Sunday, January 26, 2020

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in Singapore

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in Singapore The issue of high rentals become one of concern for many Singaporeans people, especially small business owners as increasing rental space have been profide more and more strain for SMEs in recent years. SMEs said that REITs have large numbers of commercial property spaces in Singapore, they have a huge market share and REITs able to influence the entire market and increase rental prices for their own profit Shopping malls owned by Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) receive higher rents compared with their single-owner and fellow because of REITs got better locations and enhancement work rather than single ownership. It is uncertain because they were REITs owned, instead, it was because of other factors such as good accessibility to MRT stations and other physical assets effect. REITs malls keep on draw interest from both existing tenants and new to market brands. For example, from CMT annual report, a total of 629 leases were renewed with an increase of 6.3% over preceding rental rates contracted three years ago, and when compared to single owner malls, there was big distinction in the rate of rental rising, many smaller company have reported double-digit rent increases this year. Sometimes, single owner malls did not publish non-price issues like lack of transparency about rental price and unfair tenancy agreements. Landlords owned commercial shops would independently increase rentals to the public market rent at each rent renewal or first time leasing. Compared to units rented in an independently owned shopping mall, the rental increases of units rented in a REIT managed mall would be prepared to be more evenly and gently increased than in an independently owned commercial shopping mall. Any increasing in rentals within a REIT’s retail commercial mall, would be equally increased gradually over all the leased units within the mall. Management of units under REIT mall would be sensitive and fair to every tenant under REITs mall. This would refrain from unhappiness amongst neighboring tenants within the same mall. SMEs also said that REITs make use of their dominance in the industry to negotiate rent contracts that consequently increase costs for tenants. They may all have a multiple effect to each other, so even if lease increase simultaneously for REIT owned and other single-owner malls, this could still be define as REITs actually being the price leaders In fact, REITs own only around 20 per cent of malls in Singapore. Small retail shop owner and all landlords are motivated to increase the rental and maximize their return on investment. There was no proof to indicate who the leader, and there was also no evidence to propose that rentals escalated faster after REIT takeover of existing malls. REIT owned malls are not statistically distinct from those of single-owner malls after controlling for factors such as location and asset enhancement initiatives (AEI). Asset enhancement is a continual action to generate value for shoppers, tenants and the community in REITs mall neighborhoods. To increase the value of portfolio, REITs proceeding asset enhancement works have supported REITs asset management strategy associated to tenant mix, customer service and promotional activities by upgrading the layouts, efficiency and facilities of the properties that cover the portfolio. The main objective of REITs asset enhancement projects is to generate a decent retail environment that seduce new retailers, seize the changing needs of consumers and give satisfactory returns for investors. Asset enhancements also authorize REITs to serve to new demand. Besides improved physical attributes, they have been dynamic in attracting traffic and upgrade their offerings, which allow them to gather higher rentals price, for example, fashion retailers such as Uniqlo and HM usually prefer duplexes, so through AEI, they can generate the space for such tenants. REITs have been very motivated and, at the end of the day, the results speak for themselves. Occupancy rates at the malls are generally very high, this runs reverse to the growing perception that rents at the former are rising at a faster speed. By just only comparing between REIT and non-REIT malls, we can easily feel the different atmosphere. Retail atmosphere can be influenced by who manage the mall. â€Å"Atmospherics† contributes to the quality of the retail environment and represents a considerable differentiation aspect as a retailing strategy. Store (or mall) atmosphere has an effect on shoppers’ behavioral responses: cognitive (e.g. beliefs, categorization, symbolic meaning), emotional (e.g. mood, attitude) and physiological (e.g. pain, comfort, etc.). These behavioral responses, in turn, play an important role in shaping shoppers’ approach and avoidance motivation toward the store (or mall) at large. Thus, atmospherics is customarily used by retailers to attract and maintain traffic. Based on that, shoppers use whatever available information cues, such as atmospherics cues, to evaluate unavailable, missing or difficult to evaluate information such as price and quality. Several store-related stu dies were able to demonstrate that shoppers make inferences about quality of merchandise using store atmospheric cues. In a shopping mall context, we can found that the ambient scent (an atmospheric cue) influenced the perception of merchandise quality. In despite of so many complaints, there is plenty of demand for space out there. There are some chain retails which have very strong bargaining power against REITs and some deep-pocket retailers also contribute to rental hiking. It happened because the improved economic conditions, healthy, tourist, arrivals, low unemployment and growing household income have underpinned consumer spending in Singapore Singapore’s retail scene needs major changes for improve themselves to become more attractive to compete with places like Hong Kong and Shanghai. Mall landlords also must adapt to changing consumer trends, for example incorporating lifestyle retail entertainment. Rental hiking may just mean Singapore has been successful in attracting business. Misperception as REITs tend to publish rent increase regularly while non-REIT mall stay under radar. Hence comparatively more transparency of rental rates for REITs properties, which makes REITs an easy target to blame. In the case of Monopolistic /or Oligopolistic property market sectors such as the Industrial property sector, the formation of REITs does result in rise and increases in rents year-on-year. However, this increment in industrial rents are a function of the sale leaseback agreements signed between the Industrial REITs and the Industrialists-Operator-Tenants who are leasing their premises back from the REITs to whom the Industrial premises were sold to. Higher than market rents are usually seen in such cases and their legacy usually lasts for an average tenure of seven(7) years. However, if more REITs are operating in their respective market sectors, such as the Commercial Property Sector, tenants would have a choice of options to move to rentals. Market forces would be able to operate more efficiently in such Competitive Market Sectors. Furthermore, among the malls that are obtained by REITs, there is no evidance to show that the rents in these malls climbed as a result of the acquisition. Even the REITs certainly want to rise the rental price, they should still make sure the retailer’s business is active, taking care not to distract the balance. If the retailers shut down their business, it is not to the REITs’ interest. With many REITS in the commercial sector as well as a even bigger number of other landlords, there is free interaction of market constrain, therefore, tenant able to choose not to continue lease and move to other different mall. This is not to the REITS’ attention so there is a limit how much rental increase that REITs can put. Usually, tenants tend to select REITs-owned malls due to the quality of the assets, which could be the reasons for a higher rental as compared to non-REIT malls.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Modern Life Is Very Different from Life 50 Years Ago

Modern life is very different from life 50 years ago. Some people think the changes in our lives have been very positive while others think they have been more negative. What do you think? Fifty years ago life was simpler and some people think things were better back then. While it is true that life today has some negative aspects, I think the modern lifestyle is better than the way people lived in the past. Some people like my grandparents say there were a number of positive things about life when they were growing up.Firstly, they say the pace of life was slower, so families could spend more time together. Everyone in the family came together for special occasions like weddings and Eid. In addition, my grandparents say that the cost of living was lower when they were young. You could easily live on just a few dirhams a day. Lastly, my grandparents said people were healthier in the past because they ate better food then they do today and they got more exercise. They say that people rarely got sick. P However, modern living has a lot of benefits.First of all, the standard of living is much higher today than it was 50 years ago, so people can afford to live well. Secondly, we have much better facilities now, such as good hospitals, roads and schools. Facilities like these were very poor in the past. Another benefit of life today is that we have access to modern technology. This has improved the way we work and communicate. While it is true that life today is more stressful and we often have less time to relax, I would not want to be living the same life as my grandparents did. I am a modern woman and I want to live a modern life. Modern Life Is Very Different from Life 50 Years Ago Modern life is very different from life 50 years ago. Some people think the changes in our lives have been very positive while others think they have been more negative. What do you think? Fifty years ago life was simpler and some people think things were better back then. While it is true that life today has some negative aspects, I think the modern lifestyle is better than the way people lived in the past. Some people like my grandparents say there were a number of positive things about life when they were growing up.Firstly, they say the pace of life was slower, so families could spend more time together. Everyone in the family came together for special occasions like weddings and Eid. In addition, my grandparents say that the cost of living was lower when they were young. You could easily live on just a few dirhams a day. Lastly, my grandparents said people were healthier in the past because they ate better food then they do today and they got more exercise. They say that people rarely got sick. P However, modern living has a lot of benefits.First of all, the standard of living is much higher today than it was 50 years ago, so people can afford to live well. Secondly, we have much better facilities now, such as good hospitals, roads and schools. Facilities like these were very poor in the past. Another benefit of life today is that we have access to modern technology. This has improved the way we work and communicate. While it is true that life today is more stressful and we often have less time to relax, I would not want to be living the same life as my grandparents did. I am a modern woman and I want to live a modern life.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Batna for Soutwest Airlines and Muse/Transtar Essay

1. Introduction – Know your and their source of power – Analyze By identifying yours and their sources of power. But in order to do this, you need to know what gives one negotiator more power than another. Where is the source of power from, focusing on BATNA and resources. 2. Knowing – exploring a Good BATNA Also known as Best Alternative to reaching a Negotiated Agreement.. An example of a scenario of using BATNA would be, do you need to negotiate at all or do you have other options or alternatives available for you? Question: If this deal cannot be reached, how can I still reach my aim? The less you need to reach, the more powerful you are because you have a good BATNA, because you have other choices than completing the negotiation in question. Example of scenario: When haggling over the price of an item, a vendor may be wiling to lower their price significantly because they know that the other vendors in the market all carry a similar item and roughly at a similar price. Very much the vendors interest is to strike a deal with you at that moment, while you are more than ready to walk away because you have numerous other chances to shop for the item. Therefore leading to, your BATNA, consequently your negotiating power, is improved the less you need to complete the negotiation and the more you can  create other options for reaching your aims. Flipside, the other party’s negotiating power decreases the more they need to make a deal with you because they have fewer options available to them. 3. Access & Mobilization of Resources This would be the second source of negotiating power stems for the ability to access and mobilize resources. Having resources does not equate with being more powerful. Why? Answer: 1.First in context, power is context specific. Example, when you have a bag of candy, and the other person doesn’t, you clearly have more power. Its not the same when both have a bag of candy, therefore context makes all the difference in the world whether a resource has value or not. 2. Actualization, power is non existent if its not possible to express or actualize it. In other words, owning all the materials to build a house might make me more powerful, but if I don’t have the skills or tools to build anything, then my power is reduced because I cannot reach my aim. Therefore power stemming from access to resources is only real power when resources can be mobilized. 4. Collect Information What is their BATNA, what resource is relevant to this particular negotiation and which one do they don’t have access to control? Can they mobilized the resources they possess? What are their restrictions and will they be able to overcome these restrictions? The answers to these types of question will be vital for the next step of formulating a full negotiating strategy. 5. Strategy Development Your goal is to protect your own interest while looking to reach a solution that also meets your interests. Somewhat ironically, as you help empower yourself to meet your interest and by helping them to meet theirs, you are co-empowering them. That is if both parties reach a deal that meets our common interest, then both would be more powerful through the process  because both got what they wanted from negotiations. This means protecting your interest, by increasing your power while accounting for the influence of theirs. This requires skillful use of both protective or defensive measures in order to deflect and re-channel their use of power into an agreement that is mutual benefit. Power Tactics There are a number of tactics to make your negotiating strategy happen: 1. Protect or reveal information at key points while being careful not to reveal anything that would compromise you. 2. Collect information from the other party – Keep it confidential or reveal it at certain key points if it will help advance your mutual interest. 3. Make reaching a deal with you an attractive option while improving your BATNA by developing other avenues to reach your goals. 4. Change the context in favor 5. Increase your resources- ensuring you can mobilize them. Decrease their resources from mobilizing them if they are being used in a manner that is detrimental to reach a mutual acceptable deal. 6. Leverage your resources for maximum effectiveness 7. Be firm and focus: Know your objectives and all available resources to it.

Thursday, January 2, 2020

The Representation Of Arnold s Where Are You Going,...

The representation of Arnold Friend in Joyce Carol Oates’ â€Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?† has often been discussed by scholars. Many, if not most, have come to the conclusion that Friend is an incarnate of Satan himself. While the theory is both founded and legitimate, it is prudent that one examines Friend from different angles as well. This paper will argue that Friend is not only Satan (or a Satanic being), but also a personification of modern-day rape culture. Arnold Friend is the epitome of true evil. Anthony Ellis refers to him as â€Å"ostensibly evil†¦ [†¦], a devil, a satyr, and a psychic projection† (Ellis 55). Indeed, Friend appears to share many traits with Satan. Not only is Friend manipulative and deceptive; he also camouflages his appearance in order to manipulate his victims into obeying his whims. Satan’s disguise, telling of his character, was that of a snake. It could be argued that Satan is the reason behind snakes’ terrible reputation and the reason why one is viewed as a sleazy character when referred to as a snake. By this definition, Friend is indeed a snake. He attempts to manipulate Connie into taking a ride with him, and he makes himself appear younger in order to lure his victim into his trap. He has to hide agitation and anger whenever Connie questions him, which she does multiple times throughout the short story. His attempts to make himself appear to be a gangly, yet charming teenag er are lost on her, forcing Friend to rework hisShow MoreRelated Themes Discussed in Joyce Oates Where Are You Going , Where Have You Been1551 Words   |  7 PagesWhere Are You Going , Where Have You Been by Joyce Oates It is well known that the most awkward and difficult time in one’s life is adolescence. One is faced with the challenges of discovering who one is and what one wants out of life. 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