A 37,284.8 sq m land site next to Buangkok MRT station in Sengkang Central saw some competitive bidding from major developers.
7 bids lodged for the mixed-use site
The tender for this large government land sales site closed last Thursday. 7 bids were lodged.
The bids came from many joint-ventures from CapitaLand and City Developments (CDL), Wing Tai Holdings and Keppel Land, Perennial Real Estate Holdings and Qingjian Realty, Singapore Press Holdings and Kajima Development, and MCC Land and Grantral Land. Far East Organization went in for the bid on their own with 2 separate tenders.
This commercial and residential site was launched under the dual-envelope system, similar to the tender for the Holland Village site. The latter was won by Far East Organization.
Under the dual-envelope system, bidders are required to submit their concept proposal and bidding price in separate envelopes. Only when the concept proposal is accepted, will the envelope with the bid-price be opened and taken into consideration.
Dual-envelope system requires bidders to submit concept and price separately
Plans are for the site to be developed as a one-stop integrated community hub with amenities such as a hawker centre, community club, childcare centre and shops. It will also be connected to public transport facilities such as the rail and bus stations.
While the Sengkang estate is becoming more developed and the population there has increased tremendously, there is still space for development, especially in the retail mall and transport arena.
Some analysts feel that as well-located shopping malls in Singapore are becoming harder to acquire, it is not surprising that many of these bids came from sponsors for Singapore-listed real estate investment trusts. Although this bidding exercise did not attract as many bids as the site in Holland, the consortiums which submitted proposals have proven track records and selection will not be easy.
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