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Auction sees 12 plots snapped up, with bids reaching $1,039 psf

PRICE records were smashed yesterday when buyers paid between $5.56 million and $8.15 million for 12 prized bungalow plots in exclusive Sentosa Cove.

The much-anticipated auction attracted about 400 people and bidding was frenzied, especially for some of the more prized plots facing the ocean.

Bids could be made at increments of $20,000, but some impatient buyers upped their offers by far bigger amounts with one even raising his offer by $500,000 in one go.

One local buyer managed to land two adjoining plots, an afternoon’s buying that set him back about $14.8 million.

Most of the 12 buyers were from Singapore with four from Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Myanmar. Mr Tony Phua, the chairman of furniture company Da Vinci Holdings, is understood to be another of the local buyers.

Auctioneer Grace Ng from property consultant Colliers International, which conducted the sale with Christie’s Great Estates, knew what was driving the high level of interest. The buyers are buying a waterfront lifestyle in a secure gated community, she said.

For the first time in a property aution here, proceedings were webcast live to registered bidders in Australia, London, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

The record prices were set on a square foot basis and varied according to the size of the plots - all 99-year lease - and ranging from 6,927 sq ft to 11,124 sq ft. These even topped prices of good class bungalows, the most prestigious class of bungalows here.

A local buyer paid the highest price - $1,039 per sq ft (psf) for a 7,841 sq ft plot, easily trumping the previous high of $500 psf set last year, Sentosa Cove said in a statement.

The absolute price set the buyer back $8.15 million. He also bought a 8,089.5 sq ft parcel next door for $6.68 million or $826 psf. His desire to amalgate the plots probably explained the record $1,039 psf bid, said Ms Ng.

The largest plot was one facing the water canals and went for $7.3 million or the lowest psf price of $656.

But buyers also earned a special bonus: free membership of the nearby One 15 Marina Club, which currently costs $30,888.

The stock market soon got wind of the keen interest and sent the shares of niche developer Ho Bee Investment three cents higher to 91 cents.

Ho Bee has several Sentosa Cove projects, including condominum units in The Baywater Collection site and bungalows on Paradise Island.

‘In the next three years, most of Ho Bee’s income will come from Sentosa Cove. Its shares will benefit every time prices in Sentosa Cove reach a new high,” said Sias Research analyst Roger Tan.

The 12 plots sold yesterday are the first batch to go from Sentosa Cove’s southern precinct, which comprises 156 bungalow plots and four condominium plots for 972 homes.

The tender for the last two condominium plots in the northern precinct closes next month.

Source : Straits Times - 26 Aug 2006

THE number of applications to the Strata Titles Board from home owners hoping to block the collective sale of their estate has shot up this year.

In 2004, there were 10 applications, and the number rose to 14 last year. So far this year, the figure has already more than doubled to 32.

Most cases are settled at the mediation stage. If this fails, the matter will be decided by a tribunal, which is a five-person panel whose members are drawn from an approved list of lawyers, architects, property consultants and surveyors.

Parties unhappy with the tribunal’s decision can appeal to the High Court and Court of Appeal.

A check with court records and lawyers who handle such disputes show that very few people go that far.

In fact, since the law was changed in 1999 to allow collective sales to go through on a 80 per cent majority for estates more than 10 years old, only one person has taken her case to the High Court.

In 2003, accountant Koh Gek Hwa lost her bid in the High Court to get about $200,000 more from her unit at the Dragon Court condominium in Holland Road.

Source : Straits Times - 25 Aug 2006

Ex-nurse is resisting her 62 neighbours’ bid; if Eng Lok deal fails, they must each repay $100K received so far

AN 80-YEAR-OLD widow is fighting with her 62 neighbours to stop a collective deal their private estate has made with a developer from going through.

Madam Chow Ai Hwa, the sole party to hold out, has turned to the Strata Titles Board to block the sale of Eng Lok Mansion, a prime estate beside Gleneagles Hospital in Napier Road.

If she loses, she plans to take the matter up to the High Court and even the Court of Appeal - a process which could drag over many months.

Neighbours, some of whom have bought new homes, are worried that her move will jeopardise the estate’s deal with Napier Properties, which hopes to seal the deal by the end of the year.

If the deal collapses, each owner will have to repay about $100,000 which they have received so far for the sale.

Napier Properties’ offer of $138 million for the freehold property made in March would net each owner about $2.16 million - double what they would have received if they had sold their units individually.

It was then Singapore’s most expensive collective sale site until it was outdone last month by Habitat One in Ardmore Park, which is being sold for $180 million.

But Madam Chow, who has lived there for 37 years and was the first occupant of her apartment, feels they should have received twice as much.

In her affidavit to the board, she claims that properties in the Tanglin area can fetch $3,000 per square foot, which would translate to a whopping $4.7 million for each owner.

She is also contesting the way the pool of money is being divided equally among all the owners, when there are some apartments which are smaller in size.

She does not want more compensation. She is asking for an apartment at the new development instead.

Napier Properties has plans to develop the current Eng Lok plot of land into a medical centre, but these were turned down by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which wants the area to be a residential site instead.

The matter will be heard tomorrow by a five-member Strata Titles Board tribunal.

Madam Chow wants to stay on as she maintains that the spirit of her late husband, who died in 2002, lingers in the house. She now lives by herself.

The retired nurse, who has six children and 13 grandchildren, wrote: ‘The spirit of my late husband…will become lost and homeless and he may not be able to find me again.’

She told The Straits Times: ‘This is such a good locality…We’re near a hospital and the Botanic Gardens… I don’t see why anyone in his right mind would want to sell it.’

In her court documents, she also talked about how memories were now her ‘most precious possession’.

Her three-bedroom apartment is cluttered with old newspapers yellowed with age, thick files of court documents from numerous other cases she has contested in court, and videotapes of television shows her husband had recorded for her but which she has not had time to watch.

Although she is more fluent in Mandarin, Madam Chow is handling her own case and preparing her own affidavits in English, relying on her spectacles, a magnifying glass and a Chinese-English legal dictionary for help.

Eng Lok is represented by lawyer David De Souza.

Madam Chow stays home all the time as she worries that neighbours who oppose her will sneak in and ’steal my evidence’.

She is determined to carry on the fight for ‘the sake of my neighbours’, whom she claims do not realise they are entering a ‘really bad deal’.

But her neighbours do not agree. A couple with two young children, who have bought a new apartment in Holland Road for $900,000, said they are keeping their fingers crossed that she will back down soon.

‘We could end up in a lot of trouble financially if she continues the fight. We hope she will see the light soon.’

Source : Straits Times - 25 Aug 2006

RIVAL developers from here and overseas are expected to be in the race for SingTel’s ageing Robinson Road building, which was put up for sale yesterday.

The seven-storey block at No. 71 - once known as Crosby House - is one of the last underdeveloped sites on the prime financial district street.

The 1950s property, which houses the Robinson Road Post Office, could be turned into a 35-storey office building or a 52-floor apartment block.

Marketing agent Credo Real Estate said the sale by tender could yield about $143 million, which would include a fee to intensify the land use and top up the remaining 45 years lease to 99 years.

The price would work out to $521 per sq ft (psf) per plot ratio. This would enable the new owner to sell a redeveloped office building for $1,300 psf.

In June, the 35-storey SIA building a few doors down was sold to CLSA Capital Partners for $343.9 million or $1,165 psf.

Credo managing director Karamjit Singh said the positive outlook for both the office sector and inner-city apartments should ensure a high level of interest from local developers and foreign funds backed by developers.

The new owners could build flats on the site as SingTel has been granted the permission to redevelop the building into a 52-storey, 330-unit apartment block with shops on the first level.

Leasehold inner-city apartments are in demand, judging from prices of The Sail @ Marina Bay in the new downtown. Units here are going for between $1,000 psf and $1,400 psf in the resale market, said Credo.

The Clift at the Natwest Centre site at nearby McCallum Street is being marketed at between $1,000 psf and $1,100 psf.

About 120 units of the 312-unit project have been sold since its preview early last month.

However, it may be better to redevelop SingTel’s block as an office building considering the shortage of office space, said Mr Donald Han, managing director of property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield.

Robinson Road is still a respectable address for offices, he said.

‘It’s also quite a sizeable plot,’ he said, adding that the new development would be similar in size to one tower of SGX Centre in Shenton Way.

The tender closes on Sept 28.

Source : Straits Times - 24 Aug 2006

A COOL $1.3 billion was zapped electronically into the national coffers yesterday when Las Vegas Sands paid up for the 21-ha plot on which will rise Singapore’s first integrated resort (IR).

The payment, coming three months after the authorities picked Sands over three contenders to build the Marina Bay IR, also marks Sands’ takeover of the site from the Singapore Government.

In a buoyant ceremony more symbolic than news-breaking, Sands’ chief operating officer William Weidner said to laughter: ‘This morning, if you heard a little bit of sound, it was the transfer of $1.3 billion through the wire, to kind of let everybody know we are really serious about doing this.’

The sum comprises $200 million in taxes and fees, $193 million as a security deposit and the remaining $900 million of the $1.2 billion land price, of which $300 million was paid earlier.

The company which owns The Venetian on Las Vegas’ glitzy Strip also gave updates on the construction, hirings and the pre-opening marketing of its $5-billion project, which incorporates a casino.

Sands’ construction team leader here, Mr John Downs, told reporters to expect ground-breaking around Christmas. Sands has been interviewing local contractors and conducting soil tests.

He said: ‘There’s no commitment to look outside if we can satisfy the need here. There are some very good contractors here.’

Three years are set aside to build the project, which will comprise three hotel towers capped by a sky garden and three waterfront domes. Some architects have called it an ambitious timeframe.

A surprise uncovering of a concrete breakwater under the reclaimed land will not delay the project, said Mr Downs. It is on track to open in late 2009.

Groundwork has also begun to court the Mice sector - visitors who will visit the IR for meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibitions. Sands’ pointman Eric Bello said his team has already identified event organisers in the IT, pharmaceutical and financial sectors.

Sands won the race for the project on the strength of its focus on the Mice business. It was Sands’ chairman Sheldon Adelson who introduced the convention show to Las Vegas.

Asked whether the company’s development of a mega convention facility in Macau might dilute its efforts here, Mr Bello replied that Sands was going after different segments in the two markets.

For the many Singaporeans who have asked about openings among the promised 10,400 jobs the IR is expected to create, Mr Weidner said recruitment will pick up pace by early 2009.

Already, the firm has set up a 10-man office at Republic Plaza.

Save for one Australian, the rest of the pioneering staff are local, and are holding the fort in finance and marketing roles.

Mr Weidner said that some hundreds will be hired in the next two to three years, with the major recruitment happening by 2009, ‘when we will be out there with major hirings of thousands and thousands of people’.

Asked whether Sands was watching the contest for the second IR at Sentosa closely, he said: ‘Nay, we are not in the same league.’

He is focusing Sands’ efforts in Marina, viewed by the Big Boys as the more exciting venue that will pull in high-spending visitors.

He noted some high-rollers may take a break from Sands’ gaming tables by going to Sentosa IR, but most high-stakes gamblers preferred ‘the excitement of something that is very active’.

‘But I think the two resorts will work well together…I am sure there are customers who would go back and forth between the two.’

Yesterday’s handover ceremony at the Regent Hotel was attended by the heads of statutory boards and Sands’ top suits. Sands’ adviser, property tycoon Kwek Leng Beng, also made a brief appearance.

Source : Straits Times - 24 Aug 2006