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Foreigners and permanent residents account for 60% of buyers

Prices for bungalow plots in Sentosa Cove have hit a new high of $500 per square foot, up from the starting price of $260 psf when they were first launched in December 2003. And the buyer of the most expensive piece of land there is a Thai national.

Interestingly, Thais make up only 2 per cent of foreigners who have been snapping up the waterfront properties.

There are 214 bungalow plots in the Northern Precinct of Sentosa Cove and foreigners and Singapore permanent residents currently account for 60 per cent of the buyers.

According to Sentosa Cove Pte Ltd (SCPL), Malaysians form the biggest group of buyers, having so far bought 44 plots (or 23 per cent) out of 193 plots sold.

Indonesians bought 40 plots (21 per cent), followed by the Chinese who bought 27 plots (14 per cent) and the British and Indians who bought 15 plots each (8 per cent).

A mix of other nationals from Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Sweden, Taiwan, the Philippines and Denmark bought the remaining 52 plots.

Bungalow plots in Sentosa Cove have rocketed to $500 psf from the starting price of $260 psf when they were first offered in December 2003.

SCPL chairman Jennie Chua says that the current 60/40 ratio of foreigners to locals is ‘about right’, so any fears of Sentosa Cove becoming an exclusive enclave for foreigners will recede for now.

Still, Sentosa Cove is only expected to have about 10,000 residents in its 2,600 homes (which include the condominium developments there). Visitors, most of whom are tourists, hit 5.1 million in March last year, and projected visitor arrivals for 2008 is eight million.

Giving an indication of the positioning of the island is Sentosa Leisure Group chief executive Darrell Metzger who said: ‘Sentosa is fast gaining international recognition as one of the most exciting leisure destinations in Asia and one that is increasingly appealing to the higher-end tourist and business traveller.’

‘Higher-end’ tourists will also be targeted by the new five-star hotel SCPL hopes will get built at Sentosa Cove.

The hotel is part of a bundle of development sites called the Quayside Collection being offered to any developer, local or foreign, who can come up with the best proposal, on the best terms.

Apart from paying for the land, and coming up with an acceptable concept and design, the developer will also have to pay a percentage of its earnings to Sentosa Leisure Group.

‘All the hotels here pay between 5-15 per cent of its revenue as part of the partnership agreement with us,’ revealed Mr Metzger.

The Quayside Collection is the only commercial site for sale within Sentosa Cove and covers 48,611 square metres.

It will consist of a 320-room five-star hotel, a three-storey waterfront commercial site and land parcels for two six-storey condominium developments next to the hotel.

SCPL highlighted that the hotel and commercial sites are to be key components of the development and potential developers can choose not to buy the residential sites.

However, the residential sites will not be for sale on their own. The hotel and commercial components will have to be open to the public. But being a high-end development, this will nevertheless be a very select group of people.

Source : Business Times - 15 Feb 2006