http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/arch...-41786-psf-ppr
Published May 18, 2012
Tampines site draws top bid of $417.86 psf ppr
Tender muted, with just 3 bidders; highest 2 offers are 4.4% apart
By Kalpana Rashiwala
THE Urban Redevelopment Authority's tender for a 99-year leasehold condo plot at Tampines Avenue 10 yesterday fetched three bids, with the highest at $417.86 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), or $252.78 million.
The top bid - from a tie-up between Far East Organization, Frasers Centrepoint and Japan's Sekisui House - was 4.4 per cent more than the $242.1 million or $400.21 psf ppr offer from EL Development. The only other bidder, City Developments's White Haven Properties, offered $172.9 million or $285.82 psf ppr.
Analysts polled by BT when the plot was launched in March said that the top bids for the plot would be $350-465 psf ppr. While the top bid at yesterday's tender was within expectations, the tender participation rate was muted, noted property consultants.
Credo Real Estate executive director Ong Teck Hui said: "The factors affecting tender response could be that the site is less centrally located within Tampines and also the presence of a reserve-list site next door.
"Those interested would have considered the possibility of the reserve site being triggered and sold which would pose competition to the subject parcel."
Colliers International director of research and advisory Chia Siew Chuin added that the site was not within walking distance to the Tampines Regional Centre or any MRT station, although it is near Bedok Reservoir Park and Temasek Polytechnic.
Frasers Centrepoint said yesterday: "The partners will develop a condominium comprising 670 units spread over eight 15-storey blocks."
CBRE executive director Li Hiaw Ho estimated that based on the top bid, a new project on the site would break even at about $800-820 psf and is likely to be priced at around $900 psf on average.
Lee Sze Teck, senior manager (research and consultancy) at Dennis Wee Goup, said that the breakeven cost could be around $800-850 psf and the average selling price around $950-1,000 psf.
According to Credo's analysis of caveats information, units at Waterview condo, opposite the plot tendered yesterday, have sold at an average price of $879 psf so far this year. Sim Lian is developing the project on a site that it clinched at a state tender in March 2010 for $421 psf ppr.
The top bid at yesterday's tender will result in the fourth collaboration between Far East, Frasers Centrepoint and Sekisui House - after Boathouse Residences in Hougang, Watertown in Punggol and a plot at Bedok South Avenue 3.