Pair of conservation shophouses in Kallang for sale at $13.2 mil
Commercial properties in Kallang and Suntec City on the market
An industrial building in Kallang and an office unit at Suntec City are on sale at guide prices of $12 million to $13 million, and $2,900 psf respectively, says Knight Frank, which is marketing both properties.
Genova Building is a corner, six-storey light industrial building at the junction of Bendemeer Road and Jalan Lembah Kallang, within Kallang Industrial Estate. It occupies a land area of 6,060 sq ft and has a gross floor area of approximately 17,854 sq ft.
Under URA’s Master Plan 2019, it is zoned under “Business 1” with a plot ratio of 2.5. It has generous ceiling heights across floors, at 8m on the ground floor and 6m on other floors. The loading bay can accommodate 40-foot vehicles, says Knight Frank.
Genova Building has a balance lease of 44 years. The expression of interest exercise for the property will close on Aug 20 at 3pm.
Meanwhile, the strata office unit at Suntec Tow
er 1 has a floor area of 3,897 sq ft, with views of the CBD and the sea.
It is on a high floor, and is column-free, allowing possible partitioning into two smaller office units, says Knight Frank.
A pair of freehold corner shophouses in the Lavender-Kallang precinct is on the market for $13.2 million, according to Savills Singapore, which is marketing the property.
The two-storey conservation shophouses at 52 Foch Road have an attic and a four-storey rear extension. The pair occupies a site of 2,848 sq ft, and has a built-up area of 8,417 sq ft. The property enjoys an 18m-wide main road frontage along Foch Road.
The property is approved for F&B use on the ground floor, and is rented out to a coffeeshop operator. Office tenants are located on the upper floors. Altogether, the property is subdivided into seven units, and all units come with individual air-conditioning systems and toilets.
Some selected units on the upper floors enjoy double-volume ceiling height.
Under URA’s 2019 Master Plan, the property is zoned for commercial use under the Jalan Besar Secondary Settlement Conservation Area, which allows for rear extension of up to six storeys. No additional buyer’s stamp duty or seller’s stamp duty will apply to the purchase of the property.
The shophouses are a five-minute walk to Bendemeer MRT Station on the Downtown Line.
The expression of interest exercise for the shophouses will close on Aug 17 at 3pm.
Industrial building at MacPherson Road for sale at $21 mil
A seven-storey industrial building at 463 MacPherson Road is up on the market at a guide price of $21 million, according to Savills Singapore, which is marketing the property.
The building has a total gross floor area of 38,287 sq ft and land area of 14,400 sq ft, and is zoned under “Business 1 Industrial”. Completed in 2016, it has a basement car park and sky terrace.
The 99-year leasehold property has a remaining lease of 44 years, and is located within walking distance to Mattar MRT Station, MacPherson MRT Station, and Tai Seng MRT Station. The site is also easily accessible from major expressways such as the Pan-Island Expressway and Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway.
Heitman acquires two warehouse facilities in Yeoju city, Korea
US-based real estate investment management firm Heit
man has acquired two newly-developed, fully-leased, Class-A warehouse facilities in Yeoju city, Gyeonggi province, in South Korea.
The property is located about 60km from Seoul’s Gangnam Business District, and has direct access to the GBD and Busan via the Central Inland Expressway.
The property comprises two state-of-the-art warehouse centres, with more than 65,000 sq ft of combined gross floor area. Heitman acquired the first warehouse in March and the second warehouse recently, the firm said.
“The Korean logistics sector, propelled by e-commerce, is in the process of maturing and demonstrates a resilience amid Covid-19,” says Skip Schwartz, managing director of Heitman’s Asia-Pacific Private Equity Group.
“The acquisition of the Yeoju Distribution Centers diversifies our Asia-Pacific portfolio with prime logistics assets that will benefit from the demographic trends underpinning the continuous expansion of e-commerce and subsequent demand for modern logistics space,” he adds.
Commercial property transaction volumes in Asia Pacific have fallen 14% q-o-q in 2Q2020, according to Knight Frank’s Asia Pacific research team.
On a y-o-y basis, commercial transaction volume in Asia Pacific fell by 41% to US$55 billion ($76.7 billion) in 1H2020.
In Singapore, domestic commercial transaction volume fell 87% y-o-y in 1H2020 to US$0.55 billion. However, cross-border transactions were less affected by the pandemic, with US$7 billion transacted to overseas investors — just 12% lower y-o-y.
Knight Frank says that Australia remains a key market for outbound Singapore-based capital: transaction volume from Singapore to the country was up 72% y-o-y in 1H2020, although volume remained low at US$1.39 billion.
“Singaporean government-linked companies have remained active investors in Australia this year, executing their long-term strategies of moving into core logistics and office assets,” observes Neil Brookes, head of capital markets, Asia Pacific, at Knight Frank.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, outbound capital investing in commercial assets fell 66% y-o-y in 1H2020 to US$3.1 billion. However, in 2Q2020 alone, transaction volumes were up 48% q-o-q, suggesting a strong appetite for overseas assets, says Knight Frank.
“Hong Kong investors continue to show a keen interest in diversifying their portfolios overseas. Once travel restrictions lift, we expect that Hong Kong outbound investment will increase,” says Paul Hart, executive director, head of commercial for Greater China at Knight Frank.
Knight Frank has also observed that corporates have been adopting a sale and leaseback strategy, seeing enquiries spike from companies that own corporate real estate across sectors such as automotive, electronics, media, retail and technology.
“Companies, institutions and governments are increasingly selling real estate assets and leasing them back, as a way of shoring up their balance sheets in the face of the economic volatility caused by the coronavirus,” explains Brookes.
Some property sectors have also maintained deal momentum across Asia Pacific. The industrial sector recorded a 11% drop in transaction volumes y-o-y in the last quarter, compared to a drop of 44% across all other sectors.
At the same time, Asian REITs have remained globally competitive. REITs in Singapore witnessed a drop of about 7% year-todate, compared to their counterparts which saw a sharper drop of around 34% in Europe, and 25% for UK-listed REITs.
Knight Frank also expects that investors are waiting for distressed opportunities to arrive in the later part of the year. As at December 2019, it estimates that Asia Pacific-focused private equity funds had about US$38 billion of capital ready to deploy in Asia Pacific, well above the US$5 billion that was raised in 2007 and 2008 before the Global Financial Crisis. —
E