Perhaps because it was the last land plot for sale under the Government Land Sales (GLS) scheme for 2016, or that the 22,195 square metre site is situated near both the Commonwealth and Queesntown MRT stations in an area which has not seen new private home launches for awhile, but the latest Margaret Drive site saw an active bidding war between 14 developers with MCL Land lodging $238.38 million as the highest bidder.
The highest bid is almost 8 per cent higher than the second highest of $220.9 million that came from Allgreen properties, and 14.5 per cent higher than the price of the land site on which Queens Peak condominium will stand. The site was originally on the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) reserve list but was triggered for sale when the minimum bidding price was met. A developer had originally committed to bid at least $184.758 million.
Compared to the $483.2 million and $562.8 million previous wining bids on the neighbouring Commonwealth Towers and Queens Peak residential developments, the $238.39 million for this new site could yield 300 highly affordable units in the future. Property analysts deem the bullish bids as a sign that developers are keen to add new sites to their development lists, and truthfully, land is not easy to come by in this tiny island.
