Editorial

Citation

Seow Eng, O. (2010), "Editorial", Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Vol. 28 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpif.2010.11228baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Volume 28, Issue 2

This JPIF issue focuses on the property markets of Singapore. Although Singapore’s total land area is about 700 sq. kms, it is a heavily populated and urbanised island-state that has made an international mark in terms of its policies on urban planning, housing and capital markets. Today, Singapore is a bustling international city with a per capita GDP that is one of the highest in Asia, comparable to Japan. This special issue features four papers that address a number of key issues in the Singapore property market.

The first paper “Explaining the macro-economy and retail real estate sector dynamic interaction between prime and suburban retail real estate sectors” by Ho and Muhammad adopts the dynamic computable general equilibrium (DCGE) model under system dynamics programming to model the non-linear interaction between the economy and the retail sector. Through two growth scenarios, the authors show that the retail real estate sector concerned is largely susceptible to GDP growth and expectations of rents and returns.

The paper “Permanent and temporary retail space: shoppers’ perceptions of in-line stores and retail carts in Singapore” by Ibrahim and Chua looks at an increasingly important issue in retail asset management – the temporary retail space. The judicious utilisation of retail carts and kiosks not only effectively enhances the usage of space in shopping centres/malls, but it can also potentially provide better returns for the property investors. To this end, shopper perception is an important determinant of the acceptability and success of retail carts and kiosks. This study surveys 500 shoppers from four shopping centres on the respondents’ perception of temporary retail space vis-à-vis permanent space. Interestingly, the results show a preference for permanent in-line stores.

Christudason’s paper “Legal framework for collective sale of real estate in Singapore: pot of gold for investors?” examines the phenomenon of collective sale, which is essentially a form of collective action whereby all owners of separate units within a development, sell their properties collectively and at the same time to a single party or a consortium/joint venture, which has the intention of redeveloping the site into a new development. Collective sales have gained popularity as a way for redevelopment when planning parameters allow for more intensive use of existing developments. The paper traces the legislative changes as well as the arguments – both social and economic – for and against collective sales. In particular, the tension between majority and minority owners is examined.

The last paper “Collective sales and related valuation issues: a Singapore case study” by Lim follows on with examining the valuation issues relating to collective sales. The determination of value is central to the success of such collective sales, and often a contentious issue among sellers. A case study is used to illustrate the process and highlight the key issues.

Last but not least, I trust that readers would find the papers informative and interesting.

Acknowledgements

Editor’s note: This is a themed issue that has arisen organically. All the papers were refereed and accepted separately but I then chose to publish them all in the same issue to benefit from a synergy of similar topics.

Ong Seow EngNational University of Singapore, Singapore