A top bid of $65.2 million was placed by Boon Keng Development for a Woodlands Avenue 12 industrial site launched for tender by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) today.

The 60-year lease site was launched for public tender on 25 March 2010. It was originally placed on the Reserve List of the Government Land Sales Programme. On 11 March 2010, URA accepted a successful application for the site to be put up for sale.

Li Hiaw Ho, Executive Director, CBRE Research commented,” The strong GDP growth of 13.1% year-on-year in Q1 2010, driven by a 30% year-on-year surge in the manufacturing, has resulted in demand for new industrial space as evidenced by the six bids received by URA. Boon Keng Development Pte Ltd placed the highest bid of $65.2 million or $75 psf/plot ratio. This bid is 28.9% higher than the second highest bid of $50.6 million or $58 psf/plot ratio submitted by TGFB Pte Ltd and more than twice the application bid.”

“The breakeven cost for this development is estimated to be about $240 psf to $260 psf. In the first four months of 2010, strata-titled units in Admiralty Industrial Park, located along Woodlands Industrial Park E1, fetched between $163 psf and $249 psf,” he added.

Li also noted that this tender is on the back of the two industrial sites located along Yishun Avenue 6, which were awarded in the past few weeks. OKH Management Pte Ltd won the tender for Yishun Avenue 6 (Parcel 1) for $27.2 million ($71 psf/plot ratio), while Soilbuild Group Holdings was the winning bidder for Yishun Avenue 6 (Parcel 8) with a bid of $29.3 million ($76 psf/plot ratio).