Wing Tai

[winston]

Wing Tai said on Tuesday net profit for its fourth quarter fell by 60 percent to S$96.3 million ($67.5 million), from S$243.2 million a year ago, as it sold fewer homes and saw lower fair value gains from investment properties, Singapore's Business Times reported.

[winston]

Not vested.

- Developer Wing Tai said it is in no hurry to launch the two sites it owns in Singapore's prestigious Ardmore Park area, and sees home prices remaining mostly stable until at least 2010 despite some weakening in prices now.

[millionairemind]

Wonder Y they won't want to launch the 2 sites if they think home prices going to be stable????

[iam802]

They are probably betting that winds of subprime would have been gone in another year or two and the future IR will drive the demand.

After all, it is Ardmore area. So, if the market move then, this one is going to be in the news.

[millionairemind]

October 30, 2008, 6.21 pm (Singapore time)

Wing Tai reports Q1 earnings fall of 47%

By UMA SHANKARI
WING Tai Holdings said Thursday that its first quarter profit fell 47 per cent to S$32.6 million, from S$61.8 million a year ago as it saw lower profit contributions from associated and joint venture companies. Earnings per share fell to 4.13 Singapore cents, from 8.58 Singapore cents a year ago.

For the three months ended September 30, 2008, Wing Tai saw revenue climb 34 per cent to S$134.3 million, from S$100.2 million in the previous corresponding period. This increase is mainly attributable to the higher contributions from the development properties division, Wing Tai said.

Revenue for the current period came largely from the units sold in Helios Residences and The Riverine by the Park in Singapore, and Sering Ukay in Malaysia. Profits recognized from these projects also contributed to the increase in the group's operating profit from S$15.0 million to S$41.1 million, an increase of 174 per cent.

However, Wing Tai's share of profits of associated and joint venture companies fell by 88 per cent to S$7.8 million in Q1 due to the substantially lower profit recognition from the sale of residential units in VisionCrest and USI Holdings.

Looking ahead, demand for properties is expected to slow down with the slower economic growth and weaker market sentiment, Wing Tai said: 'The group will continue to monitor the market closely and will exercise prudent management to ride through these difficult times.'

As at September 30, 2008, Wing Tai's net gearing ratio is 0.4 times and it has no loan maturing in Singapore for the next twelve month, the developer said.

[kennynah]

cut to the chase...does wingtai own all the hotel 81s ???? i thot they do....unless u tell me u know for a fact they dont....

[millionairemind]

Wingtai is sitting very nicely on a long term support

[millionairemind]

At $2000psf, someone's been taken for a ride

Angry buyers clash with developer Wing Tai over alleged defects
By Loh Chee Kong, TODAY | Posted: 02 January 2009 1013 hrs

SINGAPORE : An ugly spat - that has already resulted in a police report lodged against a homeowner - is brewing between listed property giant Wing Tai and some foreign investors of its three-year-old luxury condo near Orchard Road.

The development, which briefly set a record price of more than S$2,000 per square foot when it was launched, has more than 130 units in all.

At least 15 unit owners - most of them foreigners who were buying their first Singapore properties - have come forward with a series of complaints claiming that poor workmanship has led to problems including cracked parquet flooring, chipped marble tiles, watermarks on walls and shattered glass panels on the balconies.

Some of these owners spoke to TODAY on condition of anonymity. They said they did not even want their condo to be named, for fear that it would drive down resale values.

The complainants said that the average cost of a two-bedroom unit had been more than S$2 million; one investor had bought six such units for a total of S$15 million, and one couple paid S$7 million for a single four-bedroom apartment.

The latest incident on Monday morning - which happened as contractors were called in to rectify problems after similar incidents - saw a glass panel fall more than nine storeys from an unoccupied unit on to the swimming pool area. The impact shattered the panel and flung broken glass shards into the pool and as far as 20 metres away. No one was hurt.

According to residents, it is the fifth time a glass panel on a balcony had either shattered or fallen from a height.

When contacted, spokesman Clement Augustine from the property developer Winworth Investment - a subsidiary of Wing Tai Land - said the company takes a “serious view on safety on all our developments”.

Mr Augustine added that the glass panels used had met all industrial safety standards. In addition, each panel had been laminated with safety film to prevent them from shattering.

Winworth has lodged a police report over the latest incident, with Mr Augustine suggesting that the glass panel could have been tampered with.

Mr Augustine said that the owner of the affected unit had refused entry to Winworth’s representatives to investigate the latest incident. “From the pieces recovered (on the ground), we noticed that the safety film was broken. We cannot rule out the possibility that there may be wilful damage to the glass,” Mr Augustine said.

In response, the unit owner brushed off the fact that a police report has been lodged against him. He told TODAY that the condo’s management council - made up of some of the homeowners - that decided to ask an independent surveyor to assess the damage in his unit before the developer was allowed access.

The owner said he had told Winworth’s representatives they could enter his unit the next day. “It’s like when you have a car accident, you let the police do its investigation first, then you call the insurance before you go and repair the car,” he said.

The face-off was a development in a saga - already involving a lengthy exchange of emails and letters - simmering in the quiet and exclusive neighbourhood.

Disputing Winworth’s assertion that the defects were due to “wear and tear”, a handful of frustrated homeowners claimed they had spent thousands of dollars out of their own pocket on interior repair works.

One resident described the situation as “frustrating and insulting”. She said: “Most of the people living here are CEOs or managing directors. They can easily afford the repairs. The issue is having to take time off from running their companies to stay at home and supervise the repair and enhancement works.”

Conceding that some unit owners may not have inspected the apartments thoroughly before buying, she added: “When you pay that sort of money, you would assume the unit would be of the highest quality or at least a minimum standard. You don’t go into a Gucci or Hermes shop and check on every stitch in the bag that you have just bought.”

Mr Augustine said that the development had been granted its TOP (temporary occupation permit) in mid-2005. He denied that there had been shoddy workmanship and said that in any case defects which had been highlighted within the one-year liability period “have long since been addressed”.

Homeowners should channel their current grouses to the condo’s management corporation, which is responsible for its maintenance, he said.

The condo is now managed by Knight Frank Estate Management, which residents say took over at the beginning of last month from PSF.

Mr Augustine insisted that the units had been handed over their buyers only after each buyer had been given the opportunity of inspecting their homes and declaring themselves satisfied with the quality.

Even so, the developer had provided complimentary repair service for “genuine” complaints, Mr Augustine said.

He said: “There remain isolated incidences where a few owners may not have carried out diligent maintenance works, or have suffered willful damage to property, or whose property is the subject of wear-and-tear. Obviously, we are unable to address these matters because these owners should be responsible for their own repairs.”

[winston]

During the property boom, people were lining up at show-rooms and buying stuff from brochures. However, I'm not surprised that some of the people lining up at the showrooms, are there for show only.

I have been to a few show-rooms before and was told that there were no more units available. However, after a few days, I will always get a call saying that there's a unit that is available.

BTW, most of the people who were buying off brochures, were basically speculating and have no intention in living there. So it does not matter that the view is lousy, the finishing substandards etc. as these speculators will unload before they take possession of the property.

With the bust in the property market, some of these speculators have now turned into landlords ie. renting these places out or alternatively, being forced to live in these places. It's only then that they notice the defects, the lousy view etc., which you cant see from a brochure.

So if you are buying your home for the first time and intend to live there, my advice is buy something that is finished. You may pay more but it will save you a lot of grief later. The grief could be from a lousy view, a wall right in front of your main door, sub-standard finishings, poor maintenance of public areas, defective appliances etc.

BTW, my friend had a few condos before the Asian Financial Crisis. He managed unload most of them. For the two that he was stuck with, he had to stay in one as he was not able to rent it out. The developer had no money to finish what was promised. His corridor was not paved, the finishings in his apartment was substandard, the maintenance was lousy etc.

[iam802]

lesson learnt : 'buy when no one wants to visit showroom'

eg. SARS period