SINGAPORE — Dunearn Gardens has been sold collectively for S$468 million to a fully owned subsidiary of EL Development.

Announcing the sale of the 114-unit freehold residential development off Newton Road on Monday (April 23), Knight Frank said a development charge of approximately S$43.6 million is payable to redevelop the site to a gross plot ratio of 2.8 based on the maximum permission gross floor area of approximately 267,239 sq ft. This translates to a land price of approximately S$1,914 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr).

However, taking into account a 10 per cent bonus balcony, which will bring the proposed plot ratio to 3.08, the land price works out to approximately S$1,841 psf ppr, subject to the authorities’ approval.

The 95,442 sq ft development comprises three adjoining residential blocks ranging from 75 sq m to 306 sq m. This is its third attempt at a collective sale.

Each owner stands to receive between S$2.69 million and S$7.98 million from the sale.

EL Development’s managing director Lim Yew Soon said: “We intend to redevelop the site into a 34-storey luxury condominium comprising 348 units of one- to four-bedroom units.”

Knight Frank’s executive director and head of investment and capital markets Ian Loh expects the new development to appeal to owner-occupiers as well as investors “given its choice location right at the city fringe”.

Earlier this month, global real estate services company Colliers International predicted that the total value of this year’s en-bloc sale transactions is likely to trump that of 2017 — which was S$8.13 billion from 27 transactions.

Its data showed that 17 successful residential en bloc sales, valued at S$5.83 billion, had already been chalked up in the first three months of this year, amounting to over 70 per cent of the total value of collective sale deals for the whole of last year.

This month, besides Dunearn Gardens, other en bloc deals included the sale of Farrer Road freehold development Tulip Garden for S$906.9 million, the second-largest en bloc sale for the year.

The largest en bloc deal this year was Pacific Mansion at River Valley Close, which was sold for S$980 million last month to a consortium formed by Guocoland (Singapore), Intrepid Investments and Hong Realty.