Mainboard-listed property developer CapitaLand has seen a spectacular jump in its fourth-quarter net profit ended in December.

It said on Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit was S$886 million, up by more than 11 times from S$78 million a year ago.

The surge was due mainly to its listing and offering of its CapitaMalls Asia (CMA) shares, leading to a gain of S$899.8 million.

Divestments of several properties also raised its gains by S$40.5 million, bringing the total portfolio gain to S$929.9 million.

Revenue for the period also increased by 18.4 per cent to S$833 million, on the back of higher recognition for its residential development projects in China, Singapore and Vietnam.

But CapitaLand was also hit by a total impairment loss of S$256.8 million for its investments in Japan and Malaysia, among other things. It has also taken up a S$101 million provision for foreseeable losses for its development projects in Australia and Kazakhstan.

For the full year, CapitaLand made a profit of S$1.05 billion in 2009 – 16.4 per cent lower than the S$1.26 billion profit made in the previous year.

Of the firm’s various business units, CapitaLand Commercial showed the weakest results, posting a loss of S$272.7 million for the full year. But CapitaLand expressed confidence in CapitaLand Commercial, saying office rentals have shown signs of stabilising.

Going forward, the firm said it will continue to extend its presence into new cities in China, as well as to Vietnam.

CapitaLand CEO Liew Mun Leong said his firm did well especially in 2009, when the world was in a recession.

He said: “We all entered 2009 with great trepidation of what is ahead of us. In fact, many shareholders of companies in the world would know that 2009 is a year where we don’t talk about income statements, we don’t talk about profits.

“We frankly talk about how we can remain solvent, how we can remain not belly-up. And that was the focus of even Temasek companies.”

CapitaLand, which is 40 per cent owned by Temasek Holdings, will pay a first and final dividend of 5.5 Singapore cents. It will also give a special dividend of 5 Singapore cents for 2009, following the exceptional gain from the CMA listing.

It gave out 7 Singapore cents of dividends in 2008.

In November, CapitaLand raised S$2.8 billion through the initial public offering of CMA.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 11 Feb 2010

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) has launched two more Build-To-Order (BTO) projects.

Punggol Crest in Punggol and Treegrove@Woodlands will offer some 1,500 units. Punggol Crest comprises 750 standard flats, and Treegrove@Woodlands will offer 784 premium flats.

HDB said most of the flats would be set aside for first-timers.

The selling prices for the flats range from S$90,000 for a two-room flat to S$301,000 for a four-room unit in Punggol Crest. Prices for Treegrove@Woodlands range from S$64,000 for a studio apartment to S$288,000 for a four-room flat.

With Thursday’s launch, HDB would have offered a total of 2,825 units of new flats under the BTO projects in the first two months of this year.

HDB said it will launch another 1,000 BTO flats in Sembawang and Sengkang next month.

In total, it is planning to offer about 7,000 BTO flats in the first six months of the year. And for the full year, it will launch 12,000 new BTO flats; more if there is demand.

HDB said the projects will have a good geographical spread over areas such as Punggol, Yishun and Jurong West.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 11 Feb 2010

We have been wondering about this for the longest time, and we are sure many of you are aware HDB flats are technically the best rental investments you can ever have in Singapore.

While we are not so sure about flipping HDB flats (minimum occupation period), buying to rent without staying is more rampant. Has Mr Minister even heard of the unofficial “locked door” HDB rental policy?

Well basically the owner locks one door of his 4/5rm flat and claims his Son in NS, or his daughter in NTU stays there occasionally so that the rest of the house can lease be legally leased out before the minimum occupation period. But in fact the daughter or son never comes back to use the room so the tenant can enjoy the whole house, and the owner enjoys the full $1500-2200 per month rental.

Brilliant huh? Don’t believe us? Just call some agents renting out a HDB flat in the market. Ask them if any comes with “locked door”.

But we are sure you can’t beat this:

Illegal guide to buying a $280,000 4rm flat with just $100 per month (PRs may also apply!):

• Buy a Resale/BTO 4room flat for ~$280,000
• Pay monthly installment of ~$1,100
• Rent out two rooms for $500 each without signing any official  lease, you stay in the Masterbedroom
• Congrats, you only pay $100 a month to buy a $280,000 4rm flat, eluded the minimum occupation period and even dodged stamp duty

How can HDB ever stop this? According to Channelnewsasia, between January 2008 and December last year, 56 homeowners were caught renting out their flats illegally. That is 56 out of close to 1,000,000 flats or just 0.0056% subletting illegally. Is this figure right?

Probably, because it is so darned hard to catch anyone doing it. Unless you have 20 people staying in your flat and annoying the neighbors, there is little chance that this will go noticed or even reported.

And even if HDB kicks down your door CSI-style to find strangers staying in the flat, HDB has to run a  check on your bank account to prove that they are illegal tenants paying rent. Even then, you could just collect rent in cash and *wash* the money. Tenants can also say that they are just friends living with you.

So how?

HDB can say they can seize the flat or even send you to the gallows for it, but that is if they can find a way to catch illegal subletting in the first place.

Our recommendation to a solution that really works, is to start with a $10,000 cash reward for blowing the whistle on your neighbor who is illegally subletting.

Good luck HDB! Your thoughts here.

Via Channelnewsasia