New home projects draw out buyers

Published December 7, 2010

New home projects draw out buyers
All but penthouses at Robinson Suites sold; 205 units of d'Leedon taken up

By KALPANA RASHIWALA

SEVERAL new residential projects sold well last week. All but the five penthouses at the 167-unit freehold Robinson Suites are said to have been sold over a three day period last week beginning on Thursday. Three shop units on the ground floor of the 42-storey project have also found takers.

Robinson Suites: The apartments were sold at prices in $2,600 psf to $3,300 psf range
BT understands that 132 residential units and the three shops were released on Thursday. Of these, everything was sold by Saturday, except for the five penthouses.

The remaining 35 apartments on the lower floors are believed to have been sold to a fund.

All the apartments in the development are either one-bedroom-plus-study units or two-bedders. Unit sizes start at 484 sq ft.

The apartments are said to have sold at prices ranging from $2,600 per square foot to $3,300 psf. In lumpsum quantum, prices began at $1.2 million for a one-bedroom-plus-study unit and $1.5 million for a two-bedder.

In addition to this relatively affordable lumpsum investment size, buyers were drawn to the pitch for the project as the first freehold apartments at Robinson Road. The units face the low-rise Lau Pa Sat and will enjoy a relatively unblocked view.

Robinson Suites will rise on the former VTB Building site; the project is being developed by a consortium whose shareholders include Cheong Sim Lam (whose family developed International Plaza), Fission Holdings, Tan Koo Chuan and Saw Pik Kee.

Analysts suggest that the strong sales achieved at Robinson Suites may inspire Kwek Leng Beng's City Developments, which owns the next-door City House office block, to similarly redevelop its site into apartments.

Meanwhile, over in the Farrer Road location, CapitaLand and its partners sold a further 153 units last week at d'Leedon on the former Farrer Court site. This takes total sales to 205 apartments, inclusive of the 52 units sold the previous weekend (Nov 27-28) when sales were open to former owners of Farrer Court.

Singaporeans have picked up 80 per cent of the units sold so far.

The developers have released 250 of the 1,703 apartments in the 36-storey, 99-year leasehold project. They have yet to release six pairs of strata semi-detached houses in the development.

The 250 apartments released have been priced at $1,680 psf on average. A typical one bedroom- plus-study apartment of 635 sq ft costs about $1.1 million. A typical two-bedder of 1,055 sq ft is priced at about $1.5 million.

The condo also has three- and four-bedroom apartments as well as penthouses.

Wong Heang Fine, CEO of CapitaLand Residential Singapore, said: 'We are pleased with the strong buyer interest in d'Leedon. It is a development that has no comparable given its iconic design by Zaha Hadid and prime District 10 location. We are confident that we will continue to see robust interest in the project, especially from homebuyers who are currently away for the December holidays.'

Meanwhile, in the executive condominium (EC) market, 823 applications had been received as at 5 pm yesterday for the 680 units available at Prive, a 99-year leasehold project at Punggol Road being developed by NTUC Choice Homes and Chip Eng Seng. Applications opened on Dec 3 and will close today.

Eligible applicants will be balloted for entry into the showflat on Dec 10, when sales bookings will commence.

The average price will be $660-690 psf on a normal progressive payment scheme. Buyers who opt for a deferred payment scheme will have to pay 2 per cent more

Source: www.businesstimes.com.sg