En-Bloc Achieved (as reported in the media)
Published January 26, 2006
Hoi Hup bags Kim Yam Mansion in $63m collective sale
By KALPANA RASHIWALA
PROPERTY developer Hoi Hup, part of Straits Construction Group, is understood to have bagged the 877-year leasehold Kim Yam Mansion, off River Valley Road, for about $63 million through a collective sale.
Windfall: Owners of Kim Yam Mansion's 40 apartments will receive more than $1.5 million each
The price works out to about $460 per square foot of potential floor area inclusive of a development charge of about $300,000.
Owners of Kim Yam Mansion's 40 apartments will receive more than $1.5 million each, or up to three times the $500,000-$600,000 the units would have fetched if they were sold individually.
This premium is one of the highest since en bloc sales began in Singapore in 1994. Sellers in most deals these days see collective premiums of about 30-50 per cent.
Jones Lang LaSalle brokered Kim Yam Mansion's sale.
The four-storey development is about 40 years old.
It has a land area of 49,080 square feet and the site is zoned for residential use with a 2.8 plot ratio (ratio of potential gross floor area to land area).
Based on its purchase price, Hoi Hup's breakeven cost for a new condo on the site will be about $670-$700 psf, say analysts.
Kim Yam Mansion is the first collective sale to benefit from a new law that took effect last month, facilitating en bloc sales of estates where the original landowner/developer retains the freehold title despite giving flat owners leases ranging from 850 to just under 999 years.
In such estates, strata titles were not issued under an old law, so the developer issued long leases instead. In the past, some of these landowners demanded hefty payments - amounting to millions of dollars - before they would consent to an en bloc sale.
This ate into proceeds for the flat owners, sometimes effectively blocking an en bloc deal.
Jones Lang LaSalle, Kim Yam's marketing agent, worked with real estate lawyer S K Phang to highlight the anomaly in the law to the authorities.
This was fixed through an amendment to the Land Titles (Strata) Act that took effect on Dec 1, under which such landowners lose all rights to the land upon an en bloc sale.
The Singapore Land Authority has said that in all, 24 sites will be affected by the rule change - but did not identify them to protect the privacy of the present unit owners.
SC Global to pay $266m for Paterson Tower
SC Global to pay $266m for Paterson Tower
20 Mar 06
SC Global Developments will pay $266 million or $1,064 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr) for 8 Paterson Hill, Paterson Tower.
In a press release yesterday, SC Global said that its offer, made by wholly owned subsidiary Grandon Pte Ltd, for the en-bloc purchase of all 72 units at Paterson Tower, had been accepted by a majority of unit owners.
Paterson Tower was put on the market in February and its marketing consultant United Premas had indicated an asking price of $280 million. The failure to achieve this price suggests that prices for such prime redevelopment sites may have plateaued.
Prices for prime redevelopment sites had been rising steadily this year. In February, Far East Organization paid $120 million or $1,058 psf ppr for Angullia Mansion, the highest price achieved since 1997. Then, earlier this month, Hasetrale Holdings paid $138 million or $1,218 psf ppr for Eng Lok Mansions, an all-time high for a collective sale site. Both properties are within a stone's throw of Paterson Tower.
The price for Paterson Tower may not have broken any records but owners will still walk away with about double the market price for their homes. The current market price is about $1.85-1.9 million per unit.
The $266 million price tag includes the price for a 6,459 sq ft adjoining plot of state land. The combined land area is 121,006 sq ft and the plot ratio is 2.1. This will give the new development on the site a potential gross floor area of 254,112 sq ft and a building height of 24 storeys.
In line with SC Global's niche development strategy, a high-end luxury residential development will be built.
The Boulevard Residences around the corner, which was also developed by SC Global, made the headlines last year when a three-bedroom unit sold for $2,200 psf in October, a record high.
By ARTHUR SIM
Thomson en bloc sale fetches $156.3m
Published April 1, 2006
Thomson en bloc sale fetches $156.3m
By ALEXANDRA HO
THE collective sale fever continues, this time outside the downtown prime areas.
Owners of three properties in the Thomson area - Lock Cho Apartment, Comfort Mansion and a 4-storey walk-up apartment - fetched $156.3 million after they joined forces to collectively sell their properties by tender.
At that price tag, the freehold land works out to be about $344 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), after factoring in the purchase price of a plot of state land next to it for about $14.8 million and half a million dollars in development charge.
The price fetched is a tad lower than the $160 million, or around $350 psf ppr, that the owners had hoped for.
Property heavyweight City Developments (CityDev) beat two other developers to win the site in a tender, said Credo Real Estate, which handled the deal.
The three developments, at Jalan Datoh and Jalan Raja Udang, currently have a total of 165 units.
They have a combined land area of about 137,479 sq ft and 40,526 sq ft of state land. With a plot ratio of 2.8, it could yield about half a million sq ft of gross floor area (GFA), with a height control of up to 36 storeys - making it one of the largest collective sale projects launched this year in terms of GFA.
Credo reckons that CityDev could break even at around $600 psf and expects around 400 condominium units, each about 1,200 sq ft.
'These three adjoining sites were extremely attractive because collectively, it will provide us with the opportunity to amalgamate the sites to create a sizable land area for redevelopment.
'Such collective en bloc opportunities are rare,' said CityDev's group general manager Chia Ngiang Hong in a statement.
Each seller stands to get between $840,000 and $1.3 million, Credo said, which is a 60 to 90 per cent premium over their current market values.
Credo's executive director Tan Hong Boon said that including this sale, the total collective sale tally for the first quarter of this year is $1.2 billion, with 17 projects sold. Mr Tan said that figure is already more than half of 2005's total of $2.26 billion.
Chip Eng Seng buys Westpeak for $206m
Singapore
Published April 29, 2006
PROPERTY
Chip Eng Seng buys Westpeak for $206m
Metropole Hotel also changes hands; Hilton Towers' sale confirmed
By KALPANA RASHIWALA
CONSTRUCTION and property group Chip Eng Seng has clinched its second collective-sale site this month - Westpeak Condominium.
Its purchase price of $206.09 million reflects a unit land price of $348 per square foot (psf) of potential gross floor area inclusive of an estimated development charge of $21.5 million.
Westpeak has a site area of 311,829 sq ft, making it the biggest freehold collective property in terms of land area to be transacted in recent years.
If Chip Eng Seng decides to buy an adjoining state plot of 50,450 sq ft for an estimated $14.3 million, its unit land price will fall to $318 psf per plot ratio, according to Valuers & Property Consultants (S) Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Savills Singapore which brokered the sale of Westpeak.
The site is zoned for residential use with a 2.1 plot ratio - the ratio of potential maximum gross floor area to land area - and has a height limit of 24 storeys.
Savills estimates that Chip Eng Seng's breakeven cost will be below $550 psf and it should be able to market its new condo on the site for about $600-$650 psf.
Chip Eng Seng said yesterday it can redevelop the site into a new project with about 545 units averaging 1,200 sq ft.
It will finance Westpeak's purchase from internal sources and through bank borrowings.
Earlier this month, Chip Eng Seng bought Venus Mansion at Peck Hay Road in the Cairnhill area for $123 million or $785 psf per plot ratio (ppr).
Analysts reckon that Chip Eng Seng may either announce joint venture partners for the projects or do an equity raising to help fund the acquisition costs of the sites.
A possible partner is a Lehman Brothers fund that recently partnered Chip Eng Seng in its unsuccessful bid for a 99-year leasehold condominium site near Tanah Merah MRT Station, market watchers suggest.
The tender for Westpeak, which closed this week, also attracted bids from Far East Organization and Frasers Centrepoint, sources say.
Other property deals this week include the $18 million sale of Metropole Hotel at Seah Street in the Beach Road area to Surya Jhunjhnuwala, a member of the family that once controlled Hind Hotels, which owned the former Imperial Hotel at Jalan Rumbia.
The Metropole Hotel deal was brokered by Lee Hon Kiun of Landmark Property Advisors.
Mr Jhunjhnuwala plans to refurbish the hotel and convert the second and third floors, which are now used as food and beverage outlets, into additional hotel rooms. Metropole Hotel now has 54 hotel rooms. The property has a 999-year leasehold tenure.
The seller is Metropole Hotel Pte Ltd, controlled by members of a Lee family.
Also, Koh Brothers and Heeton have teamed up to buy Hilton Towers at Leonie Hill for $79.2 million or $880 psf ppr including development charges. They intend to redevelop the site into an 80-unit luxury apartment project.
Colliers International brokered the collective sale of the freehold Hilton Towers.
Far East, Frasers Centrepoint buy Waterfront View
Far East, Frasers Centrepoint buy Waterfront View
$385m private treaty deal works out to land price of $241 psf ppr
By KALPANA RASHIWALA
(SINGAPORE) In a move seen as reducing the risks of undertaking a massive development, Far East Organization and Frasers Centrepoint have set up their maiden joint venture, which has bagged Waterfront View, a privatised former HUDC estate facing Bedok Reservoir, for $385 million.
The price for the private treaty deal sealed late Tuesday night before the planned tender close for the property this Friday works out to a land price of $241 psf per plot ratio inclusive of an estimated $102.2 million payment to the state for lifting title restriction to enhance the site's plot ratio, and upgrading the site's lease from a remaining 78 years to 99 years.
The 809,037 sq ft site can be developed into a new condominium with a whopping gross floor area of over two million sq ft - enough for a massive project with about 1,600 units.
This is the biggest residential collective sale to date in terms of number of units involved (there are 583 units in the existing development), land area as well as dollar quantum, says DTZ Debenham Tie Leung, which brokered the sale.
Far East's and Frasers Centrepoint's breakeven cost could be about $450 psf, say analysts. Currently, 99-year condos in the area are going for above $500 psf for units that face the reservoir and below $500 psf for those that don't.
Depending on how Far East and Frasers Centrepoint come up with their design scheme, about 80 per cent of units in the new development may face the reservoir.
Industry watchers reckon that instead of competing with each other for Waterfront View at the tender, Far East and Frasers Centrepoint figured it made more sense to team up.
This reduces their risks in terms of exposure to such a huge development - and eliminating at least one competitor in the process. The duo are said to have made their offer, good for only a day, late Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by a $19.25 million cheque (for a 5 per cent deposit).
The collective sale agreement signed by Waterfront View's owners give the sales committee the mandate to negotiate a private treaty deal as long as the reserve price is met. This is understood to have been $370 million.
'The sales committee could either take the offer on the table, good for only a day - or take the risk of waiting and hoping for a higher offer at the tender that may or may not come,' said a source.
Waterfront View's sales committee chairman Matthew Yu said: 'We are very happy. It's a good price. The outcome came earlier and is better than we expected.'
DTZ's director for investment advisory services Tang Wei Leng said: 'Given the size of the development, there were really only a few parties who have demonstrated genuine interest. The sales committee was decisive, having considered all the options carefully. We are very happy for the owners.'
The $385 million price is above an independent valuation for the property which DTZ did not disclose. Owners controlling 82.33 per cent of share values in Waterfront View have agreed to the collective sale, which will be subject to approval from the Strata Titles Board. Owners of the existing 583 apartments and maisonettes have equal share values, which means they will each receive about $660,377 per unit, which is over 60 per cent more than what the units would fetch if sold individually today.
The site is zoned for residential use with a 2.5 plot ratio.
While the deal involves the maiden tie-up between Far East and Frasers Centrepoint, it is not the first time that the men helming the two organisations have joined hands. Far East is headed by property magnate Ng Teng Fong while Frasers Centrepoint is the property arm of listed Fraser & Neave group, which is now headed by Han Cheng Fong who, during his days as group CEO of the former DBS Land, oversaw many tie-ups with Mr Ng's Singapore unit Far East and Hong Kong arm Sino Land.
Market watchers are wondering if the two sides will team up for other acquisitions, including the second Somerset site being offered by the state. Far East clinched the first Somerset plot, the former Glutton's Square site, in January.
Waterfront View is the fifth site Far East has bought here this year. The five total $1.2 billion.