3Q08 Economy Performance

(1) GDP
3Q08 (yr-yr): -0.6% (LastQ: 2.3%)
2008 Forecast: 2.5%
2009 Forecast: -1 to 2%

(2) CPI
(A) Mth-Mth
Jul: 1.2%
Aug: 0.2%
Sep: No change

(B) Yr-Yr
Jul: 6.5%
Aug: 6.4%
Sep: 6.7%

(C) 1st 9mths: 6.9%

(3) Employment
3Q08: 57.8k (LastQ: 71.4k)

(4) Retrenchment
3Q08: 2k (LastQ: 1,798)

(5) Unemployment
3Q08: 2.2% (LastQ: 2.2%)

* MTI-GDP *
* StatSing: CPI7, CPI8, CPI9 *
* MOM-Employment *

Lower Density for Strata Landed Homes

URA is reinstating an old rule to strata-titled landed homes, aka cluster homes, as developers tend to cram as many homes onto a plot as possible, leading to congestion problem and affecting quality of the living environment.

wef 3 Feb 09, a cap to limit the number of allowable units in strata landed housing will be re-introduced. This will be based on a min plot size/unit which is similar to conventional landed homes. Thus developers will have to build fewer strata landed units, but each unit can be bigger in size.

A comparison of the # of units on 10k sqm b4 and after the change of rules:
Strata terrace: 80 vs 66 (20% bigger in size)
Strata semi-D: 72 vs 50 (45% bigger in size)
Strata bungalow: 60 vs 25 (2.4x bigger in size)

Strata-bungalows and semi-D may eventually disappear as such houses are bigger and thus less affordable. Typically these homes cost 10 - 20% less than conventional landed homes under current rules.

* URA-Strata , AsiaOne-Strata *