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Two properties in Leone Hill area look to go en bloc

The Leonie Hill area looks set for major changes. Two properties in the area are looking to go en bloc.

On Monday, CB Richard Ellis launched an Expression of Interest (EOI) to find a developer for Grangeford Apartments along Grange Road.

A day later, Knight Frank put up the nearby Rivershire for sale, also by EOI.

Under the Master Plan 2003, any project in the Leonie Hill area is subject to a 36-storey limit.

For Grangeford Apartments, the existing built-up gross floor area is an estimated 34,882 sq m, reflecting a plot ratio of 2.87. The guide price of $660 million works out to around $2,016 per sq ft per plot ratio, that is inclusive of an estimated Differential Premium of $97.8 million to top up the lease to 99 years. The current 99-year lease dates back to 1974.

There will be no development charge payable to add the extra 10 per cent of gross floor area allowed for the balconies as the development charge baseline is at 50,904 sq m, equivalent to a plot ratio of approximately 4.18.

The 26-year-old Grangeford Apartments consists of 96 two-bedroom apartments, 96 three-bedroom apartments and a shop unit.

Using the above-mentioned guide price, owners of the 1,173 sq ft two-bedroom units will receive $3 million, while those in the 1,755 sq ft three-bedroom units will receive $3.8 million. The shop unit will receive $3.1 million.

In February, a three-bedroom unit in the development fetched $1.8 million. This equates to a collective sale premium of 111 per cent.

“A full-scale condominium would sit perfectly on the site given its excellent layout and prime location,” said Mr Jeremy Lake, executive director of investment properties at CB Richard Ellis.

A new development comprising around 188 units averaging 2,000 sq ft can be built on the site. The estimated break-even costs for a new development is around $2,600 to $2,650 per sq ft.

As for Rivershire, the single block of 74 apartments sits on approximately 56,396 sq ft of freehold land along Leonie Hill Road.

Knight Frank expects the site to command around $237 million, and with no development charge, it works out to $1,500 per sq ft per plot ratio.

A new development with around 125 units averaging 1,200 sq ft could be built on the site.

Both Knight Frank and CB Richard Ellis believe that their respective sites would attract interest from developers given the strong showing in take-up rates for luxury condominium developments.

“As observed from the recent success of residential projects launched in the vicinity, the buying sentiment is still strong. An iconic residential development with unobstructed views towards Orchard Road will certainly appeal to foreign and local buyers,” said Mr Lake.

The EOI exercises for Grangeford Apartments and Rivershire end at 3pm on May 25 and May 29 respectively. 

Source : Weekend Today - 28 Apr 2007

Government offers $3.2b of contracts, $1.8b earmarked for construction firms

The Government plans to award an estimated $3.2 billion worth of projects over the next 12 months, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday.

The figure, which is the lowest in three years, is less than half of last year’s $7.5 billion and about a-third less than the $4.7 billion projected in 2005.

Today understands that the latest estimate is culled from the various public-sector agencies’ projections and may change during the course of the fiscal year ending Mar 31, 2008.

Of the present 933 procurement contracts, 258 of them worth some $1.8 billion are for building works. One of the major projects is a $65-million deal for the track work of Downtown Line 1.

The Ministry of Education will call for tenders for five school rebuilding and upgrading contracts worth $30 million each.

Information technology companies can look forward to more than 300 contracts worth a total of $730 million, which the Government had announced earlier in the week.

In the area of goods and services, tenders will amount to $635 million. Some of the big-ticket items include a tender for PUB’s $70-million sludge disposal for water recycling plants, and two National Environment Agency tenders for street cleaning worth another $70 million.

Separately, the Government will soon award a $1.5-billion contract to homogenise its computer infrastructure across most agencies. If this project for a Standard ICT Operating Environment is given out this year, the dollar figure will be added to the year’s actual contracts awarded, said a spokesperson from the Finance Ministry.

This pre-procurement plan was started in 2003 with the aim of giving suppliers and contractors early information on what the public sector planned to buy in the year.

More information can be found at www. gebiz.com.sg.

Source : Weekend Today - 28 Apr 2007

GuocoLand, a Singapore-based developer controlled by Malaysian billionaire Quek Leng Chan, is buying an en-bloc property off Holland Road for a record $835 million, the company said on Friday.

The total price for freehold Leedon Heights, located in the prime District 10, is the highest paid for an existing apartment project in Singapore, said DTZ Debenham Tie Leung, which represents the sellers.

The property has a land area of 48,525 sq m and a plot ratio of 1.6, which works out to a sale price of $1,062 a square foot based on the space that the developer can build, said DTZ’s director of investment advisory services Tang Wei Leng.

For the existing owners, the price works out to $1,400 per square foot (psf), as the current buildings have not maximised the space allowed, Ms Tang added. This surpasses the owners’ expectation of around $780 million, or $981psf per plot ratio including an estimated development charge of $40.2 million.

The sale drew five bids. Said Ms Tang: “The market is strong.”

Singapore’s home prices gained 4.8 per cent in the first quarter from the previous three months, marking the biggest gain in seven years. Developers are buying more existing properties close to the Republic’s downtown to build up their land bank in anticipation that property prices will increase further.

Guocoland said its wholly owned subsidiary Rivaldo Investments would finance the acquisition, which will close in mid-2008, via debt and internal resources. By May 7, Rivaldo will pay the sellers a deposit of $40.75 million, which is 5 per cent of the total purchase consideration less a tender fee of $1 million.

Last June, an apartment in Leedon Heights sold for $583psf, according to a Government website. — Bloomberg 

Source : Weekend Today - 28 Apr 2007

HDB resale volumes for the first quarter of this year dropped by about 20 per cent from the 7,843 units in the last three months of last year, according to its latest resale statistics.

This is the lowest resale volume in three years, according to Mr Eugene Lim, assistant vice-president of ERA Real Estate. In the first quarter of 2004, the resale volume stood at 5,480 units.

Mr Lim confirmed that the agency’s sales volume for January was lower than normal. He attributed this to a new procedure requiring buyers to obtain either an HDB loan eligibility letter or a bank’s letter of offer as proof of enough financial clout to buy a flat.

The pace of resale transactions slowed as both agents and buyers alike familiarised themselves with the new measure, introduced on Jan 1. “Our volume in March outstrips that of the first two months (of the year). So, this is an indication that buyers and agents have gotten used to this new procedure,” said Mr Lim.

Despite the decline in sales numbers, the quarterly average valuation of resale Housing Board flats continued to rise marginally, with the exception of executive flats. Three-room flats registered the highest increase at 1.6 per cent over the previous quarter, while executive flats dropped by 0.7 per cent.

ERA expects resale numbers to go up for the rest of the year as the market familiarises itself with the new procedure. It estimates the year’s total resale volume to be about 30,000 units.

Mr Lim believes that there is “quiet optimism” in the HDB market, and that five-room and executive flats could account for 24 and 10 per cent of the year’s total resale market transactions, respectively, should the current market situation prevail. The year’s resale prices could increase by 2 to 4 per cent, though mature estates could see gains above the market average.

In the private sector, the Urban Redevelopment Authority private residential price index showed that overall prices of private residential properties rose by 4.8 per cent for the first quarter of the year, an increase over the 3.8 per cent for last year’s fourth quarter.

“With this, home prices are back near to the last peak in 2000. However, they are still about 25 per cent below the market peak in 1996,” said Mr Li Hiaw Ho, executive director, CBRE Research.

The high-end segment continues to lead the charge, with uncompleted projects in the core central region — districts 9, 10 and 11, downtown areas, and Sentosa — showing a 7.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase, compared to 6 per cent in the previous quarter. The increase was spurred by the sales of projects such as One Shenton and St Thomas Suites.

The increase in the prices of uncompleted projects in the “rest of the central region” and “outside central region” stood at 4.8 per cent and 1.4 per cent, respectively.

Like the HDB market, industry experts predict a strong showing for the private sector in the coming months.

“Overall, home prices may see another rise of 5 to 10 per cent as new projects receive good response from both local and foreign buyers,” said Mr Li.

Source : Weekend Today - 28 Apr 2007

You start at Bukit Panjang, go via Upper Bukit Timah Road onto Dunearn Road, and pass the Botanic Gardens, Newton, Little India and Bugis before you reach the Marina Bay area.

If you want to head further east, carry on via Cross Street and Jalan Besar, past MacPherson, Kaki Bukit and Bedok Reservoir to Tampines and, finally, the Singapore Expo.

And you can do it without ever getting into a traffic jam.

That is the route of the next major addition to Singapore’s rail network, the Downtown Line (DTL), a seamless 40-km link that will run mostly underground. It will cost $12 billion and the Government has given the green light for its construction now that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has completed its feasibility studies, Transport Minister Raymond Lim announced on Friday.

The DTL will have 11 interchange stations with the existing lines and the upcoming Circle Line, as well as 22 other stations. When fully completed in 2018, an average daily ridership of 500,000 is expected, adding to the 1.4-million daily passenger trips on the MRT now.

The project will be developed in three phases, starting with the 4.3km Downtown Extension (DTE). The LTA has closed two tenders and will be awarding the first two civil contracts, for the Cross Street and Chinatown stations, later this year. The six-station DTE between Bugis and Chinatown will be completed by 2013.

The Circle Line will also be extended to Bayfront Station from Promenade Station, and completed in 2012.

By 2015, the second stage of the DTL — the 12-station north-west corridor to Bukit Panjang LRT — will be completed. The final stage of the line will be the 15-station eastern corridor.

Besides catering to developments in the new downtown at Marina, the DTL is expected to enable the Rapid Transit rail system to become the backbone of the public transport system.

Currently, Singapore’s rail density is low — taking into account existing track and that to come from the Circle Line and the Boon Lay extension, there is 30km of track per million inhabitants. In London, that number is 163km per million; in Tokyo, 83km per million.

“The DTL is very important because it goes into areas not currently served by the MRT,” said Mr Lim, who cited the Bukit Timah corridor as “heavily congested”.

With the DTL, a Choa Chu Kang or Bukit Batok resident who currently takes the train to the city could shave up to 15 minutes off his or her hour-long journey.

And when the eastern corridor is ready in 2018, a Bedok Reservoir resident would no longer need to take feeder buses, and can save up to 10 minutes travelling to the city.

The LTA is studying the alignment of the line and the station locations. A review will be completed by next year for Stage 2 and by 2010 for Stage 3. Unlike the current MRT lines and the NEL, the DTL will be a medium rail line similar to the Circle Line. Passenger traffic will be less intense.

The decision on who gets to operate the DTL will only be made much later, Mr Lim told reporters on the sidelines of the LTA Workplan Seminar.

On the possibility of a merger between the two main public transport operators, SMRT and SBS Transit, he said: “It’s good that people are coming forward with proposals and suggestions — not just SBS Transit but others have come forward. It’s good … that people debate the issues and get engaged in this public transport issue.

“On our part, we’ll consider all these proposals in our ongoing land transport review. But our aim is to ensure we have a more efficient, more integrated public transport system that will serve commuters well.”

Source : Weekend Today - 28 Apr 2007