A new benchmark has been set for condominium land in the Yishun / Sembawang area. A state tender that closed yesterday for a 99-year leasehold plot at Miltonia Close next to Orchid Country Club fetched a top bid of $405.53 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) or $165 million from a tie-up between Hoi Hup Realty and Sunway Developments.
The joint bid was 31 per cent higher than the next highest offer, placed by building and construction company, Master Contract Services.
Yesterday's tender drew seven bids, suggesting developers' appetite for choice sites is still healthy. Earlier this month, an executive condo plot at Jurong West did not draw a single bid – which some analysts blamed on its unattractive location.
Market watchers note that the $405.53 psf ppr offered by Hoi Hup-Sunway surpassed the $387 psf ppr winning bid for a condo plot at Sembawang Road/ Canberra Drive at a state tender in June.
A Hoi Hup spokeswoman, explaining the group's 31 per cent margin at yesterday's tender, said: 'This is a rare site on mainland Singapore – next to a golf course, overlooking the Lower Seletar reservoir. We can see its potential.'
Hoi Hup and Sunway hope to build a five-storey condo with about 380 units comprising one- to four-bedroom units with as many units as possible having golf course views, she added. Most of the units will be two nand three bedders, targeting families and the project is likely to be launch ready in about nine months to a year.
The Hoi Hup spokeswoman said the group's breakeven cost would be slightly above $700 psf. "Our associated company, Straits Construction, will be doing the construction," she added.
Market watchers note that a short distance away, The Estuary was launched in February this year at an average price of $750 psf. MCL Land is developing the project on a site it clinched for $350 psf ppr at a March 2008 tender. MCL's winning bid in that contest was a whopping 68 per cent more than the next highest bidder.
Source: The Business Times © Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Reprinted with permission.
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