Rush for URA provisional permission for 16 housing projects in Q3
Property
Published October 31, 2006
Rush for URA provisional permission for 16 housing projects in Q3
Developers hurried to lock in DC rates before big hike: market watchers
By KALPANA RASHIWALA
DEVELOPERS scrambled to secure provisional permission from the Urban Redevelopment Authority for 16 major private residential projects in the third quarter, up from nine in the preceding three months.
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Go-ahead: Among the major private housing projects which received provisional permission in Q3 were Far East's 413-unit proposed condo on the Amberville site (left) in Katong, and City Developments' planned 252-unit condo on the Lucky Tower site (right) along Grange Road that it bought in May this year
Fifteen of the 16 approvals were secured in July or August with only one obtained in September, according to Q3 real estate data released by URA on Friday last week.
Market watchers reckon developers were probably in a hurry to lock in development charge (DC) rates in anticipation of the sizeable hike in residential DC rates for prime locations from Sept 1 this year.
Securing provisional permission by Aug 31 would have allowed developers of sites to lock in the earlier March 1 2006 DC rates. DC rates are revised twice a year and are payable for enhancing a site's use or for building a bigger project on it.
Not every project that secured provisional permission in Q3 is liable for DC payment. But as Knight Frank managing director Tan Tiong Cheng explains, their developers would still have an incentive to speed up the securing of approval for development - as many of them are being built on collective sale sites bought in recent months at high prices.
'Most of these are in prime locations so the differentiation among the projects may not be that great. As a result, there's competition to get the projects ready for launch as soon as possible.' These days, developers can secure the necessary approvals for a project's launch within six months of receiving provisional permission, added Mr Tan. 'Another point to note is that these days, developers do not practise landbanking and hence, there's a tendency to push out sites bought for development as soon as possible,' said Mr Tan.
Among the major private housing projects which received provisional permission in Q3 were Far East's 413-unit proposed condo on the Amberville site in Katong, as well as two condominiums (with 700 and 742 units) to be developed by a Frasers Centrepoint and Far East joint venture on the Waterfront View site facing Bedok Reservoir. Both are privatised former HUDC estates and were sold this year.
In the traditional prime districts, SC Global Developments' Taraville Pte Ltd received approval for a 248-unit condo on the former Hilltops Apartments and adjoining terrace houses site at Cairnhill Circle. City Developments also won URA's approval for a 252-unit condo on the Lucky Tower site along Grange Road that it bought in May this year for $383 million or $1,134 psf per plot ratio inclusive of the then-prevailing DC.
Lippo received approval for its 252-unit condo on Kim Seng Road, while Hong Leong Holdings got the go-ahead for a 200-unit condo on the Eastern Mansion site in the Amber Road area which it bought through a collective sale last year. Other projects that bagged provisional permission in Q3 include a 330-unit condo project by City Developments at Jalan Datoh in the Balestier area and Singapore Press Holdings's unit Evol Media for a 264-unit condo on Thomson Road.
Besides residential projects, several high-profile commercial developments also secured provisional permission in Q3. These include the project on the Business and Financial Centre site (180,000 square metres of office and 7,730 sq m of retail gross floor area), and two prime mall projects on Orchard Road - one by CapitaLand and Sun Hung Kai Properties above Orchard MRT Station and the other by Far East Organization next to Specialists' Shopping Centre.
