Daily Briefing: Telco entrant taps Goldman, DBS; 900 families got a third HDB loan

And Singapore developers post lowest new home sales in 14 months.

Competition is heating up in Singapore’s S$11 billion ($8 billion) telecommunications market, threatening to increase funding costs for potential new entrants. MyRepublic Ltd., a local Internet service provider backed by French billionaire Xavier Niel and Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group, enlisted Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and DBS Group Holdings Ltd. to help raise S$250 million to support its bid for the new fourth mobile-phone license, Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Rodrigues said. Read more here.

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) granted a third housing loan to around 900 families last year, according to National Development Minister Lawrence Wong during a parliamentary session on Monday (14 March), reported Channel NewsAsia. Of this, 25 percent are concessionary loans, while about 75 percent consisted of non-concessionary loans, which are based on market rates. Find out more here.

Singapore developers sold the lowest number of new homes in 14 months, as mortgage curbs cooled demand in Asia’s second-most expensive housing market. Developers sold 301 units in February, down 7 percent from the revised 323 units in January, according to data released Tuesday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. While annual sales rose just under 2 percent to 7,440 units in 2015, it’s still half the clip recorded in 2013. Read more here.