Higher and higher prices

Fans of new launches, fasten your seat belts, looks like there is an unabated rise in price.

The reported average selling price of about $1,150 psf for The Scala (99year LH) is about 1.5 times the prices of existing apartments in the area. And yet it is almost sold out, if not already all gone.

The jump in prices are definitely going to flow through into the third quarter private housing statistics.

Separately, the launch price for The Greenwich was at $980 psf on average, rising to $1,025 psf over the weekend - a record for a location so far away from the city centre.

One consultant was spot on when he was quoted as saying "the buyers are those who really like this corner of Singapore".

Moving forward, launches near MRT like Lakeside and Simei could easily be more than $1000psf.

Low interest rates for longer

After concluding its two-day meeting, the Fed decided to hold rates at record low and to reinvest proceeds of mortgage-backed securities back into long dated bonds.

MarketWatch: China's July exports rise

Looks like the Chinese economy is still humming along, but it makes you wonder where all those exports are going?

MarketWatch BULLETIN: China's July exports rise 38.1% vs. year-earlier period, beating forecasts
08/09/2010 11:08:22 PM EDT

Visit http://marketwatch.com/bulletins/redirect/go?g=B70ADB9DDDD04F75A527D2847CBF51AD&d=bnbt for updates to this story and more

Bloomberg: China Property Prices Rise 10.3%, Least in Six Months

Looks like its cooling but probably not fast enough to allay fears of a bubble. And certainly not quick enough to cause a crash either.

Below is an excerpt of the article, for the full article please visit Bloomberg.com.

Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- China's property prices rose at the slowest pace in six months in July as the government cracked down on speculation to prevent asset bubbles.

Prices in 70 major cities climbed 10.3 percent from a year earlier, the statistics bureau's newspaper, China Information News, reported today. The value of sales fell 19.3 percent from a year earlier.

Today's data showing sales cooling faster than prices suggests the government will maintain real-estate curbs even as the economy slows, according to Credit Agricole CIB and Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. China's banking regulator has ordered stress tests for lenders to gauge the impact of home prices falling as much as 60 percent in the hardest-hit markets, a person with knowledge of the matter said last week.

The "clamp down is not having as much of an effect so far - - at least on the country-wide basis -- as policy makers had hoped," said Credit Agricole economist Dariusz Kowalczyk in Hong Kong. "The data increases the risk of more policy action."