40-storey condo-like blocks for Boon Keng

June 21, 2007

40-storey condo-like blocks for Boon Keng

700 units in HDB's second private-developer project will cost about 57% more than those in the first one

By Tan Hui Yee, Housing Correspondent

PUBLIC housing is set to go upmarket by another notch when three 40-storey blocks built by a private developer - the second batch under a hybrid scheme - are completed by 2010.

The 700-unit project at the junction of Boon Keng and Bendemeer roads will give residents a clear view of the Kallang Basin and beyond. When ready, the three blocks will join a select number of 40-storey HDB blocks islandwide - 22 - that have already been completed, or would have been around that time.

The Boon Keng project - like the first, The Premiere@Tampines - will stand out from other HDB flats with its condo-like finishings like kitchen cabinets, bedroom wardrobes and bay windows. Under this programme, developers have a free hand to design, build, price and sell these flats, which will be available only to those who qualify for public housing.

This means that buyers' household incomes cannot exceed $8,000 a month; there is also an ethnic quota. But a buyer can use a government grant of up to $40,000 to offset the price of the flat.

The Boon Keng project, developed by a consortium comprising Hoi Hup Realty, Oriental Worldwide Investments and Sunway Concrete Products, will be launched later this year.

It will come at a time when, thanks to collective sales of private estates, some cash-rich buyers are chasing up prices of relatively new resale units in mature estates like Tiong Bahru and Queenstown. Last week, a 29th-storey five-room flat in Kim Tian Place was sold for a record $720,000.

Mr Wong Chee Herng, director of Straits Construction which owns Hoi Hup Realty, said the Boon Keng units will be priced at an average of almost $500 psf, which would work out to about $645,000 for a 1,290 sq ft five-room flat. This is slightly lower than prices at nearby private condominium Kerrisdale, where new units are selling for about $550 psf, according to estimates by Knight Frank.

It is, however, 57 per cent higher than the average price of $318 psf fetched by The Premiere's units.

But Mr Wong is confident that the Boon Keng project will sell, and is unfazed about possible competition from executive condominiums - after the Government last week made available a site for such homes for the first time since the last such plot was sold in 2004.

He said: 'We don't see a similar project that can compete on pricing and location.' The project is sited in the central area, next to Boon Keng MRT station.

Even without these attributes, The Premiere drew close to 6,000 applications for 616 units.

Most units in the Boon Keng project will be five-room flats, with up to 35 per cent - or 245 units - comprising three- and four-room flats.

Property agents and analysts contacted were divided about the project.

While chief executive Mohamed Ismail of property agency PropNex felt the flats were good value for their location, Knight Frank's head of consultancy and research Nicholas Mak felt their relatively higher prices may cause the queue to move slower than the one for The Premiere@Tampines.

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• Three 40-storey blocks, comprising a total of 700 units, ranging from three- to five-room flats

• Units will come with condominium-like furnishings such as kitchen cabinets, bedroom wardrobes, bay windows and parquet flooring

• Higher price at an average if almost $500 psf, which works out to about $645, 000 for a 1, 290 sq ft five-room flat