Japan and China sweep awards at MIPIM Asia Awards
HONG KONG – Property projects based in Japan and China dominated the inaugural MIPIM Asia Awards, designed to honour the most innovative and outstanding buildings in Asia.

Entries from the two countries won in six of the seven competition categories, with the Special Jury Award going to the Tokyo Midtown Project. The MIPIM Asia Awards took place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on November 28, as part of the second edition of MIPIM Asia.
Real estate projects in Japan won in three categories; Business Centres, Mixed-Use Buildings and Green Buildings. China-based entries won the Shopping Centres, Hotels and Tourism Resorts and Futura Projects categories. The remaining category of Residential Developments went to Singapore.

Over 100 projects from 15 different countries across the Asia Pacific region were originally submitted to the MIPIM Asia Awards. In September, the international jury selected three finalists for each of the seven competition categories.

"The jury was impressed by the large number of high quality submissions from across the region and in all categories. The selection of the nominations and winners was therefore a difficult process. The quality of the final projects is a testimony to the high standards in Asian real estate today," commented Robert Lie, president of the jury and Chairman of ING Real Estate Investment Management Asia (Hong Kong).


All action at Sentosa’s South Cove
SINGAPORE – It has recently been all action at South Cove, Sentosa Cove’s smaller second phase. Firstly, Elevation Developments made headlines by paying S$78.7 million for the 71,860sqft Green Collection, at S$1,099psf/plot ratio, which far surpassed the last en-bloc sale price of S$771psf/plot ratio paid for Sandy Island in March. Sentosa Cove has just one last landed parcel to be sold en-bloc to developers.

Elevation, helmed by Singapore’s polo captain Satinder Garcha, submitted the highest of eight bids for the plot, Sentosa’s only land parcel for strata landed housing. The plot has a 200m frontage facing the fairways of the Sentosa Golf Club’s famed Tanjong Course. Garcha said he plans to build 20 houses on the site, each with a rooftop pool and a 10m glass frontage offering a clear view of the golf course.

Elevation is associated with upmarket Good Class Bungalows and has even attracted the talents of Zaha Hadid, the Iraq-born Brit who in 2004 became the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and is designing two bungalows on Nassim Road.

Meanwhile, Ho Bee Group has launched Turquoise (pictured), a 91- apartment development situated directly across Cove Drive from the Green Collection. Turquoise offers a selection of three and four-bedroom apartments, penthouses and the ‘uber-luxurious’ Sky villas in two six-storey blocks, as well as 21 berths in the waterway around Sandy and Pearl Islands.

Common facilities include a function room, swimming pool with spa pools, barbecue pavilions and a gymnasium. Turquoise is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.

Finally, Genesis-Alliance, the Singapore-based arm fronting the joint venture of YTL Corporation and LP Worlds of Malaysia, has announced that it has partnered with Italian architect Claudio Silvestrin and landscape designer Jamie Durie for its Sandy Island development. Set to launch early next year, Sandy Island will feature 18 villas, each with a private berth.

Silvestrin, who studied in Milan and London, has since 1989 been practising worldwide from his London office, known as Claudio Silvestrin Architects, with Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein and Kanye West among his clients. Durie is a qualified horticulturist and landscape designer, author of five books and founder of Patio Landscape Architecture and Design, but is best known in Australia for making gardening ‘hip’ again as host of popular TV series Backyard Blitz.

When completed in 2010, the 117-hectare Sentosa Cove will feature a total of about 2,500 homes.


Mumbai flat sells for US$8.62m
INDIA – A four-bedroom apartment in Mumbai has broken the previous national record price paid after securing a bid of US$8.62 million at a private auction.

The apartment, which is located near the centre of Indiaดs financial capital in the Nariman Point region, sits on the seventh-floor of an apartment block and faces out over the Arabian Sea. The buyer is believed to be a British-based Non-Resident Indian who fought off strong interest from at least four other bidders.

The transaction is the latest in a series of high-value property deals for huge, sea-facing apartments in south Mumbaiดs upmarket residential enclaves. The apartmentดs panoramic view is seen as its main asset and the shoreline is visible for miles in two directions, said one of the buildingดs other residents.


Vietnam to impose 25% property CGT
VIETNAM – Vietnamดs National Assembly has announced that it is to place a 25 per cent capital gains tax on property transactions in order to curb speculation and resultant price increases.

The tax, which will be on top of the 2 per cent transfer tax already in place, is expected to be introduced from the start of 2009. Reports suggest that prices in some parts of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have increased by 50 percent since the end of 2006, as investors have been snapping up properties for resale.

The government added that it will also apply a 20 percent tax on stock investment earnings from the same date, and that a tax on owners of more than one home is also in the pipeline.


South Korea investment leaps 13%
SOUTH KOREA – Foreign investment into South Korea rose 13.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2007 compared to the same period a year earlier, preliminary figures from the Asian nationดs Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy has reported.

The June to September period saw US$2.94 billion of overseas money invested in the country compared to US$2.60 billion a year earlier. The figure could top $10 billion, according to the ministry, because foreign investors tend to commit most money to Korea during the fourth quarter than at any other time.

Kim Pil-Goo, head of the ministryดs investment policy team, attributes the increase to Seoulดs aggressive pursuit of free trade agreements (FTAs) and government policies aimed at giving more benefits to overseas businesses that come to South Korea.

South Korea will receive a further boost in 2009, when it hosts the World City Expo, which will provide platform from which to further promote tourism and foreign investment. It is expected that 200 cities and 200 companies from around the world will participate in the Expo, which over 10 million people are expected to attend.


Rain driving British abroad
ENGLAN – HIFX Monthly Global Property Hotspots Report has said that the number of British property buyers inquiring about overseas developments increased by 46 per cent in June and 40 per cent in July, thanks to the European nationดs miserable summer weather, and that the pattern is due to be repeated in the coming years.

HIFX reported that as climate change is expected to mean wet summers will be all the more common in north-eastern Europe, a continued boom in overseas properties sales may also be on the cards.

“We commonly see a boost in the property investment market in September, just after the holiday period, but the disappointing summer weather has pushed Brits into making early escapes to sunny and exotic destinations,” said a HIFX spokesperson.

The group said that another key factor behind the heavy interest is that the strength of the British Pound means they can now get more for their money when they invest abroad.


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