Published November 26, 2010
200 d'Leedon units for sale to ex-Farrer Court owners
Average selling price is $1,680 psf; or under $1m for a one-plus-study unit
By LYNN KAN
CAPITALAND will release 200 units of its highly anticipated 1,715-unit residential project, d'Leedon, this weekend for sale to former owners of Farrer Court, who sold the land to CapitaLand in 2007.
CapitaLand said that the public launch of the 99-year leasehold residential project on Farrer Road will be 'soon' after this preview.
The units that will be on sale range from one-plus- study to four-bedroom units. The average selling price is $1,680 per square foot (psf), which translates to below $1 million for the smallest units to $1.5 million for a two-bedder.
These units are drawn from two of d'Leedon's seven 36-storey towers, which are near its King's Road entrance. They make up barely one-third of the two towers' 678 units.
d'Leedon will also have penthouses, three-storey garden homes and landed property. The latter, 12 semi-detached garden villas, will be rolled out in d'Leedon's last phase. CapitaLand would not say how many phases the project will have.
The total cost of developing the District 10 project is about $3 billion. This includes the $1.3 billion price tag for the 840,049 sq ft site which was bought in a collective sale in 2007.
The breakeven cost remains at CapitaLand's previous estimates of $1,350 to $1,450 psf.
d'Leedon is being developed by a CapitaLand-led consortium that includes Hotel Properties Limited, a fund managed by Morgan Stanley Real Estate, and Wachovia Development Corporation.
Yesterday, CapitaLand Residential Singapore's chief executive Wong Heang Fine said that interest in d'Leedon seems to be good, with 300 of Farrer Court's 600-odd residents indicating that they would come to the preview.
When asked why the project took this long to come to market when the land was bought in 2007, CEO and president of CapitaLand Group Liew Mun Leong said that it was partly to do with the recession when it was 'senseless to do any launch'.
He also quipped: 'It also takes time to get our architects to conceive the design - and good architects are difficult to manage.'
The architect behind d'Leedon is Zaha Hadid, the first female winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Patrik Schumacher from Zaha Hadid Architects who also worked on the project with Ms Hadid said that the buildings' inspiration was very much taken from nature.
The 150-metre tall towers were conceptualised as flowers growing upwards from a central strip of private gardens. Each tower is unique as they are sub-divided into 'petals' according to the number of units on each floor.
The towers take up only 22 per cent of the land area. The rest of the 655,000 sq ft space, said Mr Schumacher, is dedicated to two swimming pools, greenery and recreational facilities such as clubhouses.
One tower of d'Leedon will have its third to 10th levels host 80 elderly friendly units. Mr Wong said they are meant to encourage multi-generational families to live close to one another.
Viewers of d'Leedon's show galleries would see luxurious customised decor. Four show suites were decked out by Hong Kong- based interior designer Terence Tam from Union-Tech Services. Each apartment comes with its own scent, such as baked bread or marinated salmon.
The last, a three-storey garden home, was specially designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and bears Ms Hadid's signature use of curves in its furnishings, bed linen and even wallpaper.
d'Leedon is expected to obtain its temporary occupation permit by 2015.
Source:www.businesstimes.com.sg
