Yishun site attracts $185.09m top bid

[dtrax]

A mixed commercial and residential site at Yishun Avenue 4 attracted a total of five bids after the tender closed on Tuesday, revealed the HDB.

Launched for sale last November, the 9,759.80 sqm site has a maximum gross floor area (GFA) of 27,327.44 sqm and plot ratio of 2.8.

The top bid of $185.09 million was submitted by Northern Resi and Northern Retail. This translates to a psm price of about $6,773 on the GFA.

KBD Ventures and Changi Properties offered the second highest bid of $181.6 million, while the lowest bid of $94.5 million came from KSH Land Development.

CBRE Research Head Desmond Sim said given the current market conditions, the price bids remained subdued.

“Bids for this Yishun site reflect some level of caution as there are private residential projects in the North yet to be launched. The bidders would have factored these considerations before determining their overall bid price,” he explained.

According to the housing board, the 99-year leasehold plot could yield 180 housing units.

A decision on the award of the tender will be made after the bids have been evaluated.

Meanwhile, the first half of 2015 will likely see nine confirmed sites launched for sale. “With that in mind, the market should see a fair number of bidders for land sales in 2015 given that the inventories of some developers are running low,” noted Sim.

[Allthepies]

Any ideas which developers set up Northern Resi Pte Ltd and Northern Retail Pte Ltd?

[azeoprop]

Hopefully not another china developer....

[agentg]

Any ideas which developers set up Northern Resi Pte Ltd and Northern Retail Pte Ltd?

BBR Holdings

[Allthepies]

BBR Holdings

Thanks.

[reporter2]

http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/wednesday/premium/money/story/just-five-bids-99-year-leasehold-site-yishun-20150114

Just five bids for 99-year leasehold site in Yishun

Published on Jan 14, 2015 1:08 AM

By Marissa Lee


DEVELOPERS have shown only lukewarm interest in a 99-year leasehold Yishun site expected to yield about 180 homes and commercial space.

Just five bids had been received for the 9,760 sq m site at the junction of Yishun Avenue 4 and Yishun Ring Road by the time the tender closed yesterday. The site, with a gross floor area of 27,327 sq m, is at the southern tip of the Yishun Park area. Khatib MRT station is a 13-minute walk away.

The top bid of $185.1 million or $629 per sq ft (psf) per plot ratio (ppr) came from Northern Resi and Northern Retail, units of construction group BBR Holdings.

That was just 1.9 per cent above the second bid of $181.6 million from KBD Ventures and Changi Properties, units of Koh Brothers. In third place was a $168 million bid from developer Sim Lian (Focus), followed by a $160 million bid from Wee Hur Development, a unit of Wee Hur Holdings.

KSH Land Development, a unit of construction and property group KSH Holdings, was last with a bid of $94.5 million.

SLP International executive director Nicholas Mak noted that the closest comparable mixed site, which was developed into Junction Nine and Nine Residences, closed at a land price of $212 million or $794.44 psf ppr with 13 bidders in January 2013.

Consultants blamed the muted interest on a cooling residential property market, strong retail competition in the area and higher construction costs.

The site is the first of two Government Land Sales sites where the use of a new building method known as prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction (PPVC) is mandatory.

PPVC involves assembling whole rooms or apartment units that are manufactured off-site. It is meant to reduce reliance on foreign labour but is likely to lift construction costs.

No surprise then that most bidders were developers with a construction arm.

"Such developers have the advantage of being able to control construction costs better, transferring potential savings to their profit margins," said Mr Desmond Sim, head of CBRE Research Singapore and South-east Asia.

[email protected]

[reporter2]

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/lower-than-expected-bids-at-tender-for-yishun-mixed-site

Lower than expected bids at tender for Yishun mixed site

By Lee Meixian

[email protected]@LeeMeixianBT

14 Jan


A HOUSING Board tender for a mixed-use commercial/residential site at Yishun Ave 4 which closed on Tuesday garnered a "muted" turnout from just five bidders.

This fell short of consultants' earlier predicted six, to as many as 18 bidders by the most bullish of the lot.

Northern Resi and Northern Retail, both units of listed construction engineering group BBR Holdings, beat four others to offer the highest price of S$185.09 million, which translates to S$629.24 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).

Again, this was below even the floor of consultants' predictions of at least S$650 psf ppr for the highest bid.

The Yishun plot, with a gross floor area of about 27,327 square metres, is the first of two selected government land sale sites to adopt a new building method called prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction (PPVC). It has to meet a certain level of prefabrication under new government rules for the built sector.

Two Koh Brothers units, KBD Ventures and Changi Properties, put in a very close second highest bid of S$181.6 million (S$617.37 psf ppr), only 1.9 per cent less than the highest tenderer.

R'ST Research director Ong Kah Seng thus called the top bid a "chance occurrence". When interest is high in a site, bidders would bid aggressively, resulting in a wide margin between the first and second bids, but there was notably no outlying top bid in this tender, he said.

Sim Lian (Focus) Pte Ltd put in the third highest bid of S$168 million (S$571.14 psf ppr). The fourth and fifth bidders were Wee Hur Development and KSH Land Development, respectively.

Desmond Sim, CBRE research head for South-east Asia, said it was not surprising that the tender participants were developers with a construction arm, given the site's mandatory use of PPVC technology. "Such developers have the advantage of being able to control construction costs better, transferring potential savings into their profit margins," he said.

But the higher construction cost using the PPVC method - which involves assembling whole rooms or apartment units complete with internal fixtures off-site, and installing them on-site Lego-style - may also have been priced into the subdued bids, SLP International executive director Nicholas Mak said.

"In a buoyant property market, the developer may be able to pass on the higher construction costs to the buyers. But this could be difficult in the current market," he said. The alternative would thus be for the developer to lower its own land costs.

Ong Teck Hui, national research director at JLL, said the bidders also likely also took into account retail and residential competition in the vicinity.

Northpoint City, an integrated development which includes the largest mall in the north, will be completed in 2018, while Junction Nine at Yishun Ave 9 will be ready in mid-2017. There are also some 920 units for sale at Northpark Residences, and 660 units for sale at Symphony suites.

Chia Siew Chuin, director of research & advisory at Colliers, cited the requirement for the commercial component of the development to be held under a single strata lot as another reason for the low bids.

"This disallows any strata subdivision of the commercial component during the lease term, which could have prompted a more cautious bidding strategy from developers due to the more restrictive investment exit options available," she said.

The expected breakeven price for the residential component is estimated to be S$950 to S$1,000 psf. Its selling price could range from S$1,050 to S$1,150 psf, depending on the state of the market when it launches, she said.

The retail component could also achieve monthly gross rents of S$6 to S$12 psf, she added.