Sunday, April 21, 2019

Official Parc Esta (Former Eunosville)

Parc Esta, formerly known as Eunosville, a HUDC estate that has been the prime residential location along Sims Avenue and Changi Road, under the developer MCL Land, who acquired it in a collective sale exceeding $750 million, towards the end of 2017. The former residents have been at an advantage with this, having gotten a whopping 19% increase in their demanding price during the sale.

Parc Esta is in a well-established estate with an area spanning more than 350,000 square feet. Very conveniently, it is located in the Eastern Region of Singapore. Being one of the largest residential sites in its Eunos, Parc Esta can approximately yield 1400 residential units

As for the en-bloc price, it is approximately between $909 per square foot per plot ratio. This also includes a premium of approximately $194 million.  Assuming that the company aims for a target profit margin of 10%, the average selling price of Parc Esta should land somewhere between $1500 to $1600 per square foot.

PARC ESTA MCL
Parc Esta Condo developer MCL Land is one of the leading property groups within Singapore. This is thanks to their explicitly maintained legacy of over 50 years, where the company and all its employees compromise at nothing in delivering quality residential solutions to the citizens of Singapore. Officially a member of the Jardine Matheson Group under the Hong Kong Land Holdings, the premium residential company not just operates locally, but internationally as well, building quality homes and apartments in Malaysia. Their vision is simple and clear; to be a premier and reputable property group, leading all its competitors through innovative solutions in providing its customers just what they need at the best value for money.

Parc Esta Projects
With successful launches for residential apartments over the past four years, MCL Land is the force behind J Gateway, Lake Grande, Sol Acres, Terrasse as well as Lake Ville. Having established their name with these projects that are not just a success in the property industry, but also widely popular within the public, it leaves little doubt in the minds of potential residents and investors about the success of Parc Esta in Eunos.

Parc Esta condo’s Proximity to public transport especially the MRT will literally gives an value-added advantages to any properties and Parc Esta beautifully succeed that due to its perfect location giving its potential residents multiple options for travel. With only a 200 meter walk to the nearest Eunos MRT station, residents can access the entire East-West Line (EWL) in Singapore. The abovementioned MRT station is also only six stops to the City Hall, and only five stops away from the Changi Airport. Residents of Parc Esta can also conveniently travel to the Central Business District, City Centre Marina Bay and Marina South.

Parc Esta At Its Convenient
Parc Esta’s convenient central location is only 1 MRT stop away from Paya Lebar and Paya Lebar is a upcoming new developing commercial hub, where the future retail and commercials lie. Parc Esta is also only two stations away from Bedok MRT, where the residents have wider shopping options at the Bedok Mall.

It is also interesting to note that the Eunos MRT Station, only a walk away from Parc Esta, is also joined by a bus interchange serving the needs of immediate localities at even shorter time intervals. Within 6 stops of the Eunos MRT station, one can find the most traveled-to locations including office complexes like the Changi Business Park, Expo and Changi City, relaxing facilities like the Kallang Sport Hub, as well as the nearby town of Bugis.

Parc Esta is also near to PIE (Pan Island Expressway) as well where it is well-connected to all of Singapore.

PARC ESTA NEIGHBOURING
Just a short drive away from Parc Esta lies the popular East Coast Road where catering to the needs of residents and visitors alike, are a supermarket, F&B outlets, and shops serving items of different varieties. As an alternative to that, residents may also take another short drive from Parc Esta towards the Marine Parade Town Centre which can easily be called the heartland of food, market and retails.

The area is also home to the very popular among residents, Parkway Parade Shopping Centre, which is always bustling with shoppers going about their business at any given hour of the day. Apart from shops and retail, this huge shopping center in 112 Katong also has a very good variety of dining and entertainment options available. Other than these, Parc Esta is just a minute’s worth of drive away from many local and popular eateries serving the food cravings of residents.

PARC ESTA 
For people who are particularly fond of outdoor activities, Parc Esta official remains to be of particular interest. Residents get to live within proximity of the Kallang Riverside Park as well as the East Coast Park. These parks are not only suitable for children and families, but also for the individual looking to enjoy water sports, jogging, or a simple cycling path inside.

Residents can also avail the membership of many different clubs that are located in the vicinity. These include Geylang Stadium, Badminton Hall, Kallang Squash and Tennis Centre, Kallang Netball Centre, Singapore Swimming Club, Singapore Cricket Association, along with the PWD Sports Club. As mentioned earlier, with the closely located MRT stations, the residents can also easily access the Singapore Sports Hub.

PARC ESTA – SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION
With its central and ideal location, Parc Esta is very near to the Eunos Primary School, as well as the Haig Girls School. Being a commodity that families living in apartments tend to have children of the young age bracket, Parc Esta is also in close proximity of Tanjong Katong Primary School, CHIJ Primary School, as well as the Telok Kurau Primary School. Among others, another fresh additions are the Canadian International School and Chatsworth International School providing international standard education.

Thursday, April 18, 2019

SINGAPORE - Certificate of entitlement (COE) prices continued to surge at the latest tender on Wednesday (April 17), with all categories ending noticeably higher except for motorcycles.

COE premiums for cars up to 1,600cc and 130bhp finished at $33,199, up from $29,159 two weeks ago. COE prices for cars above 1,600cc or 130bhp closed at $48,000, up from $43,102.

Premiums for Open COE, which can be used for any vehicle type except motorcycles but ends up mostly for bigger cars, finished at $52,410, up from $48,209.

Commercial vehicle COE prices closed at $32,001, up from $27,589. Motorcycle COE premiums bucked the uptrend by ending at $3,452, down from $3,501.

The surge followed an unexpected rise in COEs for bigger cars in the previous tender, which was attributed to new demand from private-hire players.

"The market is actually quite weak," said one major motor trader. "The showrooms have been very quiet in recent months."

Mr Ron Lim, head of sales and marketing at Nissan agent Tan Chong Motor, said “the market has slowed down significantly after the price increase from last round of COE price hike, so we can conclude safely the latest rise has nothing to do with retail demand”.

Still, Mr Lim said Wednesday’s results is also driven by “a classic case of panic bidding” on the back of “speculation over the extent of the next COE quota cut”.

Going by available data to date, the supply of COEs for the May-July period may shrink by as much as 20 per cent.

Mr Lim added that he hopes “some sanity will return after the actual quota is released”, but cautioned that there are “headwinds”, including a three-week break before the next tender exercise (allowing sellers to collect more orders), and the upcoming Car@Expo retail event, which would also typically lead to more orders.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Apr 3 - COE Prices

SINGAPORE: Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums closed higher in the latest bidding exercise on Wednesday (Apr 3).

For Category A cars, or those 1,600cc and below with horsepower not exceeding 130bhp, premiums closed at S$29,159, up from S$26,659 in the last exercise.

Premiums for larger and more powerful cars in Category B rose to S$43,102 from S$39,401.

COEs for commercial vehicles, which include goods vehicles and buses, rose to S$27,589 from S$27,021 in the previous bidding exercise.

Motorcycle premiums closed at S$3,501, up from S$3,469 in the last exercise.

Open category COEs, which can be used for any vehicle type but end up being used mainly for large cars, rose to S$48,209 from S$41,000.

A total of 6,392 bids were received, with a quota of 4,396 COEs available.

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Just Before The Great Recession, Mountains Of Unsold Goods Piled Up In U.S. Warehouses – And Now It Is Happening Again

When economic conditions initially begin to slow down, businesses continue to order goods like they normally would but those goods don’t sell as quickly as they previously did.  As a result, inventory levels begin to rise, and that is precisely what is happening right now.  In fact, the U.S. inventory to sales ratio has risen sharply for five months in a row.  This is mirroring the pattern that we witnessed just prior to the financial crisis of 2008, and it is exactly what we would expect to see if a new recession was now beginning.  In recent weeks, I have been sharing number after number that indicates that a serious economic slowdown is upon us, and many believe that what is coming will eventually be even worse than what we experienced in 2008.

And even though I write about this stuff every day, I was stunned by how rapidly inventory levels have been rising recently.  The following numbers come from Peter Schiff’s website…

This comes on the heels of the largest gain in wholesale inventories in more than five years in December.

Inventories rose 7.7% from a year ago in January. Meanwhile, sales only rose by 2.7%. Overall, total inventories were $669.9 billion at the end of January, up 1.2% from the revised December level.

The increase in durable goods inventories at the wholesale level was even starker. These inventories were up 11.7% from January a year ago, and are up 17% from January two years ago, hitting $415 billion, the highest ever.

Businesses don’t like to have excess inventory, because carrying excess inventory is expensive and cuts into profits.  So they try very hard to manage their inventories efficiently, but if the economy slows down unexpectedly that can catch them off guard…

There are few indications of economic slowing that are more convincing than an unwanted build in inventories — and that apparently is what’s underway in the wholesale sector.

When inventory levels get too high, businesses often start reducing the amount of stuff they are ordering from manufacturers.

So we would expect the numbers to indicate that manufacturing output is down, and that is precisely what we have witnessed over the last couple of months…

U.S. manufacturing output fell for a second straight month in February and factory activity in New York state hit nearly a two-year low this month, offering further evidence of a sharp slowdown in economic growth early in the first quarter.

If manufacturers are making and sending less stuff to businesses, and if businesses are selling less stuff to their customers, then we would expect to see less stuff moved around the U.S. by truck, rail and air.

And wouldn’t you know it, the numbers also tell us that this has been happening too.  The following comes from Wolf Richter…

Now it’s the third month in a row, and the red flag is getting more visible and a little harder to ignore about the goods-based economy: Freight shipment volume in the US across all modes of transportation – truck, rail, air, and barge – in February fell 2.1% from February a year ago, according to the Cass Freight Index, released today. The three months in a row of year-over-year declines are the first such declines since the transportation recession of 2015 and 2016.

So there you have it.  Anyone that tries to tell you that the U.S. economy is “booming” is simply not being accurate.

And when you throw in the fact that we just witnessed one of the worst disasters for U.S. agriculture in all of U.S. history, it is easy to understand why the economic outlook for the remainder of 2019 is rather bleak.  One agribusiness company just announced that it will have “a negative pretax operating profit impact of $50 million to $60 million for the first quarter” as a result of all the flooding…

Already suffering from low crop prices and the U.S.-China trade war, Mother Nature has delivered yet another blow to the beleaguered American farmer. Growers in the heartland this year have seen arctic cold blasts, been blanketed by snow and just in the last week were inundated by floods. Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., one of the world’s biggest agribusinesses, said Monday that it expects weather disruptions to have a negative pretax operating profit impact of $50 million to $60 million for the first quarter.

Korth said he fears the worst for local farmers, citing a friend who lost 85 cows to flooding and another who sells seeds and has already seen order cancellations.

“It’s going to put a lot of people out of business,” Korth said. “It’s just a terrible deal.”

Unfortunately, the flooding in the middle portion of the country is just getting started.  According to the National Weather Service, we are going to see more catastrophic flooding for the next two months.

As you can see, the elements for a “perfect storm” are definitely coming together, and I encourage everyone to get prepared for rough times ahead.

But many people are not that concerned about a new crisis, because they remember that global central banks were able to pull us out of the fire last time around.

Unfortunately, they may not be able to do it this time.  Just consider the words of the deputy director of the IMF…

Major financial institutions may be powerless to prevent the next global economic downturn from tuning into a full-blow recession, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

In a speech on the future of the eurozone, the IMF’s deputy director David Lipton, warned of the depleted power of central banks and governments to combat another sharp economic shock.

“The bottom line is this: the tools used to confront the global financial crisis may not be available or may not be as potent next time” he said.

But I am sure that global central banks will try to patch the system back together again, and at certain moments it may even look like they are having some success.

In the end, however, they will not be able to stop the “Bubble To End All Bubbles” from completely bursting.

It has taken decades of exceedingly foolish decisions to get us to this point, and there is simply no way that we can avoid the day of reckoning that is coming.

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Special Preview: Samsung Soul

The Soul Within

The U900 or preferably known as the Soul was heavily promoted as part of a major advertising campaign initiated by none other than its maker, Samsung and unveiled in spectacular fashion at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. As we found out, the Soul is Samsung's flagship model for 2008, so it's quite understandable why the Korean giant has placed so much focus on this handset. If you're intrigued by the origins of the Soul's name, here's a little background information:

Soul was named to honor the completion of its successful "Ultra Edition" series.

Soul is an abbreviation of "The Spirit Of Ultra".

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Grab, Gojek seen pushing COEs up

SINGAPORE - Certificate of entitlement (COE) prices ended mostly higher, with premiums for four-wheelers creeping up slightly and prices for two-wheelers dipping.

The COE price for cars up to 1,600cc and 130bhp closed at $26,309, up from $26,301 two weeks ago. The premium for cars above 1,600cc or 130bhp finished at $36,961, up from $35,403.

The price for the Open COE, which can be used for any vehicle type but ends up mostly for bigger cars, closed at $37,620, up from $36,667.

The commercial vehicle COE price ended at $27,010, up from $26,914.

Motorcycle premium bucked the trend by closing at $3,602, down from $3,689.

Car dealers point to the return of parallel importers and private-hire players for the car premiums trekking northwards.

Both Gojek and Grab are seen to be expanding their fleets, even as thousands of cars previously with Uber's Lion City Rentals remain unhired.

LATEST COE RESULTS:
Category                               Current COE premium ($) Previous COE premium ($)
A - Car (1,600cc & below)            26,309                              26,301
B - Car (above 1,600cc)                  36,961                            35,403
C - Goods vehicle & bus  27,010                            26,914
D - Motorcycle                                3,602                              3,689
E - Open                                        37,620                             36,667

Sunday, March 3, 2019

2020 Mercedes GLC shows subtle facelift in official videos

After the AMG GLE 53, the other SUV revealed this week by Mercedes was the facelifted GLC. The mid-cycle refresh comes three and a half years after the launch of the GLK successor, and builds upon the already attractive design. There are subtle styling tweaks here and there to keep the GLC fresh and competitive in a hugely challenging segment of the market.

Even the base version of the posh SUV now comes with LED headlights, with optional full-LED with Multibeam tech available at an additional cost. Those full LED taillights represent another update over the pre-facelift GLC and contribute to the model’s discreet revisions. Also at the back, the AMG Line variant comes with slightly different angular exhaust tips nicely integrated into the bumper to enable a cleaner look. Wheels up to 20 inches in size are available, and so is a new colour called graphite gray.

The most obvious changes have occurred inside the cabin where the 2020 GLC gets the MBUX infotainment system with a free-standing touchscreen available in either 7- or 10.25-inch sizes. The tablet-style display is accompanied by an optional 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster as seen already in the GLC F-Cell.

Should you not want to get fingerprints on that central screen, you can use gestures to control some of the functions of Mercedes’ Comand-replacing MBUX infotainment system. Alternatively, there’s also a nifty multifunction touchpad that you’ll also find in the C-Class facelift.

Mercedes in Geneva:
2020 Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class revealed with new engine and more tech
Mercedes-Benz GLE 53 debuts with 429 bhp of electrified thrills
Mercedes-AMG teases Panamericana grille on mystery vehicle
Mercedes CLA Shooting Brake, GLC-Class confirmed for Geneva debut
Even the base model now gets keyless go functionality, while the optional Off-Road Engineering Package adds the Off-Road and Off-Road modes joining the existing Comfort, Eco, Sport, Sport+, and Individual.

If you want to check out the GLC facelift in the metal, it will be on display at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show beginning next week where aside from the GLE 53, Mercedes will also exhibit the CLA Shooting Brake, S65 Final Edition, SLC Final Edition, and the SL Grand Edition. No word just yet about the A45, though.