Sengkang EC site draws developers, gets top bid of S$241m

SINGAPORE — An Executive Condominium (EC) site in Sengkang has attracted very strong interest from developers, with Hoi Hup Realty and Sunway Developments jointly submitting the top bid of S$240.95 million, Housing and Development Board data showed after the close of tender on Tuesday (Aug 23).

The 99-year leasehold site in Anchorvale Lane, launched on June 29 from the Confirmed List of the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme, sits on about 21,014.6 square metres of land and has a plot ratio of 3. That gives it a maximum permissible gross floor area of 63,043.8 sqm, or about 678,600sq ft that can yield an estimated 635 housing units. The highest bid, which topped 15 others, translates to about S$355.07 psf per plot ratio.

Mr Nicholas Mak, head of research and consultancy at SLP International Property Consultants, said:

“The tender that closed today indicated very strong interest from the developers for this site. The average number of bids for the other nine EC land tenders that were closed previously in 2014 and 2015 was about seven, which was significantly smaller than the number of bids submitted in the tender that closed today. It was the highest number of bids received in a GLS EC land tender since the tender of the Lake Life EC site at Yuan Ching Road/Tao Ching Road closed on 30 July 2013. When the tender of the Lake Life EC site closed with 16 bids, it was the second highest number of bids in a EC land tender in the history of the GLS for EC sites.”

“Some developers may have focused their resources to bid for this EC site due to the fact that it was the only EC land in the GLS programme for the whole of 2016. The developers may also believe that there would not be any glut in the EC property market about 15 months later, when this Anchorvale Lane EC project is ready to launch. As a result, the participation rate in today’s tender is exceptionally high,” he added.

Mr Mak estimated the breakeven for the residential space on this site at between S$740psf and S$780 psf, saying that the developer would have to launch the EC project at an average price of more than S$820 psf, which he called “rather aggressive.”

The high participation rate among developers and the bullish bids submitted in this tender would likely lead to the Government increasing the number of EC sites in the Confirmed List in the next GLS programme, he said.