6 whole floors sold at Marina Bay Suites preview
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/...62262,00.html?
Published December 3, 2009
6 whole floors sold at Marina Bay Suites preview
Buyers include Indonesians, Singaporeans and other Asians
By KALPANA RASHIWALA
ABOUT half a dozen floors at Marina Bay Suites changed hands at last week's preview of the project, BT understands.
The buyers of the whole floors are understood to be Indonesians, Singaporeans and other Asians.
Some of them bought through companies. The foreigners are believed to be Singapore permanent residents.
In absolute terms, the biggest transaction was close to $45 million, involving at least two floors. The buyer is understood to be an Indonesian party.
Market watchers estimate that it could have cost buyers between $17 million and $18 million to purchase a whole floor at the 99-year leasehold condo based on prices at last week's preview.
Each floor has four apartments - two three-bedroom units and two four bedders. The total saleable area per floor is slightly under 8,000 square feet.
Thomas Tan, head of marketing (residential) at Raffles Quay Asset Management (RQAM), told BT yesterday that 87 of the 90 units released for the preview have been sold.
The 87 units fetched close to $400 million, he added.
Two thirds of the units were sold to Singapore residents (including PRs). The remaining one third was sold to non-PR foreigners, including Indonesians, Malaysians, mainland Chinese, Australians and Americans.
'We do have multiple-unit buyers, but due to client confidentiality and privacy reasons, we are unable to reveal such information,' Mr Tan said when asked about purchases of entire floors.
RQAM is the asset manager for Marina Bay Suites, which is being developed by a joint venture involving Hongkong Land, Keppel Land and Cheung Kong Holdings.
Mr Tan declined to give details about pricing except to reiterate that 'the average price range was between $2,200 psf and $2,500 psf'. BT understands that on an average basis, the 90 units were priced at close to $2,300 psf.
However, the range at which the apartments were sold could be about $1,800 psf to slightly over $2,600 psf.
Mr Tan said that the apartments released were from the seventh to the 40-plus floors of the 66-storey development.
The 221-unit project comprises 218 three or four-bedroom apartments and three penthouses. Currently, the plan is to begin construction of the project sometime in the first half of next year, Mr Tan said.
'We have no immediate plans to release more units for the rest of this year but we'll continue to register interested buyers. We'll monitor the market and determine the price at the time of launch.'
