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Published December 15, 2010
Tuan Sing top bidder for Seletar site
Offer of $123m just 0.7% above next highest; 99-year plot drew 11 bids
By KALPANA RASHIWALA
TUAN Sing yesterday made a rare appearance at a state tender, and that too as the top bidder. Its offer of $123 million for a 99-year leasehold low-rise private residential site at Seletar Road works out to about $468 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).
While that was below a seasoned property consultant's prediction that the top bid would be in the $550-600 psf ppr range, the 11 bids that the plot drew yesterday surpassed his earlier prediction of 4-8 bids. The turnout was one of the best showings at state tenders this year.
Tuan Sing unit Asplenium Land's top bid was just 0.7 per cent above the next highest offer of $122.1 million or $464 psf ppr by a unit of Fragrance Group.
'Developers still have a strong appetite for choice residential sites like this, in the established Seletar Hills residential estate and next to the future retail facility at Greenwich V,' said Credo Real Estate executive director Ong Teck Hui. 'However, at the same time, developers are cautious with their bids, bearing in mind the cooling measures put in place on Aug 30, the substantial state land sales programme for H1 2011 and a lingering fear of whether there'll be further property cooling measures.'
Also bidding yesterday was Malaysia's SP Setia International, which offered about $440 psf ppr. Far East Organization - which in September last year clinched an adjacent plot which it is now developing into Greenwich V shops and The Greenwich condo - teamed up with Japan's Sekisui House to emerge as the fourth highest bidder yesterday at about $433 psf ppr.
The lowest bid of about $335 psf ppr was from Meadows Investment (controlled by Tiong Aik Group executive director Neo Tiam Boon). The tender also drew bids from Hong Leong Group/City Developments, Centurion RE and EL Development, among others.
The 1.7-hectare site can be developed into a five-storey condo or two-storey landed/strata landed homes. Property consultants' estimates of Tuan Sing's breakeven cost for a new condo are $800-900 psf.
Mr Ong noted that at The Greenwich next door, smallish units have fetched $1,300 psf upwards and normal-sized units $1,100 psf upwards in recent months. Given these price levels, he described yesterday's tender bids as 'not bullish'. He attributes this to the latest site being 'landlocked', sandwiched by the Greenwich development, a SingTel telephone exchange and landed estates.
CB Richard Ellis executive director Li Hiaw Ho reckons that a new condo on the plot is likely to attract middle-income households in the location as well as investors targeting the labour force in Seletar Aerospace Park.
Far East had paid $376 psf ppr for its plot. Up to 15.3 per cent of the maximum gross floor area of Far East's site was set aside for commercial development. That tender attracted a dozen bids.
SLP International Property Consultants executive director Nicholas Mak said that the 11 bids at yesterday's tender was the highest for a private housing site offered at a state tender since June this year, when a plot at Upper Serangoon Road/Pheng Geck Avenue drew 15 bids.
Property market watchers were surprised by Tuan Sing's participation at yesterday's tender. The group, controlled by the Nursalim (also known as Liem) family from Indonesia, has been keeping a low profile in the Singapore property market of late. Earlier this year, it completed the sale of Katong Mall to a consortium of investors for $247.6 million.
A Tuan Sing unit is developing Mont Timah, a 99-year leasehold project comprising 32 strata cluster homes in Upper Bukit Timah, boasting views of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.
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