Daily Briefing: Divergence of property prices fueled by ‘euphoric' sentiments; oBike to ditch bike sharing for e-scooter services

And here’s how Singaporeans could enjoy automated immigration clearance in New Zealand.

From iCompare Loan:

Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong said that the divergence in price trends in property price indexes is caused by euphoria in the private property market. Data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed that private home prices increased 7.9% in 2018 whilst data from the Housing Board Development (HDB) showed that HDB resale prices dipped 0.9%.

“This has happened in the past, and more recently between Q2 2017 and Q3 2018,” Wong said. “The recent divergence was largely due to euphoric sentiments in the private property market. This resulted in a sharp increase in private property prices over a very short duration. Hence the government had moved to introduce the last round of cooling measures in July last year.”

Wong noted that the government will continue to monitor both the public and private property markets and that they will ensure that the markets are stable and sustainable.

Read more here.

From Deal Street Asia:

OSS Inversiones which acquired oBike will terminate the bike sharing firm and will transform it into an e-scooter scheme under the new brand Omni.

The operator will deploy its e-scooters around Orchard Road and Raffles Place once the application is approved. Omni also reportedly said it chose to start in Singapore as it wanted to show potential markets before a global expansion that the business can operate in a regulated environment.

Shared-PMD services operators have been allowed to submit for sandbox licences with limited fleets under the Land Transport Authority’s new policy.

Read more here.

From Yahoo! News Singapore:

Citizens of Singapore and New Zealand citizens will be able to enjoy the automated immigration clearance facilities when travelling to each other’s country.

“Holders of New Zealand passports aged six and above who are holding a passport with more than six months’ validity and have visited Singapore at least twice in the past two years are eligible to apply for Singapore’s Frequent Traveller Programme (FTP),” the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said. “Likewise, eligible Singaporeans will also be able to make use of similar automated immigration clearance facilities in New Zealand.”

The move comes as part of the Singapore-New Zealand Enhanced Partnership, which is aimed at boosting trade, business and tourism links between the two countries.

Read more here.