Seletar Hills site gets 11 bids

Tuan Sing unit top bidder in strongest tender response in six months

by Jo-Ann Huang Limin 05:55 AM Dec 15, 2010SINGAPORE - A residential land parcel at Seletar Road attracted a whopping 11 bids at the close of the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) public tender yesterday.

This is the highest number of bids for a Government Land Sales site since the 15 bids for the Upper Serangoon Road/Pheng Geck Avenue tender that closed more than six months ago.

The top bid for the Seletar Road site of $123 million came from Asplenium Land, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-listed property developer Tuan Sing Holdings. This works out to $468 per square foot per plot ratio for the 99-year leasehold site.

The second highest bid of $122.1 million, just 0.7-per-cent below the top bid, was from Fragrance Global.

The remaining bids ranged from $88 million to $115.8 million.

Located beside Seletar Hills, a private residential enclave, the site has an area of 17,455 square metres and a maximum allowable gross floor area of 24,439 sq m. Ideal for a low-rise housing development, the site is within 10 minutes drive of Yio Chu Kang and Sengkang MRT stations and close to Seletar Reservoir, Yio Chu Kang Sports Stadium as well as a number of country clubs.

Mr Nicholas Mak, executive director of research at SLP International, said the site could potentially be developed into landed housing.

"The strong demand for landed housing, which is expected to continue next year, probably attracted developers to this tender," he said.

To maximise on the allowable gross floor area, the developer may choose to build a low-rise apartment complex.

"The top-bidder may develop this site into an apartment project with about 270 units," said Mr Mak.

He added: "With a land price of $468 psf ppr and assuming the developer will build a five-storey apartment project, the breakeven price is estimated to be between $800 and $830 psf. The new condominium on this site can potentially be sold between $850 and $900 psf."

CBRE Research executive director Li Hiaw Ho said the future development would likely attract middle-income households and investors targeting those who work at Seletar Aerospace, an aerospace industrial park due for completion in 2018.

Source: www.todayonline.com