Hoi Hup Realty and Sunway Developments will cite nearby golf course as key selling point

A JOINT venture which has emerged as the top bidder for a condominium site in Yishun is highlighting its location next to a golf course as a key selling point.

The tie-up between Hoi Hup Realty and Sunway Developments put in the best of seven bids for the 99-year leasehold land parcel at Miltonia Close, at the fringe of Yishun Town Centre.

The bid of $165 million, or $405.5 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr), beat market expectations and came in about 31 per cent above the next bid.

Hoi Hup director Wong Sjew Hung told The Straits Times: ‘We see the potential of the site. It is really hard to find a site next to the golf course here.

‘We plan to build a five-storey condominium with 380 units. It will be mainly two- and three-bedroom units suitable for families.’

A construction firm, Master Contract Services, placed the second-highest bid of $126 million, or $309.68 psf ppr. The third-highest bid from a joint venture between Frasers Centrepoint and Orchard Parade Holdings came very close at $125.32 million, or $308 psf ppr.

The lowest of the seven bids came from Intrepid Investments – at $97.88 million, or $240.56 psf ppr.

Analysts had projected bids of $270-$350 psf ppr.

The site, which can be developed into a strata housing community or a condominium project, is on the boundary of the Orchid Country Club golf course. It is not near an MRT station, but it does enjoy an unblocked view of Lower Seletar Reservoir.

CBRE Research director Leonard Tay said the location will appeal to people who prefer a quiet neighbourhood, lots of greenery and a serene environment.

Private residential developments nearby include The Shaughnessy, Lilydale executive condominium, Orchid Park Condominium and The Estuary (under construction).

Mr Tay said the top bid could reflect a break-even cost of about $700-$750 psf should a low-rise condo be developed. And condo units in this new project could possibly sell above $800 psf, he said.

By comparison, units at The Estuary, which was launched in April, transacted at $650-$850 psf from April to August.

In the same period, units at the 16-year-old Orchid Park Condominium were sold at $550-$700 psf, said Mr Tay.

An industry expert said the tender response shows that, apart from the top bidder, the other developers are now more cautious in bidding for sites given the record upcoming supply.

But developers are still hungry for land as their landbanks are fast depleting, he said.

Ms Wong said this project – if the joint venture is awarded the site – will be Hoi Hup’s fourth with Sunway Developments. The joint venture’s previous project was The Peak @ Toa Payoh.

Source: Straits Times, 25 Aug 2010

Government to ramp up flat supply for middle-income home buyers

SINGAPORE – The executive condominium (EC) market looks set to stir when new projects are launched over the next three to six months. According to property consultancy CB Richard Ellis, ECs are making a comeback after a hiatus of five years as the Government steps in to ramp up flat supply for middle-income home buyers.

Four new EC projects in Compassvale Bow, Punggol Field, Buangkok and Yishun – yielding some 1,400 units – will be launched in the next three to six months.

These sites were awarded in the first half of this year. The Government will also be selling another five EC sites later in the year – at Jurong West, Punggol Drive, Pasir Ris, Tampines and Segar Road – which are expected to yield about another 2,600 units.

The last EC launched was La Casa in Woodlands in 2005, which was completed in early 2008.

CBRE said the comparatively cheaper pricing of ECs is expected to attract a large number of HDB upgraders.

Executive director of CBRE Research Li Hiaw Ho said assuming the historical 30 per cent gap between private suburban homes and new ECs, the median prices of new ECs are likely to stay around $650 to $750 per square foot (psf).

The median price for private suburban homes as of the second quarter stood at $824 psf.

Ms Tay Huey Ying, director for Research and Advisory at Colliers International, expects prices for ECs to rise moderately. “It will still fall below private units in terms of absolute price per square foot simply because there are conditions attached,” she said.

For example, foreigners are not allowed to buy ECs. On top of that, those whose monthly household income exceed $10,000 cannot buy ECs.

Mr Li added that the prices of ECs will match those of comparable private apartments in the same locations after five years, as they will be treated as private properties.

Currently, the non-landed private home market is attracting a lower share of HDB upgraders compared to last year with only 36.1 per cent of them making new home purchases in the second quarter.

At its peak in the first quarter last year, the proportion of HDB upgraders reached 63.6 per cent but it has steadily dipped below the 10-year average of 44 per cent.

Mr Li said with the steep rise in prices of new private homes, more HDB upgraders face a bigger burden of servicing huge mortgage loans.

“The lowering of the housing loan limit from 90 per cent to 80 per cent since March this year also meant that HDB home buyers need to pay more cash upfront,” added Mr Li. “Despite this, HDB upgraders can find a less-costly alternative with the upcoming ECs.”

Source: Today, 13 Aug 2010

Lack of interest a sign that developers have become more selective

AN EXECUTIVE condominium (EC) site that experts thought might draw at least two or three developers failed to attract a single bid at the tender’s close yesterday.

The surprise lack of interest in the Jurong West site likely stems from the Government’s recent decision to put a record number of sites up for tender in coming months, giving developers a wealth of choice.

Bids were tipped to come in between $230 and $300 per sq ft per plot ratio for the 99-year leasehold site after strong interest in other EC tenders this year.

But developers have become much more selective and the site is not particularly appealing, being next to the expressway with no amenities nearby and some distance from the MRT, said experts.

ERA Asia-Pacific associate director Eugene Lim added: ‘If the site is not attractive, developers would presume that it would be difficult to sell. So why take the risk?’

A developer who declined to be named said: ‘There are too many choices out there. You have only so much resources so you have to pick something that you can make money from.’

EL Development managing director Lim Yew Soon said: ‘I would think most of us want to choose a site that is more attractive. There’s an opportunity cost even if you put in an opportunistic bid as you may miss the next tender.’

Ngee Ann Polytechnic real estate lecturer Nicholas Mak said developers will be more cautious with sites where they see limited pricing flexibility.

ECs are aimed at households with a gross monthly income ceiling of $10,000 so developers would want to price units at below a million each, he said. They should cost at least 10 to 15 per cent less than a private mass market condo unit.

The last time an EC site had no takers was in late 2008 when the market was weakening. That site – at the junction of Punggol Field and Punggol Road and near Punggol MRT station – eventually sold in June this year.

A Ministry of National Development spokesman said: ‘It’s not possible to conclude the lack of bids is a sign of the market cooling. Developers’ participation on Government land sales sites is affected by several factors, of which location of the sites and supply of sites are some of the considerations.’

However, Mr Mak said the Jurong West outcome will have a ‘psychological effect on the land sales market’.

‘It could signal to developers that they no longer need to bid high for sites that are not attractively located,’ he said.

The Jurong EC site can yield an estimated 460 units with a maximum permissible gross floor area of 542,988 sq ft.

Meanwhile, demand for new build-to- order (BTO) HDB flats remained strong, with 2,163 applications received for 171 four-room flats in Jurong West.

Applications for the five-room flats in the same area were nearly 12 times the 104 units on offer. The project in Bukit Panjang drew 2,123 applications for 313 four-room flats.

Source: Straits Times, 13 Aug 2010

Site’s remoteness, supply of govt land in the pipeline cited for poor response 

(SINGAPORE) The tender for an executive condominium (EC) site at Jurong West drew gasps of astonishment from market watchers when it closed yesterday – not because there were many bids but because there was absolutely none. 

Observers attributed the lack of interest to the site’s remoteness, and suggested that developers had become more selective given the many other pieces of state land available for sale. 

The Housing and Development Board launched the 99-year leasehold site from the confirmed list for sale last month. It sits at Jurong West Street 42 and is some distance away from Lakeside MRT Station. 

The site could have yielded around 460 units. Consultants which BT polled then did not think it was particularly attractive, but thought it might still reel in bids ranging from $230-$300 per square foot per plot ratio. 

With no bids coming in, the site could be brought over to next year’s government land sales (GLS) programme. The Ministry of National Development (MND) told BT that it will make future plans for the site known at a later date. 

For an industry which has gotten used to seeing 10 or more developers vying for a residential site since the second half of 2009, the absence of any takers in the latest tender was surprising. 

November 2008 was the last time when an EC site on the confirmed list saw no demand – the global downturn had kept developers away from the plot at Punggol. But it was subsequently sold in June and its tender drew five bids. 

A developer who has been actively bidding for land told BT that he gave the tender of the Jurong West site a miss because the plot is not near an MRT station. Good location is especially important for ECs, he said. Furthermore, the government will be releasing more land and he has to ‘reserve ammunition for better located sites’. 

Consultants echoed these views. Colliers International investment sales executive director Ho Eng Joo said that developers are likely to be less aggressive and more selective given the many sites they will have to choose from. 

The government has been increasing land supply as private home prices climbed in the last few quarters. The second half GLS offers 31 sites for private residences, which include a few other EC plots at areas such as Pasir Ris and Tampines. 

Knight Frank’s consultancy and research manager Ong Kah Seng also suggested that developers which bought land recently could be focusing on preparing those sites for launch. 

Industry watchers hesitated to say if the lack of demand for the site at Jurong West signalled a cooling of the property market. 

MND also said it was not possible to conclude so. Developers’ participation in tenders ‘is affected by several factors, of which location of the site and supply of sites are some of the considerations’, it said. 

In a report yesterday, CB Richard Ellis said it expects to see more activity in the EC market when four new projects with some 1,400 units altogether are launched in the next three to six months. 

‘Assuming the historical 30 per cent gap between private suburban homes and new ECs remains, median prices of new ECs are likely to stay at around $650 psf to $750 psf,’ said CBRE Research executive director Li Hiaw Ho.

Source: Business Times, 13 Aug 2010

(SINGAPORE) Oxley Rising has emerged as the top bidder for a 3.5 hectare industrial site at Ubi Road 1.

The company, which offered $158.1 million or $169 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) for the 60-year leasehold site, trumped 10 other bidders including Qingdao Construction (Singapore) and Sim Lian Holdings.

This is twice what analysts estimated the site could fetch when it was launched in June. Then, consultants reckoned that it could fetch $61-$75 million, or $65-80 psf ppr.

‘The overwhelming interest in the land parcel could be due to (Singapore’s) strong GDP growth of 18.8 per cent year-on-year in Q2 2010, driven by a 44.5 per cent year-on-year surge in manufacturing. This coupled with a robust take-up of 2.67 million sq ft of factory space in Q2 2010 could have created more interest in the land,’ said Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of CBRE Research.

Oxley’s top bid of $169 psf ppr was almost twice the amount of recent winning bids for industrial sites in Ubi that were awarded.

In fact, the last time that the $100 psf-level was breached for industrial land was in August 2009. Then, KNG Development paid $105 psf ppr for a 30-year leasehold site at Kaki Bukit Road 2.

And the only industrial land awarded under the government land sales programme for more than $169 psf ppr was a 30-year leasehold site that One Commonwealth now sits on. In November 2007, Chiu Teng Construction paid $170 psf ppr for it.

Oxley’s top bid was 8 per cent higher than the second highest bid, which was from Qing Quan and Qingdao Construction (Singapore).

The two companies put in a joint bid of $146.6 million or $156 psf ppr. Oxley’s bid was also 159 per cent higher than the lowest bid of $61.1 million or $65 psf ppr from Soilbuild Group.

The site has a land area of 375,150 sq ft and a 2.5 plot ratio, giving it a maximum gross floor area of 937,875 sq ft. It is zoned for ‘Business 1′ use, which means it can be developed for various uses such as clean and light industry – which includes computer software development, printing and publishing, assembly and repair of computer hardware and electronic equipment.

Mr Li said that the the breakeven cost for this development is estimated to be about $380 psf to $400 psf.

CBRE’s data shows that in the first seven months of 2010, upper floor strata-titled units in the 60-year leasehold Vertex, located along Ubi Avenue 3, sold for between $309 psf and $409 psf while the ground floor units sold for $371 psf to $550 psf.

Source: Business Times, 12 Aug 2010

NINE properties owned by the companies of three feuding brothers have been sold for more than $175 million.

Chow House, the most prominent of the nine assets, went for more than $100 million and could be redeveloped into a residential project.

The nine assets were owned by Associated Development Pte Ltd, Chow Cho Poon (Pte) Ltd and Lee Tung Company (Pte) Ltd. Property investor Chow Cho Poon set up these firms and his three sons became directors and shareholders.

Mr Chow owed debts to the companies when he died in 1997. The debts could not be paid off as his estate’s assets were mainly tied up as shares in the companies.

In 2007, eldest son Chow Kwok Chi asked the High Court to wind up the companies so the brothers could go their separate ways.

Deloitte & Touche’s head of financial advisory services Tam Chee Chong was appointed liquidator to sell the companies’ assets and distribute the proceeds among shareholders. DTZ handled the public tender for the nine properties.

According to DTZ, there were ‘overwhelming responses from both local and foreign interested parties’.

The freehold Chow House drew nine bidders and was sold for just over $100 million. BT reported earlier that the buyer could be a group whose shareholders include WyWy Group founder YY Wong.

DTZ said the authorities have granted outline permission for the site to be developed into a new residential project with commercial space on the ground floor.

The other eight properties – at Lorong Telok, North Canal Road, Jalan Besar, Upper Serangoon Road and Lavender Street – went to various other investors.

Source: Business Times, 5 Aug 2010

THE Government yesterday launched three mass market residential sites for sale and cut from six to five years the time developers have to complete a housing project.

The sites – in Hougang Avenue 7, at the corner of Punggol Drive and Punggol East, and the junction of Pasir Ris Drive 3 and Pasir Ris Drive 4 – are expected to yield about 1,260 units. Their tenders close separately next month.

The three 99-year leasehold plots are the first to have the new five-year project completion period for private residential sale sites applied to them.

From today, all such sites released for sale will have to conform to the new rule, which is to ‘further ensure more timely supply of private housing to meet demand’, said the Housing Board in a statement yesterday.

Experts believe the change – it does not apply to executive condominium (EC) sites which have to be built in four years – will not have a major impact on the market.

Cushman & Wakefield managing director Donald Han said: ‘In a peak market like now, it’s not a problem at all. Developers usually take three to four years to build a mass market condo.

‘It’s just a precautionary measure. The Government just wants to ensure that what has been tendered out will be completed in five years, so that supply can meet demand.’

Experts note that few developers want to take too long to build on leasehold sites.

‘Based on development trends in the last eight years, we found that the actual completion period for sale sites for private residential developments was generally about four years on average,’ said the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). Only about 13 per cent of these projects took longer than five years to complete, it said.

Prior to 1997, the project completion period for government residential sites was four to five years. It was extended to eight years in late 1997 due to the then economic crisis, said the URA.

This was cut to six years in 1999 and has remained so, although the Government in last year’s Budget allowed developers to apply to extend completion periods by up to one year with applications having to be made by Jan 21 this year.

Of the sites launched yesterday, the Hougang plot is 15,630 sq m in size with a maximum gross floor area of 43,765 sq m.

The Punggol site is 15,700 sq m in size with an allowable gross floor area of 53,380 sq m. It is earmarked for executive condos and is near Kadaloor LRT station.

The Pasir Ris plot is a short distance from NTUC Downtown East, has a site area of some 20,000 sq m and an allowable gross floor area of 42,000 sq m.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic lecturer Nicholas Mak predicted that the sites would attract less aggressive bids given that they are not near MRT stations.

The Hougang site may attract bids of $320-$370 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr), while the one at Pasir Ris may garner bids of $350-$390 psf ppr, he said. The Punggol EC plot, being in a new estate, may draw bids of $250-$290 psf ppr, added Mr Mak.

Source: Straits Times, 5 Aug 2010

It plans 680-unit project: 60% 4-room flats; 25% 3-room; the rest 5-room

SIM Lian Land, which emerged as the highest bidder for a site in Tampines designated for public housing under the Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS), plans to build about 680 flats on the plot if awarded the site.

‘About 60 per cent of the units will be four-room flats, another 25 per cent will be three-room flats and the remaining 15 per cent will comprise five-room flats,’ Sim Lian Group executive director Diana Kuik told BT yesterday.

Sim Lian’s top bid of about $178.2 million works out to about $261 per square foot of potential gross floor area. The tender drew five bids.

Sim Lian’s price was about 22 per cent higher than the next highest offer of $213.62 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) by Qingdao Construction (Singapore). A joint venture between Hoi Hup Realty and Sunway Developments offered about $205 psf ppr. Realty Consortium (a unit of Koh Brothers) bid $200.91 psf ppr.

The lowest offer of $110 million or $161.20 psf ppr was from Ho Lee Group.

The site will be sold on 103-year leasehold tenure inclusive of a four-year construction period.

DBSS gives developers an opportunity to design, develop, price and sell HDB flats to buyers who have to meet criteria set by the Housing & Development Board, including a monthly household income ceiling of $8,000.

The plot is next to Singapore’s first DBSS project, The Premiere@Tampines, which was also developed by Sim Lian. That is fully sold.

As for the latest DBSS plot, Sim Lian hopes to launch the project around the third quarter of next year, says Ms Kuik.

In March this year, the group clinched a 99-year leasehold condo site at Tampines Ave 1/Ave 10, facing Bedok Reservoir, at a state tender.

It plans to build a 696-unit project to be named Waterview on this plot, with the majority of units being two and three-bedroom apartments. ‘We’ll probably launch the project around Q4 this year,’ said Ms Kuik. Sim Lian paid $302 million or $421 psf ppr for the site.

Sim Lian also has available 62 units at its Clover By the Park condo in Bishan, which is still under construction. Most of these units are three and four-bedders and are priced in the high-$900 to $1,000 psf range. The 39-storey, 99-year leasehold project has a total of 616 units. It was released in June 2008.

Source: Business Times, 4 Aug 2010

A PRIME multi-purpose site in the Central Business District has been put up for tender.

The 1.5ha plot at the corner of Peck Seah and Choon Guan streets and next to Tanjong Pagar MRT station was launched yesterday as a confirmed list site.

The development will have a gross floor area of 157,744 sq m with at least 60 per cent earmarked for offices and a minimum of 10 per cent for hotel-related use.

The remaining area can be used for commercial, hotel or residential purposes, said the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday.

The 99-year leasehold site could yield an estimated 490 apartments, 315 hotel rooms and 102,380 sq m of commercial space.

It could reach 280m above sea level, commanding panoramic views of the city skyline across the CBD to Marina Bay and Chinatown, the URA said.

An underground pedestrian network will link the site to Capital Tower and 8 Shenton Way.

Executive director Li Hiaw Ho of CBRE Research said the development will tower over others in the vicinity and change the landscape of the Tanjong Pagar micro-market, hastening the area’s pace of rejuvenation.

Mr Li said that with inner-city living growing in popularity over recent years, the successful tenderer would be tempted to utilise the remaining 30 per cent of floor space for flats.

Caveats lodged in the past six months from new launches at Altez and 76 Shenton ranged from $1,900 to $2,300 per sq ft (psf) while the completed Icon project has had recent resale transactions from $1,600 to $1,700 psf, CBRE Research said.

Knight Frank consultancy and research manager Ong Kah Seng expects ‘keen interest’ and about five bids for the prime site.

He also highlighted the attractiveness of the Tanjong Pagar area, where ‘prime commercial area is complemented by a variety of lifestyle amenities and entertainment hangouts’.

Mr Ong added that with the office market in early recovery, this presents the best opportunity to develop or invest, as rents and prices are still attractive and economic fundamentals are in sight.

‘Developers also have better access to financing compared to during an economic downturn,’ he added.

The site, which can take up to seven years to be fully developed, might also appeal to developers who prefer a cautious stance as they would be able to adjust development plans according to prevailing market conditions, Mr Ong added.

The tender, which is part of the Government’s land sales programme, closes on Nov 16.

Source: Straits Times, 31 Jul 2010