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The plot is expected to fetch $6m or $36 psf of potential gross floor area

THE Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday released an industrial site at Woodlands Industrial Park. The 167,034 sq ft confirmed list site is being sold on a 60-year lease and is zoned for Business 2 use.

It has a 1.0 plot ratio (the ratio of potential gross floor area to land area). The tender closes on June 20.

Colliers International managing director Dennis Yeo expects the plot to fetch a price of about $6 million or $36 per square foot of potential gross floor area - which was the top bid that a plot at Woodlands Ave 4/Woodlands Industrial Park attracted at a state tender that closed in October last year.

Mr Yeo said the latest Woodlands site should attract demand, especially from industrial developers.

Singapore is still experiencing a glut of industrial properties, especially in Tuas, where there is over 10 hectares of either undeveloped or developed but unoccupied properties on sites sold by the state in the 1990s, according to Mr Yeo.

However, on an islandwide basis, occupancy of completed industrial and warehouse space has been picking up on the back of the improving economy, he says.

As well, industrial property developers do see money in developing sites like the Woodlands plot launched yesterday.

‘The investment is not that huge. All the developer needs to do is to make sure it gets it at a lower price than those developers who bought their sites at the peak of the market. As long as they can sell off their newer development to industrialists, they’re not really bothered by the industrial property glut elsewhere on the island,’ says Mr Yeo.

He also noted that an additional draw of the latest Woodlands site is that with a plot ratio of only 1.0, the plot can be developed into a one-and-a-half to two storey terrace, semi-detached or detached factory, which is still much sought after by industrialists - unlike the multi-storey developments that can be built in places like Tuas sold with higher plot ratios earlier.

The Woodlands plot released yesterday by the URA is the third industrial site the government has launched for tender under the confirmed list for the first half of this year.

The earlier two are in Tuas South Avenue 2/3 and Bedok North Avenue 4. Another two plots - at Serangoon North Avenue 4 and Ubi Road 2 - are slated for release in May and June.

Meanwhile, CB Richard Ellis said yesterday that average rents for high-tech and factory space increased in the first quarter of this year - marking the first gains since 2003.

Occupancy rates also continued to move upwards for all categories of industrial space in Q1.

Average monthly rents for prime factory space (covering locations like Alexandra and Henderson in the central area of Singapore) increased by five cents psf, for both ground and upper floors to stand at $1.25 psf and $1 psf respectively.

For high-tech space, average rent posted a quarter-on-quarter rise of almost 6 per cent to $1.85 psf in Q1.

However, average warehouse rents remained unchanged.

Source : Business Times - 25 Apr 2006