Don't be fooled by SOHO units..

[thomastansb]

Is it true any units can be a SOHO when you apply for it?

.
.


Another issue requiring guidelines is that of Soho - or small office, home office - units, which are gaining popularity with investors. In fact, the term 'Soho' is a marketing term used by developers and their agents. It does not refer to a specific development type that the URA grants approval for. Marketing agents will say Soho units can double as office space, and can fetch higher rent, in order to justify the higher sales price. When the project is completed, however, the developer might not provide adequate support for the units to be converted into offices. Some buyers may find that their application for home office use is rejected depending on the nature of the business they want to register, or if approved, later reversed if the business receives complaints from neighbours. Rules governing the marketing of Soho projects should be clarified to ensure that agents do not overpromise or overstate the merits of their products. Penalties for flouting the new guidelines should also be severe enough to deter misrepresentation. Developers and their marketing agents will have to realise that promotional materials to market properties are aids to help buyers make sensible decisions on million-dollar investments - and not occasions for marketing gurus or designers to indulge in wild flights of imagination.

- The Straits Times

[hopeful]

From another forum,

the only SOHO so far is The SOHO @ Central.

To be SOHO is to be commercial property as residential use is ancillary to office use.

[cheerful]

From another forum,

the only SOHO so far is The SOHO @ Central.

To be SOHO is to be commercial property as residential use is ancillary to office use.

Thout Southbank also considered as SOHO .. no?

[Geylang OKT]

The Soho area has been at the heart of London's sex industry for over 200 years; between 1778 and 1801 21 Soho Square was location of The White House, an infamous magic brothel described by Henry Mayhew as "a notorious place of ill-fame".[17]

Before the introduction of the Street Offences Act in 1959, prostitutes packed the streets and alleys of Soho and by the early sixties the area was home to nearly a hundred strip clubs and almost every doorway in Soho had little postcards advertising "Large Chest for Sale" or "French Lessons Given". These were known as "walk ups". With prostitution driven off the streets, many clubs such as The Blue Lagoon became prostitution fronts. The Metropolitan Police Vice squad at that time suffered from corrupt police officers involved with enforcing organised crime control of the area, but simultaneously accepting "back-handers" or bribes.

Clip joints also surfaced in the 1960s; these establishments sold coloured water as champagne with the promise of sex to follow, thus fleecing tourists looking for a "good time". Also in 1960, London's first sex cinema theatre, the Compton Cinema Club (a membership only club to get around the law) opened at 56 Old Compton Street. It was owned by Michael Klinger and Tony Tenser who produced many of the early Roman Polanski films such as Cul-de-sac (1966).[18] Michael Klinger also owned the Heaven and Hell hostess club (which had earlier been just a beatnik club) across the road and a few doors down from the 2I's on the corner of Old Compton Street and Dean Street.

Harrison Marks, a “glamour photographer” and girlie magazine publisher, had a photographic gallery located at No. 4 Gerrard Street and published several magazines such as Kamera, which sold from the late fifties till 1968. The model Pamela Green prompted him to take up nude photography, and she remained the creative force in their business until they split in 1967. The content, however, by today’s standard is very innocent.

By the mid-seventies, the sex shops had grown from the handful opened by Carl Slack in the early sixties to a total of fifty-nine sex shops[19] which then dominated the square mile. Some had secret backrooms selling hardcore photographs, Beeline Books (published in America by David Zentner[20]) and Olympia Press editions.

By the 1980s, purges of the police force along with a tightening of licensing controls by the City of Westminster led to a crackdown on these illegal premises. By 2000, a substantial relaxation of general censorship, and the licensing or closing of unlicensed sex shops had reduced the red-light area to just a small area around Brewer Street and Berwick Street. Several strip clubs in the area were reported in London's Evening Standard newspaper in February 2003 to still be rip-offs (known as clip joints), aiming to intimidate customers into paying for absurdly over-priced drinks and very mild 'erotic entertainment'. Prostitution is still widespread in parts of Soho, with several buildings used as brothels, and there is a persistent problem with drug dealing on some street corners.

Soho continues to be the centre of the sex industry in London, and features numerous licenced sex shops. There is a clip joint on Tisbury Court and an adult cinema nearby. Prostitutes are widely available, operating in studio flats. These are sign-posted by fluorescent "model" signs at street level.

[hopeful]

Thout Southbank also considered as SOHO .. no?

Points taken from another forum:
Lumiere, Tennery, or Southbank are not true SOHO. It is just a marketing gimmick. Any residential can be a home office.

A real SOHO is commercial property not residential property.
For SOHO@central, you will not find any data about it in URA or Streetsine as it is commercial.
URA has guidelines about naming a development as SOHO.

[devilplate]

there r some true SOHO at southbank....

[mcmlxxvi]

there r some true SOHO at southbank....

Is it that 'katek bro' block?

[devilplate]

Is it that 'katek bro' block?

yeah, those facing the open carpark

buyers goto pay GST if buying a true SOHO from developer.....if nvr pay GST, means fake SOHO(exceptions of buying from secondary market whrby the seller may not be GST registered)

[bargain hunter]

i think regency suites also has a katek block of SOHO. both projects developed during similar time by the same developer.

yeah, those facing the open carpark

buyers goto pay GST if buying a true SOHO from developer.....if nvr pay GST, means fake SOHO(exceptions of buying from secondary market whrby the seller may not be GST registered)

[amk]

...both projects developed during similar time by the same developer.

ha ha u really have a problem with him

I like his shares leh

[bargain hunter]

innocent leh. so happens the projects we r discussing here are by him. i din say anything bad leh.

i dun like his shares becoz he once ripped off minority shareholders at haw par and made a low ball offer for uol. there is tremendous value in his shares i agree, but he won't unlock the value one lah. i think his motto: use minimal resources to control maximum assets. shrewd businessman worthy of admiration but prob a very cunning personality as a human being.

ha ha u really have a problem with him

I like his shares leh

[property_finder]

I understand there is another project that uses the name soho.

Many projects market themselves as SOHO lifestyle rather than SOHO development. Perhaps this is the catch.

[bargain hunter]

yeah. it does ring a bell. a few projects have the name "soho @ xxx" when they are not real sohos.

I understand there is another project that uses the name soho.

Many projects market themselves as SOHO lifestyle rather than SOHO development. Perhaps this is the catch.

[hopeful]

yeah. it does ring a bell. a few projects have the name "soho @ xxx" when they are not real sohos.

what projects have the name "soho @ xxx" ??

SOHO is a controlled name by URA.
There are guidelines about using SOHO

[bargain hunter]

SOHO 188
SOHO @ FARRER

what projects have the name "soho @ xxx" ??

SOHO is a controlled name by URA.
There are guidelines about using SOHO

[hopeful]

from
http://www.ura.gov.sg/dc/sbnb/sbnb-guidelines.htm

"SOHO is applicable only for development approved by URA predominantly for office use, where the residential use is ancillary to the office use."

Perhaps URA was sleeping when they approved of the 2 residential condos.

[bargain hunter]

or maybe the rules kicked in only after these 2 were approved. they were completed in 2006 and 2008 so approval was probably sought way before that.

from
http://www.ura.gov.sg/dc/sbnb/sbnb-guidelines.htm

"SOHO is applicable only for development approved by URA predominantly for office use, where the residential use is ancillary to the office use."

Perhaps URA was sleeping when they approved of the 2 residential condos.