Kensington Park relaunched for collective sale at unchanged S$1.28 billion reserve price

Feb 09, 2023

KENSINGTON Park in Serangoon Gardens has been launched for collective sale for the third time, again at an unchanged reserve price of S$1.28 billion.

The public tender will close on Feb 22 at 3 pm.

This comes after the last en bloc exercise closed on Nov 18, 2022 without a sale, said sole marketing agent CBRE on Thursday (Feb 9).

Located at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 Kensington Park Drive, the 999-year leasehold condominium zoned for residential use was first put up on the market on May 18 last year, and subsequently relaunched for sale on Oct 4. The 999-year tenure of the land began in 1878.

The reserve price translates to a land rate of about S$1,444 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).

Taking into consideration the 7 per cent bonus gross floor area allowed for balconies, as well as a land betterment charge of about S$273 million, the land rate is around S$1,407 psf ppr.

The 314-unit condominium has a land area of about 500,000 square feet with a gross plot ratio of 2.1 under the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s 2019 Master Plan, and a building height control of up to 24 storeys.

CBRE said the site can potentially be redeveloped into 1,126 residential units, assuming an average unit size of 85 square metres.

Built in 1990, Kensington park is located near Chomp Chomp Food Centre and Serangoon Garden Market and Food Centre, shopping malls such as Nex, parks and educational institutions.

The site also offers connectivity via the Central Expressway and new MRT stations Tavistock and Serangoon North, both of which are slated to complete in 2030.

In CBRE’s latest statement, the real estate agency’s head of Singapore capital markets, Michael Tay, highlighted growing interest and demand from developers to acquire prime residential land in Singapore.

This comes on the back of a declining supply of new residential units, higher take-up rates at new condominium launches, and projected strong buying interest from the Chinese following China’s reopening, he said.

Noting increasing demand for larger units with the shift towards remote working, Tay also said developers can cater to this demand by reducing the number of units and building larger ones instead.

Developers can also add strata-landed houses to the unit mix given Kensington Park’s location in Serangoon Gardens, he added.

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