News by Cecilia Chow

Property consultants and developers are optimistic in view of the diminishing inventory and a pickup in transactions in the prime districts.

The office market is now abuzz, as sentiment has swung from pessimism to optimism in just one year. Fears of an oversupply in the office market 18 months ago have evaporated, with investors now forecasting a period of relatively modest supply in 2018 to 2020. Jeremy Lake, CBRE executive director of capital markets, observes: “Singapore goes through periods of too much office space, and then periods of relative shortage.”

Co-working space in Singapore is set to double by year-end. Operators continue to expand, with new foreign players entering the fray. Is there room for everyone?

The relaxation of foreign property ownership by the Singapore government and the influx of foreign direct investment into Vietnam's manufacturing and real estate have sparked a boom across all property sectors in the Indochinese country.

Homeowners in ageing HDB flats and leasehold condos are starting to worry about the value of their homes as the leases run low. What are their options?

The 21,500 sq ft sales gallery of Artra is designed to look like a contemporary art gallery. The name “Artra” ­itself is a palindrome; it reads as “art” both backwards and forwards. The 400-unit private condominium at ­Alexandra View fronts the Redhill MRT station and will be connected to it in the future.

Despite the rain and having to park their cars across the road at East Coast Park, over 3,000 people thronged the sales gallery of Seaside Residences on April 8, the first day that the ­project opened for preview. Queues at three of the show suites on the second level snaked all the way down the stairs to the reception area. By the close of the weekend of April 8 and 9, an ­estimated 5,000-strong crowd had visited the gallery.

Tucked away on a cliff on the northeastern coast of Koh Samui and surrounded by mature trees is the Samujana Villas estate. It contains 27 villas, each with spectacular unobstructed views of the ocean and the beach. Unlike most villa developments, Samujana evolved one villa at a time in the early years.

The weekend of April 1 and 2 marked 2017’s first new residential project launch from Vietnam — RichLane Residences, Mapletree Investments’ maiden condominium project in Ho Chi Minh City. For the largely Singaporean audience, the most riveting fact during the 25-minute presentation by Marc Townsend, managing director of CBRE ­Vietnam, was that the starting price of US$95,000 (S$132,825) (RM421,610) for a studio in the high-end condo is equivalent to the price of a new Honda Civic in Singapore.

A rare corner shophouse on Serangoon Road has been put on the market for sale. The owner, a semi-retired businessman who wants to be known as Chan, has been holding on to the shophouse for a decade. Chan purchased the property in early 2007, and spent S$200,000 refurbishing it. The ground floor is currently tenanted to a 24-hour coffee shop and there is a rental apartment in each of the three upper floors.