SGHOUSING.COM 新加坡房地产网

Colliers says the same trend can be expected for the second half of ‘07

The auction market here is being fuelled by the en bloc fever.

Colliers International observed that the Singapore auction market has witnessed a burgeoning increase in the number of property owners choosing the auction route to sell properties with en bloc potential - a trend in tandem with the sizzling collective sale market. ‘Competitive bidding for properties with en bloc potential was seen among keen buyers, with final transacted price being 20-30 per cent above the opening price,’ said the property firm.

‘It is really an interesting phenomenon - we see a striking difference in the number of bidders present in the auction hall on the days when there are properties with en bloc potential being put up for sale, compared with those days when there are none,’ said Grace Ng, Colliers’ auctioneer. ‘The number of attendees jumps from the usual 100 to as many as 200 people, jam-packing the auction hall.’

Attendees comprise punters, ’specu-investors’, speculators, investors and home sellers/buyers alike, Ms Ng said.

Some examples of properties with en-bloc potential that were successfully sold at auctions include a unit in Watten Estate Condominium which was sold for $2.4 million, a residential unit in Lagoon View that went for $910,000 and a shop unit in Katong Shopping Centre which sold for $280,000.

The same trend can be expected for the second half of the year, Colliers said. ‘With the en bloc fever still running high, we can expect to see positive response for condominium and apartment units in the suburban areas from HDB upgraders and collective sale owners who are priced out of the prime areas, for the second half of this year,’ Ms Ng said. All this activity is adding to the robustness of the auction market. Colliers’ figures show that the total sale value of properties (owners’ sale and mortgagee sale) sold at auctions climbed 25 per cent to $263 million in the first half of 2007, up from $210.3 million in the second half of 2006.

Similarly, Knight Frank, which yesterday auctioned off a conservation bungalow at 781 Mountbatten Road for $13.95 million, said that the number and value of properties sold at auctions scaled new heights in the first half.

The firm estimates that with 132 properties sold in the first six months of the year, the number of properties sold rose by more than 36 per cent versus the second half of 2006.

It put total sales value for the first half of 2007 at about $286 million - also about 36 per cent higher than sales in the year ago period.

Going forward, the auction market will remain robust in the second half given the strong performance in the economy and property market as well as assurance from the government that it will not clamp down on the current buzzing property market, predicted Mary Sai, Knight Frank’s auctioneer. She expects a greater variety of properties will be offered at auctions in the coming months.

Source : Business Times - 30 Jun 2007

Freehold property to be auctioned, with indicative price of $10m

A CONSERVATION bungalow at 781 Mountbatten Road is going under the hammer on June 29 with an indicative price of $10 million.

781 Mountbatten Road

The freehold property has a land area of 20,222 square feet and the single-level bungalow with an outbuilding has a total floor area of 3,444 sq ft.

The main building has five bedrooms, while the outbuilding has two bedrooms.

‘The existing bungalow has to be restored but there’s sufficient vacant land for the new owner to build additional residential buildings,’ said Knight Frank auctioneer Mary Sai, who is handling the sale of the property that has been offered by the administrator of the estate of Teo Koh Seng, also known as Teo Keng Seng.

Ms Sai drew a parallel between 781 Mountbatten Road and Simon Cheong’s ‘5 Legends of Mountbatten’ development.

Mr Cheong bought the 55,000 sq ft sprawling grounds on which Chansville - the former home of the late champion swimming trainer Chan Ah Kow - was located, at 745 Mountbatten Road, for $11.05 million in 2004.

He restored Chansville and built four more new bungalows on vacant space on the property.

All five bungalows have been sold. Chansville, with a 22,979 sq ft land area, fetched $13 million or $566 psf. The other four bungalows fetched between $5.1 million and $6.3 million, or $619 to $965 psf.

Chansville was sold this year while most of the other four houses were sold last year. All five bungalows are two-storeys high, have roof terraces and come with pools in lush landscaping.

The project was designed by award-winning architect Mok Wei Wei of W Architect.

781 Mountbatten Road is classified as an ‘Early Bungalow’ characterised by a simple facade and a building constructed on brick piers.

The property, like Chansville, is one of just 15 bungalows along Mountbatten Road gazetted for conservation by the Urban Redevelopment Authority in 1993.

Knight Frank could not confirm just how old 781 Mountbatten Road is but an index of lands register shows that the earliest entry for the property, at the time with an address of 785 Grove Road, was in 1927.

Names of parties registered include Charles James Lacey, Robert Dunman, Meyer-Hyeem Sassoon, and Richard Lake.

Sometime in the 1950s, ownership of the bungalow passed into the hands of Mr Teo. The property is currently being sold by the administrator of his estate. Knight Frank’s June 29 auction at Carlton Hotel begins at 2.30 pm.

Source : Business Times - 21 Jun 2007

The buy bridges the gap in row of houses owned

CAPITALAND is understood to have bought No 8 Tong Watt Road off River Valley Road in the Mohamed Sultan area, at an auction last week for $9 million, bridging a gap in the row of houses it owns on the street.

Tong Watt Road

With the latest acquisition, CapitaLand owns about 77,000 sq ft land area (stretching from Nos 1 to 17 Tong Watt Road) and which can be developed into around 293,000 sq ft gross floor area. That would be enough for almost 200 apartments averaging 1,500 sq ft. The stretch is zoned for residential use with a 3.8 plot ratio (ratio of maximum potential gross floor area to land area).

CapitaLand had bought the earlier properties at Tong Watt Road through at least two batches since 1999. Based on earlier reports, only the facade of the properties needs to be preserved, and the rear of the shophouses could be redeveloped up to 10 storeys high.

No 8 Tong Watt Road, which CapitaLand purchased last week, had been put up for auction by Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRA) to recover property taxes owed to it.

The 999-year leasehold, three-storey terrace house has yet to be restored and is the River Valley Conservation area. It has a land area of 2,751 sq ft.

Bidding for the property at the Knight Frank auction on Friday began at $6 million. The bidding was confined to just two to three parties, who drove the price up to $9 million before CapitaLand won.

Meanwhile, another group of properties that had been put for sale by its owner at the same auction - a row of six restored conservation shophouses at South Bridge Road - was sold hours before the auction began. The buyer, believed to be a Singapore investment company, paid more than the $20 million-22 million indicated price.

The six freehold shophouses at Nos 252 to 262 (even numbers) South Bridge Road, near the junction with Temple Street have a total land area of nearly 8,500 sq ft and a floor area of around 16,600 sq ft. Other properties sold at the auction include two adjoining refurbished shophouses at Nos 762 and 764 North Bridge Road, with a total freehold land area of 2,890 sq ft. They fetched $3.2 million. A three-bedroom apartment at the freehold Holland Peak in District 10 fetched $1.54 million or $1,008 psf of strata area.

Knight Frank’s auction saw the sale of 21 Senoko Loop, a detached factory building, for $3.65 million. The building has a floor area of about 71,860 sq ft with a land area of 114,345 sq ft. The site has 24-year leasehold tenure with effect from Aug 16, 1992.

Source : Business Times - 20 Jun 2007

The minimum committed bid for 0.25-ha site on reserve list works out to about $460 psf ppr

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has received a minimum committed bid of $116.2 million for a commercial site on Anson Road. This works out to about $460 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).

The site, which was put on the reserve list of the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme in October 2006, will now be put up for public tender.

The 0.25-ha site has a maximum permissible gross floor area of 23,418 sq m (252,069 sq ft) and a building height restriction of 50 storeys. URA also says the site configuration can provide a floor plate of 1,800 sq m.

Savills Singapore director of marketing and business development Ku Swee Yong believes the site could fetch bids of between $900-$1,000 psf ppr. ‘Foreign investors are also likely to be keen to bid,’ he added.

Late last month, a nearby GLS commercial site at Anson Road/Enggor Street was put up for public tender after the URA received a committed minimum bid of $172 million. The tender closes next month.

Using some recent transactions in the Grade A office sector as a benchmark, Mr Ku believes capital values for new developments could reflect the current asking prices of $1,700 psf. Prices for commercial property have been increasing significantly.

In February, Kim Eng Properties paid $44 million for a 0.13-ha commercial site at New Bridge Road/North Canal Road. The public tender, which saw 11 bids for the site, closed with Kim Eng’s bid reaching $758.40 psf ppr, 25 per cent higher than the next highest bid.

The latest public tender will be launched in about two weeks’ time. A tender period of about eight weeks will be allowed for the site.

Source : Business Times - 19 Jun 2007

A NEW commercial site in Tanjong Pagar will be put up for public tender in two weeks’ time, just three weeks after a neighbouring site was released for sale.

An unnamed developer has agreed to bid at least $116.2 million for the prime 27,275 sq ft plot, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said yesterday.

The site is behind International Plaza at the junction of Anson Road and Gopeng Street.

This works out to about $460 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr) - slightly more than the $448 psf ppr minimum bid that came in for a neighbouring land parcel last month.

That parcel was a slightly bigger plot at the junction of Anson Road and Enggor Street. It went on the market last month after a developer committed to a minimum bid of $172 million for the 39,826 sq ft site.

The interest in these two sites comes as Singapore is experiencing an acute shortage of prime office space, leading to a surge in office rentals that market experts have warned may threaten the country’s competitiveness.

To ease this supply squeeze, the Government said last week that it will offer about 3.8 million sq ft of commercial space in the second half of this year. Sites such as the Anson Road/Gopeng Street plot are part of this plan.

Property consultants said the site will be attractive to several parties, including property funds or investors.

‘We will see a significant level of interest from the usual suspects,’ added Mr Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank.

These include developers which already have a presence in the area, such as City Developments and Keppel Land.

‘It won’t just be two or three bids, but probably five or more,’ he said.

Offers are likely to come in at between $150 million and $200 million, or about $600 to $800 psf ppr, predicted Mr Mak.

The 99-year leasehold site can host a 50-storey building with offices and shops. It has a maximum gross floor area of 252,069 sq ft.

It was put on the URA’s reserve list in October last year. Under this scheme, the Government will put a site up for public tender if a developer agrees to bid for it at an acceptable minimum price.

Source : Straits Times - 19 Jun 2007