SGHOUSING.COM 新加坡房地产网

The sister of tycoon Oei Hong Leong has paid more than $30 million for a good class bungalow site in posh Nassim Road - right next to a site she paid $25.5 million for three years ago.

The Straits Times understands that Ms Oei Siu Hoa paid $950 per sq ft (psf) for the 32,000 sq ft site at No. 30.

This easily broke the Nassim Road record she herself set in 2003 when she paid entrepreneur Peter Kwee $647 psf for No. 28.

The latest purchase is nearly double the average price for such properties in Singapore.

A house on the site is deemed to be worth little as it is old and likely to be torn down and rebuilt.

Ms Oei has already built a large bungalow on the 39,383 sq ft site at No. 28.

The record-setting property at No. 30 belongs to low-profile businessman David Eng, who bought it in late-2000 for $600 psf.

Mr Eng, who is in his 60s, is a director of Sabre Investment, and is involved in property development. He declined to be interviewed yesterday.

Ms Oei, who is believed to be overseas and was not reachable, is from Indonesia’s Widjaja family. The family controls Sinar Mas, a conglomerate that has varied interests, including Asia Pulp and Paper.

Her brother, Mr Oei, is a prominent investor with interests in Singapore and China.

He featured in one of Singapore’s biggest home deals when he paid nearly $40 million, or about $331 psf, for a 120,000 sq ft bungalow site at Gallop Road near the Botanic Gardens in 2004.

Good class bungalows are free-standing houses on a plot of at least 15,000 sq ft. There are only about 3,000 such properties in Singapore.

Even so, the Nassim Road price has raised eyebrows among property experts.

‘It is way too high,’ said a general manager of a large firm who did not want to be named. ‘Land cost for such a plot is worth no more than $700 psf.’

He also dismissed comparison to a 99-year-lease Sentosa Cove bungalow plot that sold recently for $1,039 psf, pointing out that waterfront property is rare and in high demand.

‘It’s a fad, that’s all. It’s the place to be seen in,’ he said.

While other landed properties have fetched more than $950 psf, they are either collective sale deals for high-rise projects or fairly new houses that do not need much work.

Good class bungalow sales have been hotting up in recent months. Over 90 have sold this year - some changing hands twice. This compares with 86 last year and 66 in 2004.

Source : Straits Times - 25 Nov 2006

The Urban Redevelopment Authority has received a committed bid of $5.1 million from an unnamed developer for an industrial site in Tuas that is on the reserve list of the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme. The site - at Tuas Bay Drive/Tuas South Avenue 3 - will be put up for public tender in two weeks. The site was put on the reserve list about four weeks ago. Two other industrial sites remain on the reserve list.

At the committed price of $5.1 million, the site would cost about $13 per square foot. The final bid price is expected to be higher. In April, another industrial site in Tuas on the GLS programme was sold for $5.8 million or about $15 psf. The site at Tuas Bay Drive/Tuas South Avenue 3 has an area of about 3.68 hectares and maximum permissible gross plot ratio of 1.0, with a lease period of 60 years. It is zoned for Business 2 development and has a building height restriction of 10 storeys.

Source : Business Times - 25 Nov 2006

Homegrown construction group Teambuild has purchased a collective sale site in Joo Chiat for $8.8 million or $308 per sq ft per plot ratio, setting a new benchmark for land sales in the area.

The price for the property - Bougainville Maisonette Apartments - includes an estimated development charge of $86,000.

United Premas, the marketing agent for the deal, said it secured consent from all 8 owners for the sale. On average, each owner at Bougainville Maisonette Apartments should receive $1.1 million, or a collective sale premium of over 40 per cent.

Based on the 2003 Master Plan, the freehold site of 20,576 square feet is zoned for residential use with a plot ratio of 1.4 and a five-storey height limit. The plot has the potential for redevelopment into a boutique project of 27 residential units of about 1,000 sq ft each.

Teambuild, whose core business is construction, is moving into property development. Some of its private residential projects include the Ecoville in Balestier, and the soon-to-be launched One@Pulasan.

Source : Business Times - 23 Nov 2006

MAPLETREE Logistics Trust (MapletreeLog) has sealed a deal to buy a warehouse and office property in the northern part of Singapore for $18 million from Winstant & Co.

The property, at 6 Marsiling Lane, has been acquired on a sale-and-leaseback basis. Winstant, whose core business includes trading in engineering hardware, will lease the premises for seven years with an option to extend for a further term of up to seven years.

Chua Tiow Chye, chief executive officer of Mapletree Logistics Trust Management Ltd (MLTM), said the deal is in line with its strategy to strengthen the trust’s portfolio in Singapore and deliver stable cash distributions to unit-holders through medium to long-term leases. MLTM is the manager of MapletreeLog.

The Marsiling Lane property comprises three blocks of industrial warehousing with ancillary offices, plus a two-storey office building. It is in an established industrial and warehousing cluster in Marsiling. Other tenants in the complex include car distributor Borneo Motors, and ABB Industry, a subsidiary of the New York-listed ABB Group.

The property was valued at $18.4 million by Chesterton International Property Consultants on Monday. It has a floor area of 16,207 sq m and sits on a leasehold site of 19,347.4 sq m. The land lease expires in 2038.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by February 2007.

Source : Business Times - 23 Nov 2006

A COMPANY linked to City Developments (CDL) has topped a tender for a hotel site at Mohamed Sultan/Nanson Road with a bid that is almost 30 per cent higher than the nearest competitor.

Republic Hotels & Resorts offered $45.8 million or about $518 per sq ft (psf) of potential gross floor area for the site that can accommodate a hotel up to 10 storeys high.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) tender drew six bidders when it closed yesterday.

Reflecting the keen interest, the top bid was 11 per cent higher than the $466 psf per plot ratio received in August for a hotel site next to Robertson Quay Hotel at nearby Clemenceau Avenue. It is also almost twice the $300 psf per plot ratio paid in January last year for another hotel site next to the Carlton Hotel at North Bridge Road, noted the executive director of CB Richard Ellis Research, Mr Li Hiaw Ho.

When developed, CDL is expected to inject the hotel into its hospitality real estate investment trust if its bid is accepted, he said.

Mr Gerry de Silva, spokesman for Hong Leong Group - the controlling shareholder of CDL - said: ‘If we are indeed awarded, the Hong Leong Group will have seven hotels in Singapore.’

There are currently four hotels under the CDL Hospitality Trust - Orchard Hotel, M Hotel, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel and Copthorne King’s Hotel.

Source : Straits Times - 22 Nov 2006