Daily Briefing: Prime retail rent still down in Q2; A crowdfunding party in Singapore

And latest HDB resale transactions signal a stability.

Singapore registered a continued decline in average prime retail rents in the second quarter of this year, revealed a CBRE report. Average prime rents in Orchard Road as tracked by CBRE fell 1.1 percent from Q1 2016 to S$32.50 per sq ft per month or its sixth consecutive quarter of decline. Over at the suburban areas, rents dipped 0.7 percent to S$29.45 per sq ft per month from Q1 2016. Read more here.

Don't let the city's 1 percent interbank interest rates fool you. Money is tight in Singapore.Lenders are lifting credit standards for riskier borrowers. It doesn't help that the island's real-estate market is in the doldrums, and business owners who could have raised new equity in more normal times by refinancing investment properties have little wiggle room to do so now, due to the central bank's highly restrictive 2013 limits on total debt servicing. Find out more here.

The HDB resale market in Singapore continues on a stable trend as resale prices of HDB flats went up a slight 0.2% in May 2016 from the previous two months, which saw gradual dips of 0.1%. Resale volume also remains stagnant with 1,826 resale flats sold in May 2016 and 1,828 units sold in April 2016 according to SRX Property Flash Figures released yesterday. Read more here.