An executive condominium (EC) site in Woodlands has attracted seven bids from developers, according to the Housing & Development Board (HDB).
The 99-year leasehold site at Woodlands Avenue 5/Woodlands Avenue 6 fetched a top bid of S$216 million from Qingjian Realty (South Pacific) Group.
That’s about 9 percent above the second highest bid of S$198 million tabled by Bellevue Properties, a wholly-owned subsidiary of City Development’s Verwood Holdings.
Analysts say the top bid of S$216 million works out to about S$341 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).
And that is higher than previous bids for nearby sites at S$318 psf ppr and S$302 psf ppr last year
HDB says the site, which spans over 21,000 square metres, can potentially yield 590 residential units.
Desmond Sim, Associate Director of CBRE Research, said, “The relatively higher bid reflects developers’ renewed confidence in the area following the government’s announcement on Woodlands as Singapore’s new commercial hub in the land-use plan in January 2013… we expect interest in the next few EC plots this year to remain strong as there is a genuine need and demand for ECs. Developers are still positive about the EC market.”
ERA Realty Network expects selling price for units built on the site to start at $830 psf.
“This is the first EC land sale allocated after the new cooling measures were introduced. It can be seen that developers are still hungry for land sites to build up their land bank,” said Eugene Lim, key executive officer at ERA.
Cooling measures introduced in January this year will apply to this site.
Among them are restrictions on the maximum size of EC units and guidelines on private enclosed spaces or private roof terraces.
Under the new rules EC developers will also only be able to market their projects 15 months from the date of award of the sites.
Including this latest site, there are now four EC projects in Woodlands. The other three are La Casa, Forestville and Twin Fountains.
HDB says decision on the award of the tender will be announced at a later date.
Source CNA – 9 May 2013
