http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/arch...ilinq-20130308

Published March 08, 2013

Sales at Sennett Residence brisk; slower at The Trilinq

Tuan Sing sells 175 units after bringing forward launch date by two days

By Kalpana Rashiwala


[SINGAPORE] It was a day of contrasts for two 99-year-leasehold private condo releases yesterday. They both had a similar sort of average pricing - in the $1,400-$1,500 per square foot (psf) band - but one is in a city-fringe location, next to Potong Pasir MRT Station, while the other is in the suburbs, in Clementi. As expected, the project closer to town drew more buyers.

Tuan Sing, which decided to begin sales at its 332-unit Sennett Residence project yesterday evening - instead of on Saturday as earlier planned - had already sold 175 units by 10.30pm yesterday. Tuan Sing's CFO Chong Chou Yuen said the group had collected nearly 500 cheques and seeing there was "more than enough demand", decided to bring forward the launch date.

The average price is $1,450 psf after upfront discounts of 10 per cent plus 8 per cent. Sennett Residence is being marketed by Huttons.

IOI Group, which opened the doors at its Trilinq condo showflat in Clementi in the late-morning as planned, had sold 85 units by 2pm, according to the company. BT understands the final tally yesterday evening had not changed much from that. So far, the group has released 200 of the project's 755 units.

The developer did not provide BT with an average psf price but sources suggest it could be somewhere around $1,400-$1,500 psf. Unit prices vary from $1,200 psf to $1,800 psf depending on whether the units have void space, which is counted as part of the strata area.

Typically, units with void areas have lower psf prices. About 38 per cent of The Trilinq's units have a generous double-volume, six-metre floor-to-ceiling height - mostly in the living room but in some cases in the master bedroom.

While some buyers would appreciate the spacious effect created by the void space, other potential buyers may not have seen the benefit of paying the price sought for such space which they consider unusable, suggested a property agent not associated with the project.

The project is being marketed by CBRE and DTZ.

IOI's top brass are also thought to have adopted a strategy of taking a longer period to sell out the 755-unit project, say over its construction period of three to 3 1/2 years, instead of gunning for a more immediate sell-out say in a month.

Another reason for the relatively slow first-day sales at The Trilinq is thought to be the Malaysian group's decision to process options only for buyers who were physically present at the showflat. IOI did not make any sales to proxies, adopting a more conservative approach than typical Singapore developers.

In all, the number of cheques collected earlier from potential buyers is said to be in the high-500 range, which means the percentage of these cheques translating to actual sales was in the low teens.

Earlier yesterday, SMSes from property agents were flying furiously about an impending imposition of a prescriptive 30 to 40 per cent mortgage servicing ratio (MSR) cap for private homes supposedly to be effective as early as today.

The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) confirmed last night that it had received one complaint about a property agent who had sent an SMS to his clients. CEA has approached the estate agency to which he belongs to tell him not to do so.

"Under the Estate Agents Act, sales persons are required to provide factually correct information to their clients," said a CEA spokesman.

Separately, BT understands that the government is not planning to introduce a prescriptive MSR cap for private home purchases in the immediate future.

At The Trilinq, the lowest absolute price was fetched by a one-bedroom apartment of 538 sq ft that went for $855,000. This works out to $1,589 psf.

The lowest absolute price for a four-bedder was $1.82 million for a 1,518-sq-ft unit which includes void space. The price works out to about $1,200 psf.

At Sennett Residence, prices start from $734,000 for a 485 sq ft one-bedder. Two penthouses were sold - at $3.5 million (for a 2,600 sq ft unit) and $5.2 million (for a 3,600 sq ft unit).