Daily Briefing: LTA says Ryde's soon-to-be-launched courier service illegal; Windy Height's price tag could drop by $50m in second en bloc attempt

And developers are trimming down condo prices by 5% to 10%.

From Yahoo! News Singapore:

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) warned Ryde Technologies that the their soon-to-be-launched courier service would violate rules banning public service vehicles such as private hire cars for solely delivering goods and drivers who will do such jobs may have their licenses revoked.

“Under our regulations, taxis and private-hire cars are meant to carry passengers for hire and reward, and cannot be used for the conveyance of goods,” an LTA spokesperson told Yahoo! News Singapore.

The LTA spokesperson added that Ryde did not consult the authority before launching its service.

The announcement of the service comes almost two weeks after Ryde announced it had obtained approval from the LTA to provide third-party taxi booking services.

Read more here.

From iCompare Loan:

Windy Heights’ reserve price could be slashed by $50m down to $750m as its owners were unsuccessful in their previous attempt to sell the property collectively at $806.2m back in April.

The property is one of the largest freehold residential redevelopment sites in District 14. It comprises of four residential blocks of 192 apartment units, 8 penthouses, and 2 commercial units that has a site area of 23,291 sq m.

Knight Frank said if the 2nd collective sale attempt is successful, the plot could be redeveloped into as many as 581 new homes, at 100 sq m on average for each unit. The new tender for Windy Heights closes at 2.30pm on Sept 7.

Read more here.

From Property Guru:

Private condominiums launched before and after the new property curbs are slashing their prices by 5% to 10%.

For instance, Daintree Residence in Upper Bukit Timah reduced its average price by 5.0 percent from $1,800 psf to $1,710 psf. This is the first private residential project in Singapore to be rolled out after the new cooling measures took effect on 6 July.

At The Tre Ver at Potong Pasir, units were sold at an average price of $1,550 psf during its launch on 4 August. This means condos there are 10 percent cheaper than those in the nearby Park Colonial, which sold units at an average price of $1,750 psf. Notably, the latter’s developer brought forward the project’s launch to the evening of 5 July before the new curbs took effect.

“The price sweeteners are there to cushion the immediate impact of cooling measures and create an urgency to buy,” said Dr Tan Tee Khoon, executive director at Knight Frank.

Read more here.