BT : Subsidiary of Roxy- Pacific buys Bukit Timah site

Business Times - 31 Aug 2010

Subsidiary of Roxy- Pacific buys Bukit Timah site

By FELDA CHAY

AN associated firm of Roxy-Pacific Holdings has bought the freehold Toh Tuck Apartment site for $33.9 million.

Mequity, which is 45 per cent owned by Roxy-Pacific's wholly owned subsidiary Roxy Land, will finance the purchase internally and through bank borrowings.

Roxy-Pacific said yesterday the acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on its consolidated earnings and net tangible assets per share this financial year.

The site - in the Bukit Timah area - is 40,449 square feet in area and has a plot ratio of 1.4, which allows it to be rebuilt to five storeys.

The amount Mequity paid equates to $687 per sq ft per plot ratio, including an estimated $5 million development charge.

The seller is Aik Hwa Trading, formerly a small-time developer but now in the building materials business. The existing project comprises 13 units in a four-storey block. The average size of each unit is 2,400 sq ft.

Jeff Goh, head of investment sales for HSR, which marketed the site, said that including the additional 10 per cent gross floor area allowance for balconies, 75 units ranging in size from 590 sq ft to 1,660 sq ft can be built on the site.

'A new apartment could fetch an average of $1,300 psf,' he said.

Copyright © 2010 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.