Tuesday, May 15, 2007

En bloc update 1


It is finally launched today 15 May, 2007. Asking for $1.5 billion, it is the biggest in Singapore. Hopefully, it will go smoothly and we will reap from it.

According to the new timeline, the tender will end by 27 June, 2007. Award of tender to the successful bidder by July. EGM by August. Submission to Strata Title Board for approval by December. Legal completion and receipt of 90 - 95% of gross proceed by March, 2008. Delivery of vacant possession by Sept/Nov. 2008.

That means this will be our last Christmas and Chinese New Year 2008 here.

Last Sunday, my son painstakingly, printed maps of this area and joined them up into a large map of the outlying areas showing potential residential sites that we may consider buying. Armed with this and my newly acquired en bloc notebook, we set out with the wife to recce the area. We saw two show flats - The Regency and Garden Vista. The Regency was not impressive. Rather small. Garden Vista was not that bad, but the 4 roomer price was high. Unfortunately there were no penthouses. Driving around, we saw many built-up projects and also many new developments being constructed.

We stopped by a very beautiful condominuim, Duchess Crest, which my son had a friend staying in. Unfortunately he was not home. Looking from the outside, it was very impressive and gave the feeling of tranquility with the decor and plants. Driving around, we saw many developments hidden from the main roads. Along Queensway, we saw Viz in Holland, still under constructions.

When I got home, I went on the internet to check out some of the sites. I found 17 owners from Duchess Crest, putting up their apartments and CDO for sale. There was one being offered for $950,000, at ground floor with a small garden. Most of these are tenanted with rentals. These are also 99 year leasehold. This morning, when I read the newspaper, I was very surprised to find Duchess Crest is also offered for en bloc sale. How ironical!

The Viz has been sold out with the exception of a few studio apartments. The apartments are being offered at $1.4 to 1.5 million. The Penthouse is a whopping $2.8 to 3.0. These are all Freehold. Speculators have jumped in on the bandwagon.
With so many en bloc owners chasing after what is available, this will drive the prices up. I hope when my time comes to buy my replacement home, I can find something I like. One of my criteria is to be able to return to my church for daily and weekend 0700 Mass, using public transport. However, when I browsed through the property sales list online, there are many to choose from, but geographical location plays an important factor.
Till then....

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