money otherwise I would have considered to purchase property for investing at some stage in my life.
For serious buyer who are looking to purchase one, you may contact me privately and I am able to connect the two of you together. To benefit the readers, I will throw in some help and might just be able to negotiate a slightly lower price at around $1,600/psf or $1,580/psf, though is subject to approval.
Recent Property Transactions
Propnet and Proptalk recently updated regarding the recent sale for the properties at Botanique at Bartley, Northpark Residences at Yishun and Sims Urban Oasis at Aljunied. Let me walk you through some of the recent transactions made.
Botanique at Bartley
The project has sold over 150 units at an average price of $1,290 psf over the weekends. Some 300 units out of the total of 797 units were released.
Northpark Residences at Yishun
I actually personally made the trip to view the showflat unit in the interest of FCT, a counter which I am vested in. I am interested to see how they are able to include step-up rent in view of this huge interests :D.
The project has sold over 300 units our of the total of 350 units released during the soft launch. The total unit for the project is 920 and more will be released later. The average price psf sold is $1,390.
Sims Urban Oasis at Aljunied
The project has sold over 220 units out of the total of 1,024 units at an average price of $1,397/psf.
I've yet to see the project myself but heard that it's popular due to its availability of a childcare center inside the condominium facilities.
Final Thoughts
I've probably said all that I know of in a property market.
There are obviously some investors who think that property prices are still high at the moment, and I will respect every person decision at that. However, for buyers who are interested in looking for property for investing or staying purpose, I think that the incremental difference between the Core Central Region (CCR) and Outside Central Region (OCR) has narrowed rather a lot and based on the above transactions you can probably see that the difference is in fact not quite a lot. In fact, based on the transactions we've seen above, the difference between a CCR and OCR is only about 10%. That's a very narrow gap difference in my opinion.
If you are one of those who once dreamt about staying in the CCR region but could not afford it in the past, then these few months might be a good time to look out and shop because they have been beaten up rather severely these few months. It is quite unlikely that the price between the CCR and OCR will merge into one and the narrower it gets, the higher the likelihood that we have probably seen a bottom at it. However, one of my favorite quotes still apply, you still need to have the money no matter how cheap the property market is going to go.
This is just my personal opinion on the subject matter but the choice is still yours :)
*Only for interested buyers please contact me. Property agents will not be entertained for this purpose.
