This year’s launches now top offers for whole of last year

THE Housing & Development Board (HDB) is launching two new Build-To-Order (BTO) projects with 1,016 units at Bukit Panjang and Jurong West.

This brings the number of new flats it has introduced under the scheme so far this year to 9,844 – exceeding the 9,000 for the whole of last year.

Senja Gateway, located at the junction of Kranji Expressway and Woodlands Road, will have 741 standard flats. They consist of 254 studio apartments, 313 four-roomers and 174 five-roomers.

The site is near the LRT station at Ten Mile Junction, and is surrounded by schools such as Pioneer Junior College.

A five-room flat at the estate will go for $308,000 to $398,000. According to HDB, comparable resale flats in the area cost $378,000 to $450,800.

The second project, Corporation Tiara, is at the junction of Corporation Road and Yung Kuang Road. Up for sale are 275 premium flats, comprising 171 four-roomers and 104 five-roomers.

The project will include another 190 studio apartments but HDB will put these up for sale later.

Corporation Tiara is some distance from the Lakeside and Boon Lay MRT stations. But it is near green lungs – Chinese Garden and Japanese Garden.

A five-room flat at the estate will cost $304,000 to $389,000. Prices of comparable resale flats in the vicinity range from $384,000 to $420,000.

HDB has ramped up the supply of new flats this year as prices of resale flats continue to climb – they rose 4.1 per cent in Q2 from Q1. Buyers also had to pay larger cash premiums.

The agency will be rolling out another 1,400 new flats in Yishun next month, and it plans to offer up to 16,000 BTO flats for the whole year.

HDB pointed out that the annual take-up of HDB flats ranged from 7,000 to 16,100 in the last 10 years. ‘There were balance flats almost every year,’ it added.

Source: Business Times, 30 Jul 2010

TWO build-to-order (BTO) Housing Board (HDB) projects that will add 1,016 new flats to the market were launched yesterday. The launch means 9,844 flats have been released in seven months, exceeding the 9,000 units offered for the whole of last year.

The projects are Senja Gateway in Bukit Panjang and Corporation Tiara in Jurong West.

Senja Gateway at the junction of Kranji Expressway and Woodlands Road will have 741 standard flats, comprising 254 studios, 313 four-room flats and 174 five-roomers.

Studios of 35 sq m to 45 sq m will cost $67,000 to $95,000, four-room flats of 90 sq m will be from $242,000 to $306,000 while five-roomers of 110 sq m will go from $308,000 to $398,000.

Corporation Tiara in Jurong West, at the junction of Corporation Road and Yung Kuang Road, will have 275 premium flats, comprising 171 four-roomers and 104 five-roomers.

Four-roomers of between 90 sq m and 93 sq m will cost between $242,000 and $325,000 while five-room flats of 110 sq m to 113 sq m will cost between $304,000 and $389,000.

Under the BTO scheme, flats are built only when a certain level of demand for the project is met.

PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail expects this launch to be more than three times oversubscribed as demand is still strong due to the high cash-over-valuations (COV) asked for in the HDB resale market.

He added that the pattern of demand from past BTO launches showed that four- and five-room flats were often the most popular.

‘I think demand will be sustained throughout this year and we might even see a record number of BTO flats being launched,’ he said.

The HDB said that if demand from first-time buyers is sustained, it is prepared to offer up to 16,000 BTO flats this year. This is a significant supply as the total annual take-up of HDB flats in the last 10 years ranged from 7,000 in 2006 to 16,100 in 2000, with flats left unsold almost every year, the board said.

Buyers can expect about 1,400 flats to be launched in Yishun next month while upcoming projects include areas like Woodlands, Punggol and Sengkang.

The BTO stock will also be supplemented by an upcoming supply of 4,700 units under the design, build and sell scheme (DBSS) and executive condominium scheme such as a site launched for tender in Tampines Avenue 5 last month.

The HDB said it is prepared to launch more DBSS sites if demand keeps up.

Applications for the BTO flats launched yesterday can be made online at www.hdb.gov.sg until Aug 11.

Source: Straits Times, 30 Jul 2010

BUKIT Panjang residents were given reason to hope yesterday that their existing bus interchange could be moved closer to an upcoming MRT station.

They were told that the authorities were considering the suggestion put up by three MPs, whose residents are affected by the planned siting of the Downtown Line MRT station expected to open in 2015.

They had pointed out that transfers would be inconvenient as the MRT station will be sited about 120m from the existing Bukit Panjang LRT and bus interchange.

The MPs’ proposal would reduce the distance between the LRT and the MRT station to 70m, said Bukit Panjang MP Teo Ho Pin at a dialogue with residents in his ward.

Residents can cut through the bus interchange to get to either station, making it very convenient for them, he added.

Currently, the plot of land between the LRT station and the upcoming MRT station is empty.
Dr Teo as well as Holland-Bukit Timah GRC MPs Vivian Balakrishnan and Liang Eng Hwa have had two meetings with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to discuss the proposal.

Dr Balakrishnan is also the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports.

The issue was first raised last year and yesterday, Transport Minister Raymond Lim, who was holding a dialogue after his visit to the ward, assured residents that the matter was under consideration.

Said Mr Lim: ‘We are working closely with the other agencies to see how best to integrate the three: the bus interchange, the LRT and the MRT.’

Previously, the LTA had explained that the MRT station could not be moved next to the LRT station owing to technical constraints.

The underground Downtown line is not able to swing sharply to meet the LRT station and return again to Woodlands Road in such a short distance.

Bukit Panjang residents like Ms Lim Ai Kheng, 43, are pleased that the authorities are looking into the suggestion.

‘I really hope it can be achieved,’ said the architectural assistant.

The Downtown Line station, with four exits, will also provide residents with a quick underground link to places like the Sri Murugan Hill Temple.

Devotees who worship at the temple, which is opposite the Bukit Panjang LRT station, will no longer need to take an overhead bridge to get to it.

They will be able reach the temple directly through an underpass from the MRT station.

Source, Straits Times, 31 Aug 2009

Toppish price may send inadvertent signal to restart confirmed list sales

EVEN as the dust settles on Hong Leong Group’s top bid at last week’s tender for a 99-year condo site at Chestnut Avenue, a discussion in some circles now centres on whether Hong Leong overpaid for the site.

As expected, Housing & Development Board said yesterday evening it has awarded the site to Sunny Vista Developments (a subsidiary of City Developments) and Hong Realty.

The two companies are part of the Hong Leong Group and teamed up to place the top bid of $143.68 million, which works out to a much-higher-than-expected land cost of $280 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr).

Some rival developers believe Hong Leong’s breakeven cost may be around the $600 psf mark and its projected average selling price near the $700 psf level. Sources, however, suggest the group may have been eyeing a much higher average price, in the high-$800 psf range, when it cast its bid.

That would set a benchmark for a 99-year leasehold condo in the area.

Hong Leong Group executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng said in a written reply to BT: ‘We can see potential in an area where some others may not… We are very familiar with this locality… There is now a lack of good and affordable residential developments in the vicinity. We are confident that there is a vibrant market there.’

The tender attracted 13 bids and marked the first time in about a year that the government had sold land for private residential development. Clearly, developers are famished for land after a stretch of strong housing sales over the past six months. The Chestnut Avenue plot in the Bukit Panjang area was on the government’s reserve list when it was triggered for release after a successful application by a developer that undertook to bid at least $62 million or about $121 psf ppr.

Here are some indicators of Hong Leong’s bullishness. Its bid was 2.3 times the minimum price. Seven of the 13 bids were bunched in the $169-182 psf ppr range; the winning bid was 54 to 66 per cent above this.

Hong Leong’s bid was 11.3 per cent higher than the next highest offer of $251.60 psf ppr placed by rival Far East Organization. The site is not near an MRT station but one advantage of its location is that units on the upper floors of a condo on the site will enjoy views of the nature reserve next to Upper Peirce Reservoir. Hong Leong’s new project on the site is expected to be profitable, but it remains to be seen just how high a price it will be able to achieve.

The aggressive winning bid has set the stage for toppish bids at next month’s tender for a ‘hotter’ site at Dakota Crescent next to an MRT station, fronting Geylang River and much closer to the city. It will also raise pressure on other reserve list sites that are triggered. In other words, land prices are set to escalate. Ditto for the prices at which developers later market new projects on these sites.

Mr Kwek insists that the outcome of the Chestnut Avenue tender shows the reserve list system – where the government launches a site for tender only upon successful application by a developer – is working well. ‘The property market has still not fully recovered yet and although the economy is improving, it has not recovered too,’ he added.

Last October, the government suspended sales of sites on the confirmed list, where sites are launched for tender according to scheduled dates. Instead, it has offered sites solely through the reserve list; this market-led approach was thought to be suitable amid the housing sales slump at the time.

However, in the first seven months of this year, developers sold a stunning 10,017 private homes – more than double the 4,264 units they sold in the whole of 2008. This has enabled developers to flex their muscles. Prices of mass-market condos today are about 10-15 per cent higher than the lows of Jan-Feb 2009, according to one developer’s estimate.

One reading of last week’s tender result is that some developers do not believe the pace of land sales from the reserve list will be fast enough for them to replenish their mass-market housing landbanks – despite the fact that three such sites had already been triggered in the one month preceding last week’s tender close. And the likes of Mr Kwek thus need to bid aggressively to get their hands quickly on some much-needed land.

Here’s a possible signal he may have inadvertently sent to the authorities, who are keen to assure the home buying public there is enough supply of private homes and land: please expedite the release of more land.

There may be a case now for government to transfer a few of the nicer sites from the current reserve list to the confirmed list, and start launching them soon. It could also replenish the reserve list.

But selling land only through the reserve list – where government waits for a developer to apply for a site and undertake to bid at a minimum price acceptable to the state before it launches the site – can take some time.

It may be opportune for government to take the unprecedented step of restarting confirmed list land sales midway through the current suspension for H2 2009.

Time is of the essence now as developers run out of land to build entry-level private condos on. And keeping the dream of upgrading to a private condo within reach of HDB upgraders is an important part of the Singapore housing story.

Source: Business Times, 26 Aug 2009

THE fast-improving property market has prompted 13 developers to submit bids to buy a 99-year leasehold suburban land parcel in Bukit Panjang.

The top bid for the Chestnut Avenue condominium plot came in higher than expected at $143.68 million or $280 per sq ft (psf) of gross floor area. This was 132 per cent above the minimum acceptable bid of $120 psf of gross floor area.

The bid came from a joint venture between City Developments’ Sunny Vista Developments and Hong Leong Group’s Hong Realty. The 22,700 sq m of land can accommodate about 450 flats.

Some of the other top bids are: Sim Lian Land with a bid of $113 million and First Changi Development, a GuocoLand subsidiary, with a bid of $93.38 million.

Frasers Centrepoint put in the most conservative bid of $77 million or $151 psf of gross floor area – still within the range consultants had projected last month.

The ‘impressive’ number of bids reflects the renewed interest and the growing positive outlook among developers for mass-market residential projects, said CBRE Research director Leonard Tay.

This has been helped by the strong sales of suburban condominiums such as Meadows@Pierce in Upper Thomson and The Gale in Flora Road, experts said.

Still, the developers’ bids indicate that they remain cautious. ‘The pricing shows that the developers are realistic and not bidding at exceedingly high prices,’ said property expert Nicholas Mak.

Based on the top bid, the estimated break-even price for the project should be about $550 to $580 psf, said Mr Tay. This means the eventual selling price might be about $650 psf to $700 psf.

Currently, resale prices of the nearby 99-year leasehold Maysprings range from $480 psf to $600 psf.

Prices at nearby 999-year leasehold and freehold projects such as The Linear, Hazel Park Condominium and Dairy Farm Estate range from $560 to $650 psf.

In a separate development, a group of investors has put up three landed housing sites for sale. Two are in District 15 while the third is in Lornie Road in District 11. These sites, zoned for two-storey bungalow or semi-detached houses, were purchased about two to three years ago when the market was booming.

‘The property market growth is gathering pace and looking better these days. Prices have risen and there are not many sites around for sale,’ said Mr Steven Ming, director for prestige homes at Savills Singapore, which is marketing the sites. The tender closes on Sept 17.

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‘The property market growth is gathering pace and looking better these days. Prices have risen and there are not many sites around for sale.’
Mr Steven Ming, director for prestige homes at Savills Singapore

ALL residents of HDB flats in Bukit Panjang constituency will have lifts that stop on every floor by November.

It caps a $100-million effort that has transformed the ‘no frills’ new town into a place with a string of amenities over 12 years, said Dr Teo Ho Pin, MP of the single-seat constituency. He cited a long list that includes markets, places of worship, gardens as well as ramps and railings for the elderly and handicapped to move about freely.

‘I’d say the town is almost mature with all the facilities,’ he said yesterday, ahead of a ministerial visit to the ward on Aug 30 by Transport Minister Raymond Lim, who is also Second Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The one still-to-come significant change that will spur new development is an MRT station, said Dr Teo, noting that the Bukit Panjang station is scheduled to be open in 2015.

It will give residents a direct link to the Central Business District.

But lift upgrading tops the ward’s infrastructure development list, with more than $80 million going towards such works for 132 HDB blocks.

The Government pays between 75 and 90 per cent of the bill and the remaining 10 to 25 per cent is split between residents and the Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council.

Besides the changes, Dr Teo also introduced ‘green’ initiatives to promote a pleasant living environment and save energy costs.

Among them are two community gardens, where residents grow vegetables such as sweet potatoes or chye sim for their own consumption.

In addition, solar energy lighting panels were installed on the top deck of a multi-storey carpark.

Dr Teo also started a briskwalking club for residents to exercise and bond with each other.A challenge now, he said, is to maintain the facilities and manage the impact of inflation on costs. However, the town council finances are healthy, he added.

The change that is most important to residents like Madam Mariam Maidun, 50, is the lift upgrading. The housewife, who has lived in Bangkit Road for 10 years, appreciates it especially when returning home after marketing with her bags of groceries. ‘It’s much more convenient now.’

But she misses the stools that were removed from the ground floor of her block during the upgrading works. ‘Most old people or housewives coming back from the market have no place to rest,’ she said.

Source: Straits Times, 12 Aug 2009

If sold, it will be first state-owned residential site sale in 10 months

EVER since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the United States and Singapore’s slide into recession, the Government has been unable to attract bids for residential development sites.

But yesterday – after 10 straight months without selling a single residential site – the Government said it had finally received an offer for a condominium parcel in Bukit Panjang.

An unnamed property developer has committed to bid at least $62 million for the 244,347 sq ft plot, in what consultants say is a further sign of the property market’s rebound.

The 99-year leasehold site located along Chestnut Avenue has been sitting on the Government’s reserve list since March last year. Sites on the reserve list are made available for sale, but are not launched for tender until a developer puts in a minimum bid.

Now that the Chestnut Avenue plot has been triggered for sale, it will be put up for tender by the Housing Board by the end of this week, HDB said yesterday.

The bid submitted works out to about $120 per sq ft (psf) of potential gross floor area, as compared with the $220 to $270 psf expected when the site was first made available in March last year.

Mr Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of CB Richard Ellis Research, thinks the final winning bid will be $150 to $160 psf of potential gross floor area, or $76 million to $82 million in total.

The Chestnut Avenue site can accommodate a development of about 450 units.

If sold, it will be the first state-owned residential development sale since Sept 10 last year – just before Lehman’s demise – when a condo site at the junction of New Upper Changi Road and Tanah Merah Kechil Avenue went for $84 million.

A few days later, on Sept 16, the HDB launched an executive condominium site at Punggol Field, but found no takers.

Now that buyers are returning in large numbers to showflats, developers’ confidence appears to be on the rise, according to consultants.

Home buyers have been snapping up more than 1,000 new homes each month since February, culminating in a record 1,825 new homes sold last month – even more than the number sold in August 2007, the peak of the boom two years ago.

Last week, owners of the freehold Dragon Mansion in Spottiswoode Park Road launched the year’s first collective sale, with a bullish price tag of $120 million.

Yesterday’s offer for Chestnut Avenue shows that there is renewed interest in the market, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s head of Singapore research Chua Yang Liang, who is still only cautiously optimistic.

‘The market is stirring and some developers may be excited, but by and large I don’t think there’s an overall bullishness in the market,’ he said.

And he predicts just a handful of bids for the Chestnut Avenue land.

‘I’m not sure if the rest of the developers will bite, considering there is still uncertainty in the larger economy.’

The site is located near other property developments such as Maysprings, Cashew Heights Condominium and Hazel Park Condominium. In recent months, units at the 99-year leasehold Maysprings have been sold at just below $500 psf, while those at the other two condos – both freehold – have gone for $560 to $600 psf, said CB Richard Ellis Research’s Mr Li.

He expects the developer who buys the Chestnut Avenue site to plan to sell finished units at more than $600 psf. Such entry-level private homes would be targeted at HDB upgraders – a promising segment of buyers unaffected by fears of a possible oversupply of mid-tier and high-end homes.

Analysts are anticipating more developers to resume buying land in the second half of this year, given that the Urban Redevelopment Authority has received inquiries about some of the other sites on its reserve list.

Also, as market sentiment improves, developers have started to pick up land meant for hotel and industrial development.

Earlier this month, $43.9 million was offered for a hotel site in New Bridge Road, prompting a public tender for the plot. And last month, 14 valid bids were received for a hotel site in Short Street.

Source: Straits Times, 21 July 2009

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) will launch the public tender for a residential site at Bukit Panjang later this week.

HDB says it has accepted an application under the reserve list system from a developer to put the land parcel up for tender.

Under the reserve list system, the government will put up a reserve list site for public tender if it receives an application from a developer who commits, by signing an agreement and paying a deposit of five per cent of the bid price, to bid for the site at or above the minimum price which is acceptable to the government.

The 99-year land parcel for a condominium development has a site area of about 244,000 square feet and a permissible gross floor area of 513,000 square feet.

The minimum offer price for the site is S$62 million.

Source: Channel News Asia, 20 July 2009

BUKIT Panjang will be among the first few estates to benefit from the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme, which is aimed at upgrading older HDB estates.

About $6 million has been set aside to spruce up the Cashew division in the area and about 1,700 homes will benefit from the upgrade.

More cycling and jogging tracks, covered linkways and residents’ corners are also being planned.

About three months ago, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said the Housing Board and his ministry would consider bringing forward programmes, such as lift upgrading and the Home Improvement and Neighbourhood Renewal programmes, as part of the Government’s efforts to increase spending and boost the economy.

The nationwide Neighbourhood Renewal Programme was announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally speech in 2007 and its aim is to enhance the value of homes and neighbourhoods through upgrading and estate renewal projects.

The programme is free but the residents still have to vote for it. A 75 per cent vote is needed before the constituency will proceed with the programme.

Member of Parliament for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC Vivian Balakrishnan, who is also the Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister, said residents are encouraged to take ownership and responsibility of the programme.

Rather than work on something that was an architect’s ‘grand idea’ or from the residents’ committee, the minister wants ideas which ‘bubble up from the ground’.

‘The last thing I want is to create a white elephant or, worse, create something that unwittingly inconveniences or creates disamenities.’

The chairman of one of Cashew’s residents’ committees, Mr Thusara Dharmapala, said many residents had asked for more carparks and other facilities such as barbecue pits.

Source: Straits Times, 23 Mar 2009

SINGAPORE: Bukit Panjang will be among the first few places to kick off the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme aimed at upgrading older HDB estates.

S$6 million has been set aside to rejuvenate the Cashew division in the area. Nearly 1,700 homes in the Cashew division will benefit from the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme.

In the pipeline are more cycling and jogging tracks, covered linkways and residents’ corners.

Thusara Dharmapala, chairman of Cashew Residents’ Committee Zone, Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, said: “A lot of people wanted more car parks and that is something that we are looking at right now. Some other issues included more facilities like barbeque pits.”

Although the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme is free, residents will still have to cast their vote for it. And the constituency will not proceed with the programme unless it gets a 75 per cent approval from the residents.

The government also wants residents to take ownership and responsibility of the programme.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister and MP for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, said: “Some of the problems are really to do with the fact that after the facility is being built, it was abused and misused and actually ended up making residents unhappy.

“So this is something we are trying to avoid in the future by making sure that it is not just an architect’s grand idea or ideas from the residents committee.

“These are ideas which bubble up from the ground. The last thing I want is to create a white elephant or worse create something that unwittingly inconveniences or creates disamenities.”

Ideas gathered from house visits and dialogue sessions will be incorporated into the plans before they are presented to residents for their final vote.

Source: Channel News Asia, 22 Mar 2009