CNA: Freddie Mac loses US$821m in Q2

WASHINGTON: Troubled mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac on Wednesday reported an 821-million-dollar net loss in the second quarter, as the US housing collapse further dug a hole in the company’s finances.
At 1.63 dollars per share, the loss was more than triple most analysts’ forecasts of 53 cents per share.
Freddie Mac, a government-chartered, shareholder-owned firm, said [...]

Business Times: Fannie Mae to raise mortgage fee in Oct

SUB-PRIME CONTAGION
Hike in adverse market delivery charge may increase costs for borrowers
(NEW YORK) Fannie Mae, the largest US mortgage- finance company, will raise a fee that it charges lenders to buy their mortgages or guarantee home-loan securities, a move that may increase costs for borrowers.
Fannie Mae’s ‘adverse market delivery charge’, introduced earlier this year for [...]

Business Times: Morgan Stanley freezes clients’ home equity credit lines

SUB-PRIME CONTAGION
(NEW YORK) Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest US securities firm, told several thousand clients this week that they won’t be allowed to withdraw money on their home equity credit lines, said a person familiar with the situation.
The action mostly affected clients with properties that have lost value, according to the person, who declined to be [...]

Business Times: UK property brokers fear bank-style jobs cull

Rumours that big players plan 5,000 redundancies as demand tanks, but some analysts dispute that figure
(LONDON) With much of the European real estate market on its knees, the painful death of job security is now haunting property brokers as well as investment bankers.
High-flying real estate dealers are leaving their favourite tables at expensive London restaurants [...]

Business Times: Mah Sing Group, Malaysia eyes Vietnam as its first overseas market

(KUALA LUMPUR) Mah Sing Group Bhd, Malaysia’s fifth biggest developer by revenue, is considering a Vietnam venture worth more than RM1 billion (S$421 million) for its first step overseas as a sagging home economy slows the company’s sales.
‘You need to diversify your earnings stream by going overseas,’ group managing director Leong Hoy Kum, 50, said [...]

Business Times: Asian prime office prices may fall 10%

(SINGAPORE) Asian real estate prices may fall further and prime office values decline 10 per cent before year’s end, Singapore-based property investor Pacific Star Group said.
‘Most markets are peaking over the next 12 months, or even trending downwards,’ said Frank Vaessen, president of fund management at Pacific Star, which manages US$3 billion of assets globally. [...]

Straits Times: Housing agent fees: How low can they go?

With guidelines axed next month, rates will come under pressure but big fall unlikely, say experts
By Jessica Cheam
PROPERTY experts expect agents to feel the pinch once fee guidelines are abolished next month, but the big question in the industry is just how low fees can go.
Real estate insiders concede that fees will come under [...]

Straits Times: DBS launches special interest-only mortgage

Bank says borrowers will then have more cash to seize other investment chances
By Grace Ng, Finance Correspondent
DBS Bank has launched an unusual mortgage product allowing savvy customers to take advantage of cheap borrowing costs and free up cash for investment opportunities.
The bank is offering customers the option of paying only the interest for the [...]

Business Times: Ascott Raffles Place makes 50 units available first

THE plush Ascott Raffles Place, the former Asia Insurance Building (AIB), had a soft opening yesterday, with its owner, the Ascott Group, making 50 units available.
The remaining units of the 146-unit premium serviced residence project will be ready by its official launch set for October.
An Ascott press statement yesterday said the property, a national heritage [...]

Business Times: Occupancy level of JTC ready built facilities hits new high

Business park segment contributed to 51% of total RBF net allocation in Q2
By ARTHUR SIM
THE net allocation for JTC ready-built facilities (RBF) in Q2 2008 reached 84,100 sq m, 2.2 times higher than the 38,300 sq m in the previous quarter.
This boosted the occupancy level by one percentage point to a new JTC record [...]

Business Times: Maison Royale put up for collective sale

MAISON Royale, a freehold residential site in Newton, has been put up for collective sale.
Owners of the 20-unit project are asking at least S$50 million. Including an estimated S$300,000 development charge (DC) and taking into account a plot ratio of 2.8, the price works out to S$1,273 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).
In [...]

Business Times: Rising building cost squeezes mass market projects more

Developers’ margins for prime projects less affected: Jones Lang LaSalle study
By KALPANA RASHIWALA
A 20 per cent rise in construction costs will shrink developers’ profit margin for a mass-market private condo by 55 per cent; but for a project in the prime districts, the profit margin will contract by 25 per cent, according to a [...]

Business Times: Over 2,300 applications for Ang Mo Kio condo-style HDB flats

UPCOMING Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) project Park Central @ AMK received over 2,300 applications – or four times the 578 units on offer – when submissions closed at midnight on Tuesday, developer United Engineers (UE) said yesterday.
But this does not mean that the project will definitely be fully sold, analysts said. For the [...]