Amanusa

Property to change name
By Chua Hian Hou



Amanusa buyers will not be able to back out of the sale on the basis of the name change. -- PHOTO: DTZ
A YIO Chu Kang cluster housing project, Amanusa, has been ordered to change its name after the Court of Appeal ruled that its developer had tried to pass it off as part of an ultra-luxe resort group.
In February 2006, Aman Resorts, which owns the Amanusa resort in Bali, learnt about Novelty's use of the same name through the latter's advertisements.

It asked Novelty to change its name, and when Novelty refused, it sued.

According to court documents, Aman claimed Novelty had tried to pass off its properties as Aman Resorts' 'with the intention of confusing or deceiving members of the public.'

The High Court had ruled against Novelty in May 2007; Novelty appealed, but lost again in the Court of Appeal, the highest court here.

Room rates at Amanusa start from US$700 per night. Aman Resorts also operates 15 other luxury resorts in exotic locales like Morocco and Bhutan.

Aman Resorts, which moved its corporate headquarters from Hongkong to Singapore in 1999, does not have any properties here.

By comparison, Novelty's property is a 'modest cluster housing project', said Justice VK Rajah, in a 126-page Mar 31 written judgement.

Novelty's Amanusa, comprising 36 freehold three-storey houses built on a 56,000 square foot site off Old Yio Chu Kang Road, was priced at about $450 per square foot. Each unit reportedly sold for between $1.3 million and $1.8 million. The developer is behind other condominiums like Tanjong Katong's Taipan Jade and Newton's Iridium.

In his ruling, said Justice Rajah, said that Novelty's use of the Amanusa name had indeed created 'a likelihood of confusion arising from the misrepresentation'.

In addition, he said, Novelty's use fo the name 'is likely to tarnish the goodwill attached to the 'Aman' names because of the difference in quality of the accommodation provided' the two parties.

Amanusa buyers will not be able to back out of the sale on the basis of the name change. According to the judgement, buyers had signed off on a clause that they would go ahead with the transaction even if the name was changed to something else.

House Hunt March 2009

Kembangan Suites

Small flats, big sellers

By Tan Dawn Wei

What do you call a space which can fit four hawker stalls?

In the case of a new property development called Kembangan Suites, the space is called a one-bedroom apartment.

It is all of 344 sq ft.

But small is now big. On just the first day of a preview last week, the developer sold out 60 units of mostly one- and two-bedders ranging in size from 344 sq ft to 581 sq ft.

The smallest units were going for about $300,000.

Industry sources said demand is coming from local and foreign singles, young couples as well as cost-conscious buyers and investors.

Before that, Alexis @ Alexandra sold all its 293 units, including 114 one-bedders (366 sq ft to 527 sq ft), with prices from $450,000.

Other new launches like Mount Sophia Suites in Sophia Road, Nova 88 in Bhamo Road and Zenith in Zion Road are offering studio apartments or one-bedders from 366 sq ft to 484 sq ft.

Crowds flocked to a preview on Friday of new condominium Domus in Irrawaddy Road. The smallest units there - one-bedders at 474 sq ft each - were going for more than $400,000.

Its developer, Lakeview Investments, said those were the most popular and all units released in the first phase had been sold.

'It's the size of a hotel room,' veteran designer Jay Ang said of the new 300-something sq ft homes.

'You have space only to sleep and eat. There's definitely no place to entertain,' noted the specialist in space planning and storage space customising.

But while there are no rules on how small apartments can go, designers and architects have to make concessions for standard dimensions, like how wide a door is, how long a bed is or how deep a wardrobe is.

Developers have quickly cottoned on to this demand for small spaces. Several have rejigged or are considering tweaking their designs and making space for smaller units.

Sing Holdings' project The Laurels in Cairnhill Road will go from its original 150 units of mostly three- and four-bedders to 290 units that include more one- and two-bedroom units.

UOL Group may also resize the units of its Green Meadows project in Upper Thomson to attract more cost-conscious buyers.

Alexis' developer, ECPrime, had done the same before the project's launch.

City Developments said studio apartments in centrally located projects had always been popular because of the lure of city-living.

Studio apartments comprised almost 40 per cent of the offerings at its downtown project, The Sail @ Marina Bay, which was completed last year.

Carving up space for more units is one way a developer can achieve higher dollar per square foot value, said Mr Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank.

'Developers manage to sell such small units because they make it affordable in absolute terms,' he said.

But, property pundits said, when apartments continue to shrink and prices per square feet remain high, home-seekers may go back to buying HDB flats and those looking to rent may decide to go for HDB rooms instead.

The size of private one-bedroom units has halved from 10 years ago.

HDB flats have downsized too, from about 1,130 sq ft for a four-room in 1987 to 970 sq ft now.

Still, Singapore homes have not shrunk to the proportions of those in Hong Kong and Tokyo, where apartments can be as tiny as 140 sq ft.

That is not to say that all buyers are happy with the slimming effect.

Finance executive Audrey Yap, 35, who is shopping for a bachelorette pad, said: 'I can't afford the bigger apartments but the studio apartments are ridiculously small and claustrophobic. I think I may have to settle for a resale HDB flat.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

Resale Price Index from 1st Quarter 1990 to 2nd Quarter 2008 (Flash Estimate)

Resale Price Index from 1st Quarter 1990 to 2nd Quarter 2008 (Flash Estimate)

The HDB Resale Price Index tracks the overall price movement of the public residential market. The index is calculated using resale transactions registered across various towns, flat types and models, with the fourth quarter of 1998 as the base period (i.e. index has value 100 in 4Q98).

The Index is used by comparing how it changes from one period from another. For example, if the index increases from 100 to 108 in one year, it means that on the whole, HDB resale flat prices increased by 8% over this period.

Period		Index	Percentage Change From The Previous Quarter
2008	II*	131.7	4.4%
	I	126.2	3.7%
2007	IV	121.7	5.7%
	III	115.1	6.6%
	II	108.0	3.0%
	I	104.9	1.3%
2006	IV	103.6	1.0%
	III	102.6	-0.2%
	II	102.8	1.0%
	I	101.8	0.2%
2005	IV	101.6	0.4%
	III	101.2	-0.4%
	II	101.6	-4.8%
	I	106.7	0.1%
2004	IV	106.6	1.0%
	III	105.5	0.1%
	II	105.4	1.2%
	I	104.1	0.2%
2003	IV	103.9	1.2%
	III	102.7	2.4%
	II	100.3	2.1%
	I	98.2	1.6%
2002	IV	96.7	0.0%
	III	96.7	1.0%
	II	95.7	0.2%
	I	95.5	-0.8%
2001	IV	96.3	-1.4%
	III	97.7	-2.0%
	II	99.7	-1.6%
	I	101.3	-3.4%
2000	IV	104.9	-2.2%
	III	107.3	-2.2%
	II	109.7	-1.3%
	I	111.1	0.6%
1999	IV	110.4	2.2%
	III	108.0	8.1%
	II	99.9	1.4%
	I	98.5	-1.5%
1998	IV	100.0	-3.5%
	III	103.6	-4.3%
	II	108.3	-4.2%
	I	113.0	-7.1%
1997	IV	121.7	-6.0%
	III	129.4	-4.1%
	II	134.9	-1.0%
	I	136.3	-0.4%
1996	IV	136.9	2.7%
	III	133.3	6.0%
	II	125.7	12.8%
	I	111.4	9.3%
1995	IV	101.9	8.9%
	III	93.6	5.9%
	II	88.4	11.6%
	I	79.2	4.5%
1994	IV	75.8	0.4%
	III	75.5	5.6%
	II	71.5	2.6%
	I	69.7	2.8%
1993	IV	67.8	2.9%
	III	65.9	20.3%
	II	54.8	31.1%
	I	41.8	5.6%
1992	IV	39.6	2.3%
	III	38.7	2.1%
	II	37.9	6.2%
	I	35.7	2.9%
1991	IV	34.7	-0.6%
	III	34.9	-0.9%
	II	35.2	2.0%
	I	34.5	1.2%
1990	IV	34.1	-1.4%
	III	34.6	2.4%
	II	33.8	0.6%
	I	33.6

* Index is a flash estimate