Two freehold residential plots up for sale in District 10

MAR 21, 2017

Wong Siew Ying


Two adjoining freehold residential redevelopment sites in the Balmoral Road area, in the prime District 10, have been put on the market.

The sites are being offered in separate tenders, but marketing agent Edmund Tie & Company expects many parties to bid for both.

The firm said that the guide price for one plot in Balmoral Road is $88 million. The other, in Ewe Boon Road, is about $41 million. Both sites have an indicative land price of about $1,750 psf per plot ratio.

They are expected to garner strong buying interest, partly owing to their rarity and developers' hunger to build their land banks.

"Such opportunities where a freehold site within a prime location is available for sale are getting harder to come by as much of the area has already been developed," said Ms Swee Shou Fern, senior director for investment advisory at Edmund Tie & Company.

The sites have a combined site area of 57,349 sq ft and are suitable to be redeveloped into an "upscale boutique residential project" of about 121 units, assuming an average unit size of about 750 sq ft.

Under the Master Plan 2014, both plots are zoned residential, with a gross plot ratio of 1.6 and a building height control of up to 12 storeys.

"We expect many parties to submit bids for both sites as they offer greater economies of scale and flexibility in terms of layout and efficiency," Ms Swee said.

Edmund Tie & Company noted, however, that the successful bidder will have to pay an estimated total development charge of about $31.5 million to redevelop the combined site up to a plot ratio of 1.6.

A development charge is levied by the Government for enhancing the use of some sites or building bigger projects on them.

The marketing agent added that the "signs of the Singapore residential market bottoming out and growing momentum in sales volume in recent months" will also spark interest for the sites among local and foreign developers.

Despite a raft of property cooling measures, demand for new homes here has stayed fairly resilient in recent years amid a low interest rate environment and income growth.

Developers sold 977 new homes last month, up sharply from 382 units shifted in January, and more than triple the 303 units transacted in February last year.

The tender exercise for both sites will close on April 20.