More Indonesians eager to buy S'pore properties
More Indonesians eager to buy S'pore properties
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Forty-year-old "Teddy", the owner of a public relations firm,
anxiously looked at a scale model and pictures of Cairnhill
Cresta high-end condominium, which is only five-minutes walk from
Singapore's Orchard Road, during a property exhibition at Hotel
Mulia in Senayan, Central Jakarta, recently.
Teddy said he was eager to buy one of the condominiums as an
investment as well as a leisure destination for his family in the
city-state.
"Owning a property in Singapore is a good thing," said the
man, who also has two apartments in Jakarta and Surabaya.
Cairnhill Crest -- a 248-unit freehold property with an
average price of S$1,520 (US$899) per square foot -- was
developed by Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. (CKH), a property flagship
owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing.
As Indonesia's more affluent class are eyeing properties in
Singapore, people like Teddy have become a target market for
property developers in the neighboring country.
"It's becoming a trend now for rich Indonesians to own a
property in Singapore. That's why we come here and offer them a
chance either to own them for investment or as a residence,"
Justin Chiu, CKH executive director, told The Jakarta Post
recently.
"As a rough comparison, from the 52 units of Cairnhill Crest
that have been sold, at an average price of S$2.6 million per
unit, 17 of them were bought by Indonesians," he said.
Therefore, Chiu was upbeat that his company's two-day showcase
in Jakarta on Sept. 24 and Sept. 25 and in Surabaya on Oct. 1 and
Oct. 2 would attract more Indonesians to purchase his latest
property, which cost his company S$500 million in investment.
"Shortly after we arrived in Jakarta and talked to some
Indonesians, 40 people have shown their intention to buy our
property," he said, adding that most of them considering buying a
property in Singapore as an investment.
"People won't buy fixed assets unless they have confidence in
a government, a country and a system. They are willing to invest,
to spend money only if they know what the outcome will be," he
said.
"That's why people invest in Singapore because they can get
all of that," he added.
The Singapore property market is becoming more attractive as
Southeast Asia economy has recovered in the last few years.
Global real estate service firm Jones Lang LaSalle said in its
report that there were seven factors why Indonesians buy
properties in Singapore. The factors include stable political
environment, market transparency, proximity to Indonesia, stable
investment of total returns, familiarity with the Singapore
property market's rules and regulations.
The company also said that few Indonesians buy properties in
Singapore as a home for their children who study there and a
second home for those who like to spend holidays in the city-
state.
According to the report, which quoted the Singapore
government's Real Estate Information System (REALIS) data,
Indonesians are the second top foreign property buyers in
Singapore after Malaysians from 1996 to present.
"Indonesian buyers who purchase apartments/condominiums in
Singapore accounted for about 28 percent of total foreign
purchases in the 10-year period between 1996 and September 2005,"
the company said.
From January to Sept. 22 this year, there were 437 properties
in Singapore, categorized as caveats lodged, purchased by
Indonesians. Prices of the properties ranged between S$800 and
S$1,500 per square foot meter, Jones Lang LaSalle said.
Meanwhile, the number of caveats lodged by Indonesians peaked
in 1999 with 739 units and hit the lowest in 1998 with 304.
"But we noted that there is an increase in buying interest of
Indonesians in the last one or two years," the company said.