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FOREIGN buyers are flocking to The Arc at Draycott, another luxury freehold project with apartment prices starting from $1.9 million.

A Hong Kong buyer has already snapped up five three- to four-bedroom units of the 58-unit development in the Ardmore-Draycott area.

And a Pakistani investor has bought two units, including the penthouse on the top floor.

BS Capital, which is developing The Arc, said local and foreign buyers from Hong Kong, Britain, France, Germany, New Zealand and Indonesia have shown strong interest.

The 36-storey condominium, which was previewed in Hong Kong, will be launched this weekend. Units - which range from 1,130 to 4,144 sq ft - cost an average $1,800-$1,850 per sq ft (psf), said CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), which is jointly marketing the project with Savills.

Sources said that since last October, there have been 25 caveats lodged for The Arc at $1,800 psf on average, one of which was lodged in January. Lodging a caveat is a key legal step in buying a property.

BS Capital bought the condominium site - formerly Falcon Crest - in September 2004 through a collective sale for $40 million, or $671 psf of potential gross floor area.

Its maiden project - 16 good class bungalows carved out of a 276,118 sq ft site at Bishopsgate - has seen higher prices, with the most recent deal hitting $579 psf, a level not seen since 1996, said a CBRE statement yesterday.

Set up in 2003 by a former director of now-troubled Citiraya Industries, Mr Raymond Ng, BS Capital also bought HMC Building near Shenton Way, for $20.5 million last year.

The firm said its next project is a 43-storey residential development that will be among the first few in the central business district to offer home-office living concepts.

Source : Straits Times - 9 Mar 2006