The Power Of Praise & Worship and The Real Estate In Singapore

The Power Of Praise & Worship and The Real Estate In Singapore
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Monday 11 May 2015

Man gets 3 weeks' jail for slapping blogger Amos Yee

Man gets 3 weeks' jail for slapping blogger Amos Yee 

Neo Gim Huah, 49, has pleaded guilty to slapping teenage blogger Amos Yee outside the State Courts last month. -- ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Neo Gim Huah, 49, has pleaded guilty to slapping teenage blogger Amos Yee outside the State Courts last month. -- ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Amos Yee holding his face in pain after a man slapped him hard on the left cheek, as he was walking alone to the State Courts on April 30, 2015.  -- ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG 
Amos Yee holding his face in pain after a man slapped him hard on the left cheek, as he was walking alone to the State Courts on April 30, 2015.  -- ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG 



Neo, who is self-employed, was caught on camera slapping the teenager at about 2.40pm on April 30, 2015. -- PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM YOUTUBE

Neo, who is self-employed, was caught on camera slapping the teenager at about 2.40pm on April 30, 2015. -- PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM YOUTUBE 



SINGAPORE - A self-employed man was sentenced to three weeks in jail on Monday for slapping teenage blogger Amos Yee outside the State Courts last month.
Neo Gim Huah, 49, was charged in court on Monday. He was not represented and gave a long mitigation plea in Chinese, explaining why he did it. He told the court earlier he wanted to teach Yee a lesson.
Neo, who runs his own air-conditioning and electrical engineering business, said he had taken offence at portions of the video posted online by Yee which he found disrespectful to Singapore's founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
He closely monitored the case and intended to confront and slap the blogger before his first two court appearances as he felt that the teenager's actions had portrayed Singapore in a negative light.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Winston Man said Neo initially restrained himself and did not confront Yee until his third court appearance on April 30 when he realised the teenager had flouted his bail conditions.
Neo also believed that it would be difficult for the criminal justice system to deal effectively with Yee because of his age.
On the afternoon of April 30, he waited at the State Courts for Yee to arrive. He knew the media was present when he slapped the blogger, and deliberately committed the offence as he wanted the assault to be publicised "so that the world at large would know that the victim was being taught a lesson''.
Neo was arrested at about 2am the next day.
Arguing for a sentence of two weeks' jail, DPP Man said Neo's offence was pre-meditated and featured a strong element of vigilantism, which undermined law enforcement mechanisms and the criminal justice system.
"Public confidence in law enforcement mechanics and the criminal justice system will also be eroded if there is a widespread perception that it is acceptable to take the law into one's own hands and resort to violence in order to address a perceived injustice,'' he said.
Neo said in his mitigation letter that Yee had been disrespectful to Singapore's founding father and insulted him, making all of Mr Lee's contributions "worthless''.
He said Yee, whom he described as a "clever child'', had let everyone down.
"What I feel is what everybody is feeling," he said.
Slapping him would instil fear in the teenager, let him know what the ways of the world are and teach him a lesson, Neo said.
He said he knew it was wrong to slap Yee but could not control himself. 
He could be jailed for up to two years and/or fined up to $5,000.
The Straits Times / Singapore                                    Published on Monday, 11 May 2015
By Elena Chong                                                         elena@sph.com.sg
Man gets 3 weeks' jail for slapping blogger Amos Yee

Saturday 9 May 2015

Strata industrial units looking to fill the void

Strata industrial units looking to fill the void
Lower-than-expected rental yields put off potential buyers

A Straits Times visit to Oxley Bizhub 1 found at least 20 units for rent or sale among the 45 units on the ground floor of one block. Buyers were told they would be able to get rents of about $3 per sq ft per month. But it is believed that most are struggling to even get $1.80 psf per month. -- ST PHOTO: DANIEL NEO
A Straits Times visit to Oxley Bizhub 1 found at least 20 units for rent or sale among the 45 units on the ground floor of one block. Buyers were told they would be able to get rents of about $3 per sq ft per month. But it is believed that most are struggling to even get $1.80 psf per month. -- ST PHOTO: DANIEL NEO
A Straits Times visit to Oxley Bizhub 1 found at least 20 units for rent or sale among the 45 units on the ground floor of one block. Buyers were told they would be able to get rents of about $3 per sq ft per month. But it is believed that most are struggling to even get $1.80 psf per month. -- ST PHOTO: DANIEL NEO

AN OVER-SUPPLY of strata industrial units is hitting sales and sending rents down. The pain is especially acute among projects completed since the second half of last year as these were bought around two to three years earlier, when the market was heady, say experts.

"They were marketed at very high rental expectations... Property agents tend to tell buyers current rents without anticipating what was going to happen a year or two down the road," an industry veteran said.

At Oxley Bizhub 1, for example, buyers were told they would be able to get rents of about $3 per sq ft per month. But word on the street is that most are struggling to even get $1.80 psf per month in rent, and most transacted rents are below $2 psf.

This translates into rental yield of about 3.5 to 4.5 per cent, 20 to 30 per cent lower than the 5 to 7 per cent yield buyers were expecting.

A recent Straits Times visit to Oxley Bizhub 1, which was completed in 2013, found there were at least 20 units for rent or sale among the 45 units on the ground floor of one block.

At Synergy@KB in Kaki Bukit, which was completed last year and is over 80 per cent sold, occupants estimate the project is 40 per cent full.

Estimated occupancy in most of the new projects is 50 to 60 per cent, with Business 2 (B2) projects faring better than Business 1 (B1) projects, experts said. B1 developments are suitable for lighter industries, compared with B2 ones.

The vacancy rate of multiple- user factory space in the private sector - including strata factories for sale - was 12.5 per cent in the first quarter, representing about 13.38 million sq ft of space.

A further 4.55 million sq ft of multiple-user factory space is expected to be completed this year. Of this, slightly over half is expected to be strata-titled and put on sale, said R'ST Research director Ong Kah Seng. This includes Apex@Henderson, CT Hub 2 in Kallang, Eco-Tech@Sunview in Pioneer, Mapex in Jalan Pemimpin as well as Tag A and Tagore 8 in Tagore.

"Vacancy rates (for such space) are likely to trend upwards this year, possibly hitting about 15.5 per cent at the end of the year," Mr Ong said.

The fight for tenants is also apparent at older developments. At Tuas Lot, which was completed in 2010, asking rents have dropped from around $1.35 psf per month before Chinese New Year to about $1 psf per month.

Sales are slow as well. A factory unit at UB. One, completed in 2011, has taken about six months of advertising to sell, an agent said. The owner also trimmed the asking price by $50 per sq ft.

Transaction activity in the strata-titled industrial sales segment is likely to remain muted this year, "as long as buyers and sellers continue to engage in a waiting game to see which party will first give way on their price expectation", said Mr Tan Boon Leong, executive director of industrial services at Colliers International.

"But faced with a triple whammy of weak buying demand, rising interest rates and softening rents, sellers with a weaker holding power are more likely to relent on their expected prices in the coming quarters."

The Straits Times / Money                               Published on Saturday, 9 May 2015  

By Rennie Whang                                            wrennie@sph.com.sg

Background story
SPACE INVASION

Estimated occupancy in most of the new projects is 50 to 60 per cent, with Business 2 (B2) projects faring better than Business 1 (B1) projects, experts said.

B1 developments are suitable for lighter industries, compared with B2 ones. The vacancy rate of multiple-user factory space in the private sector - including strata factories for sale - was 12.5 per cent in the first quarter, representing about 13.38 million sq ft of space.

Strata industrial units looking to fill the void

Fall in rental vacancies ‘may not be full picture’


More companies buying strata offices

Tenants wanted for strata office buildings - Commercial Office - (Straits Times ST 4 Apr 2015)


URA revamps property price index methodology


Mixed-use sites draws massive $1.67b bid - Government Land Sale (GSL)






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