ST : Record bids for Sembawang land

Oct 29, 2010
Record bids for Sembawang land
Fourteen plots hotly contested, with 97 bidders registered
By Esther Teo

BIDDING was fast and furious yesterday as 14 land parcels along Sembawang Road earmarked for landed homes sold for $134.55 million, with prices hovering at record highs for the area. The hotly contested sites attracted an average of 50 bids each.

Analysts say a key factor for the keen interest was newly introduced flexible guidelines on building designs.

For instance, basements may protrude above the ground to let in more light.

Nine of the land parcels are being pilot-tested for the modified set of landed housing guidelines.

The auction by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) of Phase Three of Sembawang Greenvale - right on the Johor Straits - attracted strong interest, mostly from smaller developers and individuals who turned up at the URA Centre in Maxwell Road.

A total of 97 bidders registered, more than six times that for the auction held for Phase Two in April 2008, which drew only 16 bidders.

Prices of the latest plots were $546 per sq ft (psf) of land area on average - more than double the previous phase's average of $223 psf, testament to the strong landed housing recovery.

The URA sold another 12 plots in nearby Phase One in October 2007 for about $285 psf on average.

The 99-year-leasehold plots - able to yield about 115 landed homes - include individual bungalow lots, small streetblock parcels each able to yield four to 17 terrace and semi-detached houses, and one parcel for a strata landed housing development.

Boutique property developer JBE Holdings, whose projects include Luxe Ville at Pasir Panjang Road and The Luxe at Handy Road, emerged tops, sweeping five sites - able to yield 39 terraces - for $43.35 million, or at $514 psf.

However, it also lodged the lowest winning bid of $443 psf, which worked out to a $7.16 million bid, for a 1,500sqm site on Penaga Place. The plot is able to yield six terrace units.

Fragrance Homes clinched the largest 3,796sqm site on Wak Hassan Drive, which can be developed into strata-landed or landed housing, for $26.15 million - a whopping $640 psf, the highest psf price.

Other successful bidders include Goodland Homes, MCS Development, Techcom Construction and Trading, and Sunway Developments.

However, the high prices also meant that some potential property investors went away empty-handed.

BuildTech Construction's W.P. Lim said he decided to try his hand at the auction as prices in the landed homes segment have skyrocketed in the past year. 'I was hoping to be able to develop some of the smaller sites to get some margins but prices are too high now, they are double that of the last round,' he said.

Experts say that the pent-up demand for landed homes, coupled with the limited supply, contributed to the strong bidding.

SLP International Property Consultants executive director Nicholas Mak that with the average price of landed properties rising by some 25 per cent since April 2008, developers are very confident of the landed housing market next year.

'Another factor that contributed to the fierce bidding today is the new...development guideline for landed housing, which allows the developer greater flexibility in the design and development, and possibly some cost saving as well,' he added.

Under the new guidelines, the URA will fix only the overall size of the house and do away with guidelines on internal features. Architects will gain more leeway in terms of the building's interior dimensions.

For instance, existing guidelines for the sites will be relaxed so homes built there can be four storeys, up from a limit of three now. Other options include loftier living rooms and more compact bedrooms.

According to URA data, landed home prices have surged by 24 per cent since the start of this year.

esthert@sph.com.sg