Issue 257

Copyright 2011-2016 www.propwise.sg. All Rights Reserved.

CONTENTS
p2

FROM THE

EDITOR

Do Property Agents Add Any Value?

Welcome to the 257th edition of the

Singapore Property Weekly.

Should Individuals Be Free to Transact

Hope you like it!

Their Own Properties?

Mr. Propwise

p7

Singapore Property News This Week

p11

Resale Property Transactions

(April 11 April 15)

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 257

Do Property Agents Add Any Value? Should Individuals

Be Free to Transact Their Own Properties?
By Various Guest Contributors
Our last article Is the CEA Being Fair to
Property Agents? touched off a raw nerve in
Propwise.sg readers - I received a number of
lengthy emails debating the points made in
that article, particularly on whether individuals
should be free to transact their own properties
or be forced to engage an agent, and more
broadly on whether agents add value in the
buying, selling and renting process. I've
selected three of the better argued pieces to
publish, mainly representing the perspective
of the individual investor and consumer.

Back to Contents

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 257

Individuals should be free to buy whatever
they please (at their own risk)
An individual in transacting his/her own
property sales and purchases need not be
held to the high competency levels that
professional real estate agents do because
they are not paid for the service they provide
(to themselves). So they bear the full gain of
their own judgement and negotiation and
save on agent fees, but they also bear the full
consequences of their personal misjudgment.

The same is true of all other forms of

investments, even insurance products.
Professionals earning an income from advice
given have to be certified and qualified to do
so, and are held to high regulatory standards
and demands, while individuals are free to
buy whatever they please (at their own risk)
even if they are clueless about the

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instruments.
Janelle Tan, co-founder and Managing
Partner of Dunn & Partners Pte Ltd, is a
licensed estate planning practitioner who
provides consultation to families and
businesses on wealth protection, preservation
and transfer. She also runs financial literacy
seminars and workshops on an invite basis.
She may be contacted via email at
janelletan@dunn-partners.com
Absurd to prevent consumers
transacting their own properties

from

I appreciate the value of the articles written in

the Singapore Property Weekly and they are
a good read. But I have some comments on
the recent article Is the CEA Being Fair to
Property Agents? The writer stated that
agencies should lobby to the Government to

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 257

"restrict" people from transacting and renting
their own properties to lift the professionalism
and levels of ethical conduct of the sector.
I feel this is totally absurd. Isn't this anticompetitive?
For
example
(just
for
wackiness), maybe I should also ask the
Government to "force" people to engage a
hair stylist to do their hair, because if they cut
their own hair they will screw it up and
become a national embarrassment in the
eyes of foreigners.

If things go wrong, consumers will address it

via other means and channels. People should
be free to choose, and as always, it's caveat
emptor. People who choose not to be
represented by an agent (be it buy, sell or
whatever side) would have to grapple with the
consequences of their decisions. This has
nothing to do with whether they are cheated

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or not. In the event they are cheated, then

they have to address it themselves too!
Much has also been said about the "work"
done by property agents, and the subjective
value that they bring to clients on both the
buy and sell side. We shall not go into the
ethical issues regarding the conduct of agents
- the CEA was set up for this very reason!
Another avid property investor
Singapore
agents
add
less
compared to their regional peers

value

I hope my views can be shared with the

Propwise.sg readers. Nobody cares more
than you when it comes to your money. I am
a property investor with investments in
various countries and Singapore agents add
relatively less value compared to their
brethren in other countries.

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 257

I have tried to use property agents many
times and they have plenty of tricks up their
sleeves to get themselves appointed as an
exclusive agent, instead of figuring out a
strategy to help you market your unit. When I
was based overseas and could not market
the unit myself, I engaged an agent who
claimed to specialize in commercial property,
but after two months and with no results I had
to take things into my own hands to advertise
the property myself, and ended up still having
to pay the co-broke agents who brought in the
customers to rent my industrial property.
Agents are often just gatekeepers rather
than facilitators
I wonder why should I pay the co-broke agent
when I did all the work of showing and
advertising but unfortunately the tenants were
lazy and engaged agents for their services,
not knowing that some agents are
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gatekeepers, meaning they swing customers

to properties that make them the highest
commission or where they do not need to
share commission.
In another situation, I tried to engage the
same agent who brought in my previous
tenant for my residential property after the
lease expired. In two months, the agent only
did three viewings and did not even know the
real market price. I decided to DIY by
advertising and dropping flyers and mailers.
Within a month, I got about 20-plus viewings
and managed to rent the unit out.
While doing this, I checked some online
property portals and found that the majority of
agents basically get exclusive marketing
agreements for three months from consumers
and just inform their network to let the cobroke agents do their advertising while the
exclusive agent basically does nothing except
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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 257

consolidate viewings once per weekend for
co-broke agents to bring in customers.
So, in this case do you think agents are worth
what they are paid? Very often, they are
gatekeepers more than facilitators. So choose
your agent wisely.
Do agents add any value?
When Person of Interest mentioned the
example of property agents checking for
cracks, it made me laugh because most of
the time in Singapore, the new owners will
renovate the unit they buy so checking for tile
cracks is unimportant, and it is better to bring
in a plumber because the biggest problem is
water leakage from the false ceiling. My
question to the agents: are they trained to
check for technical and plumbing defects in
order to add value to the consumer? Also, do
they help owners do a staging to add value to
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the property? The answers to these questions

are obvious for more than 90% of the agents
I've come across.
In the Internet age, intermediaries who do not
add value will die a natural death, so agents
should ask themselves how they can add
value so customers will go to them, instead of
asking why customers can DIY. The reason
why customers DIY is obvious - the value
provided by the agents is often not worth the
commissions they earn.

Finally, engaging a good conveyancing lawyer

is important as they will tell you what to check
before doing a handing over. I have never
seen agents rolling up the carpets to check
for cracks before.
Eddy S., an avid property and financial
markets investor

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 257

Singapore Property This Week

Residential
HDB resale prices in Q1 remain flat
Quarter-on-quarter, HDB resale prices have
fallen by 0.1% in Q1 this year. Resale
transactions fell 10.9% from 4,992 units in Q4
last year to 4,449 units in Q1 2016. Market
experts believe that this was due to the
festive season in February, which is also a
shorter month. Year-on-year, the transaction
volume increased by 7.6%. PropNexs Ismail
Gafoor believes that resale transactions are
likely to increase gradually due to falling
prices. Eugene Lim from ERA Realty added
that the market is likely to be stabilising as
minute price movements have been recorded
in the resale market in the last 4 quarters. Lim
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believes that resale flats in mature estates will

continue to draw buyers as BTO flats in these
areas are rare. He predicts that there will be a
drop of less than 1% for HDB resale prices in
2016 while resale volumes will likely be
around 20,000 to 22,000 units this year. This
is up from the 19,300 units resold in 2015.
(Source: The Business Times)
Private home price index fell 0.7% in Q1
Quarter-on-quarter, URAs private home price
index has fallen by 0.7% in Q1 this year,
following a 0.5% drop in Q4 2015. Since Q3
2013, the index has also fallen 9.1%. Market
experts believe that the index reflects market
sentiments as evidenced by the successful
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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 257

launches of Cairnhill Nine and The Wisteria.
Prices of non-landed private homes in the
outside central region have fallen by 1.3%
quarter-on-quarter in Q1. In the same period,
prices have gone up by 0.3% in the core
central region while prices remained flat in the
rest of central region. Nonetheless, market
experts believe that it is still too early to lift
cooling measures. On the rental front, URAs
rental index for private residential units has
gone down by 1.3% in Q1. With an increase
in expected completions by end-2016 and a
slowdown in the inflow of expats, market
experts believe that there will be an
oversupply in the next 3 years. This is
expected to further affect the rental index.

(Source: The Business Times)

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Gramercy Park to be launched soon in

regional markets
Located at Grange Road, a freehold condo,
Gramercy Park is expected to be promoted in
regional markets including China and Hong
Kong. The 174-unit project will be subjected
to extension charges for unsold units from Q2
2018. Market experts said that Indonesians
and Malaysians may be keen to invest in
Singapores real estate due to business
dealings here and also because investors are
looking to hedge against their currencies
depreciation. While there is a 15% additional
buyers stamp duty applicable to foreign
buyers, steep discounts offered for high-end
homes have piqued buyers interest.
(Source: The Business Times)

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 257

Commercial
Office rental index down by 2.1% in Q1

According to the Business Times, URAs

office rental index has fallen 2.1% quarter-onquarter in Q1 this year, following a 1.8% drop
in Q4 last year. Year-on-year, the index has
fallen by 9%. The URA price index for office
spaces also fell by 0.3% in Q1 this year after
falling 0.1% in Q4 2015. Vacancy rate for
office spaces fell to 9.2% in Q1 2016 from
9.5% in Q4 2015. Also, the stock of office
space shrank by 23,000 sq m (nett) in Q1
2016, which was a bigger drop than the
decrease of 21,000 sq m (nett) in Q4 2015.
However, market experts believe that
vacancy rates will continue to increase due to
the number of expected office completions in
the coming quarters. The fall in the office
rentals is likely to have been due to weak
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business sentiments and a large impending

supply of office spaces, added JLL. Thus, JLL
predicts that URAs office rental index will
drop another 10 to 15% this year.
(Source: The Business Times)
Retail space prices fall by 1.9% in Q1

After falling 0.1% in Q4 2015, prices of retail

spaces have fallen by 1.9% in Q1 this year.
Rentals of retail spaces also fell by 1.9% in
Q1 after falling 1.3% in the previous quarter.
Island-wide, vacancy rate for retail spaces
have gone up to 7.3% in Q1 2016 from 7.2%
in Q4 last year. In Q1, the amount of
occupied retail space increased by 11,000 sq
m (nett), while the stock of retail space
increased by 19,000 sq m (nett), this is said
to have caused the rise in vacancy. According
to the Business Times, at the end of March
this year, a total supply of
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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 257

783,000 sq m gross floor area of retail space
was also recorded to be in the pipeline.
(Source: The Business Times)
Shops
and
shophouses
residential units in auctions

overtake

A report by Knight Frank showed that shops

and shophouses have overtook residential
properties in total sales value in auctions in
Q1 this year. In that quarter, $5.5 million
worth of shops and shophouses were sold in
auctions, which more than doubled the total
sales value in the residential sector where
$2.5 million worth of sales was made.
According to Knight Frank, the shift in buyers
preferences could be due to the additional
buyer's stamp duty, which is applicable only
to residential properties. Grace Ng from
Colliers said that prices for HDB shophouses
have been stable in the last 2 years. Asking
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prices have not gone down as buyers would

still able to get good and stable yield for those
shophouses. On the other hand, mortgagee
sales have made up 42.6% of the auction
market in Q1. According to the Business
Times, there was also a higher proportion of
lower priced properties in auctions.

(Source: The Business Times)

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 257

Non-Landed Residential Resale Property Transactions for the Week of Apr 11 Apr 15

Postal
District
4
4
5
5
5
8
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10

Project Name
THE COAST AT SENTOSA COVE
CARIBBEAN AT KEPPEL BAY
ONE-NORTH RESIDENCES
VARSITY PARK CONDOMINIUM
MONTEREY PARK CONDOMINIUM
SOHO 188
THE BEAUMONT
THE BOUTIQ
THE PATERSON
ONE OXLEY RISE
PARC EMILY
BELLE VUE RESIDENCES
CLAREMONT
8 @ MOUNT SOPHIA
GOODWOOD RESIDENCE
REGENCY PARK
DUKES RESIDENCE
D'LEEDON
D'LEEDON
SOMMERVILLE PARK
CHIVERTON
AVALON
CHATELET

Back to Contents

Area
(sqft)
2,895
1,356
592
1,012
1,249
592
1,916
861
1,216
710
549
2,713
1,206
861
2,486
3,649
980
635
1,163
624
1,292
1,765
1,507

Transacted
Price ($)
4,923,200
2,000,000
915,000
1,135,000
1,340,000
630,000
3,888,000
1,650,000
2,310,000
1,285,000
985,000
4,838,000
1,696,000
1,200,000
5,752,000
6,100,000
1,620,000
1,020,000
1,820,000
898,000
1,825,000
2,460,000
2,100,000

Price
Tenure
($ psf)
1,700
99
1,475
99
1,546
99
1,122
99
1,073 999
1,064
FH
2,029
FH
1,916
FH
1,899
FH
1,809
FH
1,794
FH
1,784
FH
1,407
FH
1,394 103
2,313
FH
1,672
FH
1,654
FH
1,606
99
1,566
99
1,438
FH
1,413
FH
1,394
FH
1,394
FH

Postal
District
10
11
11
12
12
12
14
14
14
14
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15

Project Name
THE PRINCETON
LINCOLN SUITES
ADAM PARK CONDOMINIUM
VISTA RESIDENCES
TREVISTA
RITZ MANSIONS
DAKOTA RESIDENCES
LA FLEUR
WATERBANK AT DAKOTA
WINDY HEIGHTS
THE SEAFRONT ON MEYER
833 M B RESIDENCES
THE ATRIA AT MEYER
NATURALIS
HAWAII TOWER
CALLIDORA VILLE
NATURALIS
COTE D'AZUR
VILLA MARINA
CHELSEA LODGE
LEGENDA AT JOO CHIAT
LAGUNA PARK

Area
(sqft)
1,087
474
893
1,216
1,270
1,302
1,292
441
1,389
2,476
1,615
538
1,475
517
2,239
797
1,066
3,531
1,281
1,302
1,227
1,615

Transacted
Price ($)
1,380,000
1,071,000
1,200,000
1,790,000
1,650,000
1,200,000
1,732,500
572,000
1,610,000
2,050,000
2,650,000
700,000
1,840,000
585,000
2,515,000
880,000
1,145,000
3,735,000
1,198,800
1,083,000
1,000,000
1,188,888

Price
Tenure
($ psf)
1,269
FH
2,261
FH
1,343
FH
1,472
FH
1,299
99
921
FH
1,341
99
1,296
FH
1,159
99
828
FH
1,641
FH
1,301
FH
1,248
FH
1,132
FH
1,123
FH
1,105
FH
1,074
FH
1,058
99
936
99
832
FH
815
99
736
99

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SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 257

Postal
District
16
16
16
16
18
18
18
18
19
19
19
19
19
19
20
21
21
21
21
21
22
23
26
26

Project Name
COSTA DEL SOL
BAYSHORE PARK
CHANGI COURT
AQUARIUS BY THE PARK
THE TROPICA
CHANGI RISE CONDOMINIUM
MELVILLE PARK
ELIAS GREEN
KOVAN MELODY
SUNGLADE
COMPASS HEIGHTS
COMPASS HEIGHTS
REGENTVILLE
RIO CASA
RAFFLESIA CONDOMINIUM
THE NEXUS
THE BLOSSOMVALE
HUME PARK II
SIGNATURE PARK
HUME PARK II
THE MAYFAIR
HILLBROOKS
THE CALROSE
THE CALROSE

Area
(sqft)
1,561
1,292
1,163
893
1,238
1,281
936
1,528
1,410
1,044
1,335
1,324
1,076
1,679
1,302
1,335
1,335
1,249
1,690
1,023
1,227
1,076
1,658
1,238

Transacted
Price ($)
1,960,000
1,300,000
1,120,000
835,000
1,034,000
1,025,000
712,000
900,000
1,538,000
1,065,000
1,165,000
1,150,000
815,000
730,000
1,330,000
1,918,888
1,700,000
1,300,000
1,730,000
945,000
1,030,000
980,000
1,850,000
1,300,000

Price
Tenure
($ psf)
1,256
99
1,006
99
963
FH
935
99
835
99
800
99
760
99
589
99
1,091
99
1,020
99
873
99
869
99
757
99
435
104
1,021
99
1,438
FH
1,274 999
1,041
FH
1,024
FH
924
FH
839
99
910
FH
1,116
FH
1,050
FH

NOTE: This data only covers non-landed residential resale property

transactions with caveats lodged with the Singapore Land Authority.
Typically, caveats are lodged at least 2-3 weeks after a purchaser
signs an OTP, hence the lagged nature of the data.

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