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Kim Chuan Drive site sold for S$40m

34,730 sq ft site being bought by Precise Development; site zoned for Business 2 use

By Kalpana Rashiwala

[email protected]@KalpanaBT

Aug 19, 2015


A FREEHOLD industrial site at Kim Chuan Drive has been transacted at S$40 million.

The price works out to S$460 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), without factoring in a small development charge that the buyer will have to pay to the state before redeveloping the site, said William Gan, founder of William Gan Realty, which brokered the sale.

On the 34,730 sq ft site is an old three-storey property that used to house shop lots and domitories. All the units have been vacated, after the tenancy agreements for the units were not renewed, said Mr Gan.

The property is being sold by Tai Kim Company, whose shareholders include members of a Lim family and a Teo family. Tai Kim Company developed the Kim Chuan Drive property more than three decades ago.

The property is being bought by Precise Development Pte Ltd, a boutique developer that has built residential projects in places such as Telok Kurau and industrial developments. "The buyer plans to redevelop the Kim Chuan Drive site into a six to eight-storey industrial project that is likely to have some commercial space on the ground floor," said Mr Gan.

Under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) Master Plan 2014, the site is zoned for Business 2 use which means it is suitable for heavy industries. A 2.5 plot ratio (ratio of maximum gross floor area to land area) is stated for the site under the Master Plan.

The option for the purchase of the property was exercised last Friday. On the same day, the option was also exercised for another transaction brokered by William Gan Realty - the S$5.8 million sale of two strata commercial units totalling 1,270 sq ft on the ground floor of a pair of adjacent two-storey shophouses at 681 and 683 East Coast Road. On the upper level of the freehold shophouses are residences. The property is zoned "residential with commercial at first storey" under Master Plan 2014.

Mr Gan said that his firm has also been appointed to handle the proposed collective sale of Euro-Asia Apartments along 1037 Serangoon Road. Signing of the collective sale agreement is in process; the reserve price is understood to be around S$140 million. This would translate to a S$812 psf ppr assuming the site is redeveloped to the existing gross floor area which reflects a 3.053 plot ratio. This exceeds the 2.8 plot ratio stipulated for the residential-zoned site under Master Plan 2014.

Euro-Asia Apartments is on a 56,476 sq ft freehold site that can be redeveloped into a new project with up to 210 apartments based on the minimum average unit size of 70 square metres (753 sq ft) Master Plan gross floor area stipulated by the URA for non-landed private residential developments Outside the Central Area.

Set up in 1999, William Gan Realty has about half a dozen agents; the firm focuses mostly on investment sales and leasing transactions. Mr Gan, 56, has been a property agent for 25 years. He laments the undercutting of commissions in the property agency business, particularly by the bigger players, to secure marketing jobs.

"Some agencies, in a bid to secure appointments for collective sales, also promise unrealistically high prices to owners - as much as 40-50 per cent above what their units could fetch on an individual basis. In the end, no en-bloc sale materialises and in the meantime, owners might also have missed out on any opportunities to sell their units individually in the open market."