Photo: Company
Strolling through the landscaped grounds of Golden City condominium (above), you may be tempted to think of investing in an apartment there.
Yangon, everyone knows, has lots of growth in the years and decades ahead.
For foreign investors, that growth potential is out of reach currently until new local laws regarding foreign ownership are made clearer. (See recent Bloomberg story)
Meanwhile, Emerging Towns & Cities Singapore (fka Cedar Strategic) is looking to create legal agreements that provide comfort to foreigners wanting to invest -- while not being able to hold the title deed of the property -- in Golden City, which it owns a 49% stake of.
Yangon's property market has cooled down in the past year or two, but Golden City attracts potential buying interest from overseas individual and corporate buyers, as we learnt during a visit to Golden City last week along with several analysts.
Photo: Company
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Golden City -- snapshot |
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Leasehold |
50 + 20 years with effect from 2013. |
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Total no. of blocks |
11 |
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9 blocks of 33 storey residences; |
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Expected TOP |
4 phases from 2016-2019 |
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Developed GFA |
336,660 sq m |
Golden City's buyers are affluent locals who pay cash as Myanmar banks do not give mortgage loans.
Potentially when the banks are capable of providing mortgage loans in the future, the property market could receive a boost.
Tan Thiam Hee, CEO of ETC Singapore.
Photo by Leong Chan Teik Phase 1 of Golden City is 64% sold while it's 44% at Phase 2.
According to project officials, based on feedback received after Phase 1, more of the smaller-sized units were introduced in Phase 2 (see table).
They not only sold faster but also fetched higher psf selling prices, in excess of USD300 psf.
ETC Singapore acquired a 49% stake last year (2016) in Golden City. For the first day of sales in 2014, Golden City attracted overnight buying queues, a phenomenon unheard of previously in Myanmar.
And within two months, US$100 million of sales were achieved.
ETC, for FY2016, recognised RMB 570.2 million in revenue from the sale of 205 units. (As at 31 Dec 2016, another 230 units have been sold but yet to be recognised.)
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Golden City – Phase 2 |
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1 bedroom |
60 units |
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2 bedrooms |
184 units |
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3 bedrooms |
122 units |
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Penthouse |
12 units |
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Average price |
USD296 psf |
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Golden City – Phase 1 |
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2 bedrooms |
68 units |
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3 bedrooms |
298 units |
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4 bedrooms |
122 units |
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Penthouse |
16 units |
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Average price |
USD254 psf |
Golden City: At 33 storeys, the project is the tallest in Myanmar, offering a view of landmarks such as Shwedagon Pagoda and Inya Lake. Photo: Company Asked if ETC Singapore will be moving on to another property development project, ETC Singapore's CEO, Tan Thiam Hee, said the company targets one or two projects a year.
Greenfield or brownfield projects in cities in Indonesia, Thailand and China are on ETC's radar, he said.
| ETC Singapore | 11.5 cents |
| 52-week range | 2.5-16 cents |
| Market cap | S$96 m |
| PE (ttm) | 5.9 |
| Dividend yield | -- |
| Year-to-date return | 40% |
| Source: Bloomberg | |
The approach for greenfield projects is to partner a landowner who takes an equity stake in the development project with ETC, he said.
ETC Singapore's first project -- Daya Bay holiday resort in Guangdong, China -- was a brownfield project from which it recognised RMB 138.7 million in 2016 for the sale of 232 units.
All in, ETC Singapore reported profit attributable to shareholders in 2016 of RMB 63.9 million, up 8.5 times from the year before. (ETC's reporting currency for 2016 was RMB but the company is looking to change it this year).
Now, watch our 2 minutes 39 seconds video of our visit to Golden City project -->
