Private housing site near Tanah Merah MRT gets S$419.4m top bid

SINGAPORE — A private housing site at the junction of New Upper Changi Road and Bedok South Avenue 3 has drawn eight bids from developers, with the top bid of S$419.38 million coming from CEL Residential Development, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said at the close of tender on Tuesday (Feb 23).

The 99-year leasehold site, released from the Reserve List of the second half of 2015 Government Land Sales (GLS) programme, sits on 262,575 sq ft of land. With a gross plot ratio of 2.1, it has a maximum permissible gross floor area of about 551,414 sq ft and can yield an estimated 570 homes.

Mr Nicholas Mak, head of research and consultancy at SLP International Property Consultants, said the tender attracted healthy interest from developers mainly because of its location.

“The subject site is just opposite Tanah Merah MRT station, with nearby amenities including Bedok Market Place, Changi General Hospital, reputable schools such as Anglican High School and Temasek Junior College, as well as Singapore’s fourth university – Singapore University of Technology and Design.”

“The second reason for the relatively high number of bids is the absence of a strong competing project with a large number of unsold units by the time this subject condominium is ready to launch in 2017. Other than The Glades, the other two uncompleted condo projects in that location has less than 3 per cent of the total number of units unsold in each of the development. At The Glades, 343 out of the total of 726 units are unsold at the end of January,” he added.

The top bid by Chip Eng Leong’s CEL Residential Development translates to S$760.56 per square feet per plot ratio.

“The estimated breakeven prices for the residential space in the new condominium to be developed on this site range from S$1,250 psf to S$1,300 psf. The developer of this condominium project could be aiming to launch the project at above S$1,500 psf in 2017,” Mr Mak said.