Asia will avoid sharp slowdown, says ADB

Asia will avoid sharp slowdown, says ADB
 
EMERGING Asia looks set to avoid a sharp slowdown given strong economic growth in China, the head of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday.
 
Asia should also easily avoid a repeat of the financial crisis that rocked the region a decade ago, ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda told a press [...]

Coming up: First ‘zero energy’ building

Coming up: First ‘zero energy’ building
 
Solar panels to provide for BCA Academy’s electricity needs
 
By Tania Tan
 
INSTEAD of gobbling up electricity from Singapore’s power grid, one local building could soon be able to fend for itself.
 
Planners unveiled yesterday details of renovations to a Braddell Road research institute that would make it the country’s first [...]

LTA and URA explain why hotel had to go

LTA and URA explain why hotel had to go
 
WE THANK readers for sharing their views about the New 7th Storey Hotel. The Land Transport Authority carried out a comprehensive study and explored all options to construct the Downtown Line 1 (DTL1) and the new Bugis station. After exhausting all options, we concluded there was no [...]

One transparent valuation for property market price, please

One transparent valuation for property market price, please
 
MS JANET Han, Secretariat, Singapore Institute of Surveyors & Valuers, defined very clearly what constitutes a property’s fair market value. Can Ms Han please explain why, when bankers in Singapore quote an independent valuation (based on a professional independent valuer’s opinion, presumably a member of the SISV) for [...]

Discourage such discriminatory adverts

Discourage such discriminatory adverts
 
WHILE helping a friend and sieving through advertisements to rent HDB flats, I noticed quite a few home owners (or perhaps their agents) discriminating against certain racial groups or nationalities.
 
In a country which encourages equality, this behaviour should be stamped out.
 
Take two advertisements from an Internet website at www.sg-house. com/about369191. [...]

Kovan Residences preview sells 50

Kovan Residences preview sells 50
Average price is $870-900 psf; buyers mostly Singaporeans
 
MORE than 50 units have been sold at Kovan Residences since a private preview party last Saturday.
 
The average price at the 99-year leasehold condominium next to Kovan MRT Station is between $870 per square foot (psf) and $900 psf. And the units sold so [...]

Six bids logged for green building project

Six bids logged for green building project
But contractors sound caution with requests for longer warranty period
 
SINGAPORE’S first zero energy building (ZEB) project has attracted six bids for the main tender and interviews with four ’serious’ bidders will start next week, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said yesterday.
 
The tender to convert the BCA Academy into [...]

Britain falling into US-style slowdown

Britain falling into US-style slowdown
 
PARIS - A HOUSING market in shambles, inflation at the highest level in years and signs that the economy is headed for, or already in, a recession. Sounds familiar? No, it’s not the United States but Britain.
Indeed, it was the run in September last year on a British mortgage lender, [...]

Homebuyers, get ready for more property launches

Homebuyers, get ready for more property launches 
Developers will release projects to capitalise on recent healthy home sales
 
A STRING of new private residential projects is hitting the market as developers move quickly to capitalise on encouraging recent home sales.
In the Kovan area alone, two new projects - Kovan Residences and D’Pavilion - are [...]

Soaring rents pushing PRs to buy flats

Soaring rents pushing PRs to buy flats 
They account for 20% of resale-flat purchases, say agents
 
PERMANENT residents (PRs) are flocking to buy Housing Board resale flats as high rents start to make ownership a more attractive option.
Sales to PRs have rocketed in the past two years, say property agents, and the keen army of [...]