IRES Media Commentaries

SOHO becoming more common in Singapore Assoc Prof Sing Tien Foo, Deputy Director of IRES shares his view. Combining living (residential) and office "under one roof", SOHO units offer attractive rental yields relative to condominium units of the same prices. SOHO tenants will also likely to come from market segment, which are not catered for by the traditional CBD prime office space. Lianhe Zaobao, ZBNow, p3, 10 September 2011 What Will Happen to China's Economy If Its Property Market Collapses? Prof Deng Yongheng, Director of IRES shares his view on the Chinese property market. While the housing finance situation in China differs from the US, increasing property prices in major cities have been largely due to competitive land bidding from state owned enterprises (SOEs). The Wall Street Journal, 27 June 2011 FSinsight Interview: Green buildings in Asia and the Green Mark standard, Sep 14, 2011 Developing green buildings is a relatively new industry in Asia. Setting up a Green Mark standard, which has already proved to be successful in Singapore, could increase this awareness and boost the development of green buildings in other parts of Asia. Yongheng Deng, Professor of Finance and Real Estate and Director of the Institute of Real Estate Studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS), talks about Singapore's Green Mark program, why it works and why he believes the Chinese government should also propose such a program. A Blow to Household Wealth What will happen if China's overheated real estate market goes bust? Currently, the housing sector consumes about 40 percent of all steel and lumber in China. As a result, a shock to China's housing sector will not only have a devastating impact on the Chinese economy, but also on the global raw material markets like steel, cement and timber. The ripple effects arising from China's deflating housing sector cannot be underestimated. The New York Times Online, 18 April 2011, The Opinion Pages - Room for Debate Hidden perils of China's stimulus boost The recent financial crisis saw many governments and central banks use monetary and fiscal interventions to propel their economies out of the recession. Such packages have met with mixed success. The Straits Times, 16 October 2010, Review, pA26 China's Stimulus May Be A Curse In Disguise The financial crisis and global recession saw central banks and governments react with monetary and fiscal interventions. While the results of these stimulations in advanced economies were limited, the Chinese stimulus policies delivered incredibly significant and effective responses. Forbes.com, 25 August 2010 Just how risky are China's housing markets? China is experiencing spectacularly fast growth - so fast that many fear it is driven by a bubble - a property bubble to be precise. Recent memories of what happened when the US housing market bubble burst make the possibility of a Chinese housing bubble a critical concern for the world economy. VoxEU.org, 28 July 2010 Housing In S'pore Still Affordable The recent spikes in both public and private housing prices have added fuel to the debate on affordability. Analysts and experts have attributed the price increase to a rise in demand, especially from foreigners and permanent residents. The Straits Times, 27 February 2010, Review, pA20