BT : Balestier factory en bloc after rezoning

Business Times - 19 Nov 2009


Balestier factory en bloc after rezoning

(SINGAPORE) The owners of a terrace factory building off Balestier Road have put up their property for an en bloc sale following the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) decision in 2008 to consider rezoning the site for residential use upon redevelopment.

The freehold property is being marketed by Credo Real Estate with a price tag in the region of $27 million to $30 million.

About $18.7 million is payable as development charge (DC) for the rezoning of the site. After factoring the DC payable, the estimated price tag reflects a per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) price of $586 psf ppr to $625 psf ppr. Breakeven for the project is at about $950 psf to $1,000 psf.

The three-storey strata-titled development at 6 Jalan Ampas comprises four terrace factory units built in the 1980s. They belong to four unrelated owners. The building sits on a corner rectangular-shaped land measuring just over 2,586 square metres. Tan Hong Boon, Credo's deputy managing director, said that the URA issued a circular in July 2008 to say that it had completed a review on a cluster of 15 industrial buildings at Jalan Ampas/Lorong Ampas, and was prepared to consider rezoning the properties to residential use at a gross plot ratio of 2.8 upon redevelopment. Based on this rezoning, the site may be redeveloped into a high-rise residential development comprising some 100 apartments with an average size of 780 square feet.

The tender for the launch closes at 3pm on Dec 10. Credo said that the site is about 50m from Shaw Plaza, a shopping mall that houses a major supermarket, a multiplex cinema, banks and fast food eateries such as McDonald's.

A new development in the same vicinity, Prestige Heights, was recently launched at a median sale price of $1,322 psf.