ST : 16 bids for Hougang housing site

May 7, 2010

16 bids for Hougang housing site

By Esther Teo

RESIDENTIAL development sites continue to be snapped up aggressively with the tender of a site zoned for landed or apartment housing on Tampines Road receiving a total of 16 bids.

Fragrance Properties topped the tender, which closed yesterday, with a bid of $16.25 million - or $405 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr)- just beating Whye Wah Group, with $15.5 million.

Fragrance's bid was also more than double the lowest bid of $7.5 million - or $187 psf ppr - by Kim Hoe Corporation.

The 99-year leasehold site near Hougang Avenue 3 has a land area of 28,656 sq ft and a maximum gross floor area of 40,118 sq ft, the HDB said. It was triggered for sale when a developer lodged an acceptable offer of $6.5 million.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic real estate lecturer Nicholas Mak said this high participation rate indicated that both large and small developers were still very hungry for development sites and bullish on the property market next year.

'There is a shortage of small residential development sites in the present Government Land Sale (GLS) programme that cost less than $30 million, which smaller developers could easily acquire,' he said.

The Government should thus consider including a few more of these small sites in the next GLS programme, he said.

Mr Mak noted that the highest bid could translate into a break-even price of $720 psf to $750 psf, with the developer likely to develop small apartments on this site to maximise the psf selling price.