UOL Group said on Sunday afternoon that the first weekend launch of the Clavon condominium along Clementi Avenue 1 saw about 70 per cent of the entire 640 units in the 99-year leasehold project being taken up.

 

The units were sold at an average price of S$1,640 per square foot.

 

The units sold were across all types including the large format ones like the three, four and five-bedroom apartments.

 

Clavon offers units of between one and five bedrooms, the sizes of which range from 527 square feet (sq ft) to 1,690 sq ft. About 56 per cent of the 640 units in the development are one- and two-bedroom units of between 527 sq ft and 764 sq ft.

 

Clavon is a 80:20 joint venture between UOL and its subsidiary United Industrial Corporation Limited.

 

The development has two 37-storey towers and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.

 

PROPERTY company UOL Group on Wednesday said headwinds remain, although its retail portfolio' s committed occupancy remains stable, with average daily footfall in the third quarter having recovered to 54 per cent of pre-Covid levels.

 

In the first nine months of 2020, shopper footfall fell 43.1 per cent from the levels in the year before. Committed occupancy at the end of September was 93.5 per cent, from 94.4 per cent at the end of June.

 

UOL said it continues to offer targeted support for tenants who are still unable to open for business or whose revenues have taken a signficant hit from the fallout of Covid-19.

 

It did not provide revenue or earnings numbers in its Q3 business update on Wednesday, but offered some operational updates such as " healthy" sales clocked at its residential projects Avenue South Residence and The Tre Ver these developments have respectively been 53.2 per cent and 98.6 per cent sold.

 

The committed occupancy in UOL' s office portfolio is still " resilient" , it said, although new tenant leasing demand is expected to remain soft amid the uncertain economic outlook.

 

Going into the end of the year, the group is expecting the easing of Covid-19 measures and the upcoming year-end holidays to support the demand for staycations. Most of its Singapore hospitality properties have opened for staycations, with Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay and Pan Pacific Singapore to open for this purpose next.

 

There has also been an extension of government quarantine contracts for Pan Pacific Melbourne, Parkroyal Melbourne Airport and Parkroyal Darling Harbour in Australia, as well as for Parkroyal on Kitchener Road in Singapore.

 

Occupancy for UOL' s owned hotels in Singapore and Oceania averaged 68 per cent and 57 per cent for the first nine months of 2020, compared to 84 per cent and 83 per cent respectively a year ago. Revenue per available room remains at less than half the levels of a year ago.

 

UOL also has some property launches coming up, including Clavon, a condominium near Clementi MRT station targeted to launch next month, a residential project in Canberra Drive to launch in the first half of 2021, and One Bishopsgate Plaza, a mixed-use tower in London projected for completion in the first half of 2021.

 

As at end-Sept, UOL held S$860 million in cash, and had unutilised credit facilities of S$2.8 billion.

Property company UOL has sunk into the red with net losses of $82.1 million for its first half ended June 30, compared with a net profit of $267.7 million a year ago.

 

This was due mainly to fair value losses on its investment properties, including retail malls and serviced suites which were severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, it said.

 

Excluding fair value losses, the group' s operations remained in the black, with group pre-tax profit totalling $196.8 million, down 30 per cent from $282.8 million in the first half of FY2019.

 

The group' s investment properties were independently valued at a combined $11.3 billion as at end-June, representing a $263.8 million or 2 per cent decline from the value as at end-December last year.

 

The decline in value was observed across all of the group' s commercial properties and serviced suites, and reflected the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the performance of these properties, it said.

 

The earnings decline also came on the back of a 28 per cent drop in revenue to $908.2 million, with the biggest hit seen in the hotel ownership and operations segment, where revenue fell 57 per cent to $136.8 million.

 

This was due to the group' s hotels being affected by the lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed by governments around the world, with Singapore and Australia hotels seeing the largest decline.

 

It was compounded by the closure of Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay and Parkroyal Kuala Lumpur for major refurbishments and the absence of revenue from Pan Pacific Suzhou, which was sold last December.

 

Revenue from the property development segment was 29 per cent lower at $379.7 million, as the revenue from Park Eleven in Shanghai for the first half of last year was significantly higher due to the large number of units handed over in the first quarter of last year.

 

The decline was offset partially by higher progressive revenue recognition from ongoing projects in Singapore, mainly Avenue South Residence in Silat Avenue and The Tre Ver in Potong Pasir.

 

Revenue from its property investments fell by 14 per cent to $238.8 million, due mainly to rental rebates of $26.3 million extended to tenants affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.