habitable room
Room that is fit for living in. the building in which the room is located conforms to the building code and has a certificate of occupancy. Usable for all purposes, but does not include facility rooms such as a bathroom, closets, or storage rooms.

hall
1) A corridor or passageway in a building. 2) The large entrance room of a house or building; vestibule; lobby. 3) A large room or building for public gatherings.

hamlet
A small village.

handover condition
Condition of the office unit/premises upon turnover to the lessee.

hard option (IND)
Option on a certain area of premises (i.e., 100 sq. ft. or 1,000 sq. ft. or 100,000 sq. ft.) offered by the lessor to the lessee over a fixed duration of time where in the lessor will not market the area to another tenant / party for that specific time frame. A hard option can either be free of cost or could have a holding cost of a bear minimum value.

hardware
The metal accessories used in construction such as doorknobs, hinges, locks, etc.

HDB flats (SGP)
Public housing built by the Housing & Development Board (HDB). Majority (more than 80%) of Singaporeans stay in HDB flats.

headline rent
See “face rent.”

heads of terms
A document signed between the lessor and lessee or the buyer and seller which outlines the commercial terms agreed upon and usually provides a date and duration by which the final agreement is to be executed. Such a document does not create any legal obligation on either party until and unless some monetary value has been paid to the seller or lessor.

heavy industry
Any industry which is capital and/or labor-intensive designated “heavy industry” under a zoning ordinance such as automobile, industrial machinery, steel, rubber, mining or petroleum.

hectare
A measurement, equaling 2.471 acres or about 107,637 square feet or 10,000 square meters.

hedge
Investment with the characteristic that the investor’s capital and/or income is to varying degrees protected from loss due to inflation or other causes of price movement from inflationary effects. As with a natural hedge, which reduces the impact of wind and provides shelter, it cannot act as a complete barrier in gale force conditions. The financial crisis throughout the world in the early 1970s uprooted many financial “hedges,” as did the one in 1987 and the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

high-end apartment
An apartment that is more luxurious than a standard apartment, but does not have all of the amenities and facilities to be a “luxury apartment.”

highest and best use
Appraisal term meaning the possible use of a property that would produce the greatest net income and thereby develop the highest value.

high-rise apartment building
An apartment building having a comparatively large number of stories, considered “high” in the area where it is built and equipped with elevators.

high-scale apartment
Refers to high-end apartments and luxury apartments.

historical cost
Original cost of an asset at the time of purchase or payment as opposed to its saleable value, replacement value or present value.

hi-tech building (high-technology building)
Primarily a modern industrial building that is particularly suited to the flexible uses and space needs of business organizations engaged in modern technologies. Such activities require more column-free office or laboratory space than a traditional factory and also more sophisticated and adaptable installations for services and communications.

hold over tenant
A term for a tenant who continues to retain possession of a property after the expiry of the lease.

holding cost (IND)
A fixed amount paid to the lessor for a predefined time frame (i.e., Hard Options Period).

holding period
The length of time an asset was held, that is, the time between the trade date of the purchase and the trade date of the sale.

home financing
Loans for the construction of single or multi-family dwellings by banks or other such lending institutions.

horizon
The line or circle that forms the apparent boundary between earth and sky, when viewed from a distance. Also refers to layers of soil such as “A” horizon, “B” horizon, etc.

hot-desking
A desk sharing system for employees in an office increasingly used by tenants whose employees are regularly out of the office to reduce space requirement.

hotel
A commercial establishment offering lodging to travelers and sometimes to permanent residents, and often having restaurants, meeting rooms, stores, etc., that are available to the general public.

hotelling
A space usage term. Employees have no designated desk and select available desks on a daily use basis.

house
A building in which people live or a residential structure.

housing starts
A measure of actual commencement of construction of houses, condominiums, and apartment construction. Permits are considered a leading indicator of housing starts.

hypermarket
A large (50,000 to 200,000 sq. ft.) low-rise retail centre which sells a wide range of food and general merchandise at low prices. Typically located on a large tract of land off highways or major roads or in suburban locations. However in certain landscarce cities (such as Singapore or parts of China), they may be located within a shopping mall and function as an anchor tenant of the mall.