SGHOUSING.COM 新加坡房地产网

It offers $13.61m for industrial site; may build landed and/or flatted factories

SOILBUILD Group Holdings yesterday emerged as top bidder in a state tender for a 60-year leasehold industrial site at Woodlands, offering $13.61 million or $30.10 per square foot (psf) of potential gross floor area. This was almost 60 per cent above the next highest bid of $18.91 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr) from Zap Piling.

BT understands that Soilbuild may be looking at various permutations, including developing two or three-storey landed factories, a multi-storey flatted-factory/ramp-up factory development or a combination, depending on what best suits the market’s needs.

Soilbuild has developed landed factories, each with its own backyard, in the Kranji and Pioneer Road areas. ‘These are popular, especially among SMEs,’ an industry player said.

Colliers International managing director (Singapore and North Asia) Dennis Yeo said: ‘With construction costs at today’s high levels, it may be a better option to build landed factories, even though this means Soilbuild will not be able to develop the maximum gross floor area allowed for the site. Landed factories are in greater demand.’

He estimated that Soilbuild should be able to sell a new 60-year leasehold development - landed factories or high-rise - for about $250 psf of saleable area. BT understands that Soilbuild’s breakeven cost could be about $150-170 psf of saleable area for landed factories and $180-190 psf for a high-rise project.

Yesterday’s tender for the plot at Woodlands Industrial Park E5, conducted by Urban Redevelopment Authority, drew four bids. SP Development, a unit of Singapore Piling & Civil Engineering, bid $17.92 psf ppr. Boon Keng Development, a property developer and construction firm controlled by Lim Kim Hong and Lim Huixing, offered $13.69 psf ppr for the 180,835 sq ft plot.

With a 2.5 plot ratio, the site can be developed into a project with a maximum gross floor area of 452,086 sq ft.

The plot is zoned Business 2, which means that it can be developed for a wide range of uses such as clean/light industry, general industry and warehousing.

Source : Business Times - 23 Jul 2008

SINGAPORE: Niche property developer Soilbuild has put in the top bid of over S$13.6 million for an industrial site at Woodlands Industrial Park. This works out to S$30 per square foot per plot ratio.

The site has a 60-year lease and can potentially yield a gross floor area of about 452,000 square feet of factory space.

Consultants Colliers International said the top bid is in line with price expectations for sites in that area.

All in, there were four bids for the site, with Zap Piling placing the second highest bid of S$8.6 million.

This was followed by SP Development which offered S$8.1 million, and Boon Keng Development which bid S$6.2 million, for the site. - CNA/vm

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 22 Jul 2008

Group is aiming to build 3-star hotel that caters to China, India markets

A JOINT venture between Hiap Hoe Ltd and its sister company SuperBowl Holdings Ltd yesterday placed a lower-than-expected top bid for a hotel site in the Balestier area opposite the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall.

HH Properties bid $73.3 million or about $172 per square foot of potential gross floor area for the 99-year leasehold plot. This is lower than the $350-470 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr) that analysts had indicated for the site when it was launched by the Urban Redevelopment Authority in late March.

Industry observers noted that yesterday’s top bid was also significantly below the $420 to $805 psf ppr at which the government awarded 99-year hotel sites last year.

Still, they were not too disappointed with the outcome of yesterday’s tender. Property investment sentiment has worsened significantly in recent months, and especially in the past week following negative newsflow from the US.

So the observers were generally relieved that yesterday’s tender attracted three bids - instead of a repeat-show of an earlier state tender for a hotel site at Race Course Road that closed in May without drawing a single bid.

Some analysts also suggested that stringent requirements for the latest plot in Balestier, including having to maintain a park that occupies about a quarter of the 1.77-hectare site, may have tempered bids yesterday.

‘It’s heartening to see several bids submitted,’ CB Richard Ellis executive director Li Hiaw Ho said.

Jones Lang LaSalle executive vice-president Chee Hok Yean said: ‘I think the government should consider making an award. Even with the stringent requirements, there were three bids. Awarding the site will help contribute to the supply of budget hotels in Singapore, a segment where more supply is needed to cater to regional travellers.’

The two other bidders at yesterday’s tender were Garden City Holdings (S) Pte Ltd (controlled by the Tew family), and Park Hotel Group unit Park Plaza Pte Ltd, with respective bids of $53.13 million and $35 million.

Teo Ho Beng, managing director of both Hiap Hoe and SuperBowl (the two listed companies are part of Hiap Hoe Holdings group) told BT that if the companies are awarded the Balestier site, the plan is to develop ‘probably a three-star hotel catering to businessmen as well as tourists, especially from China and India’.

The hotel may have about 500 rooms, and there will also likely be some retail (probably a small shopping centre) and office space.

‘We expect to spend another $120 million or so in construction and fitting-out costs, so our all-in investment would be around $200 million,’ Mr Teo indicated. At least 60 per cent of the gross floor area has to be for hotel and hotel-related uses.

Hiap Hoe group is no stranger to the Balestier area. Its headquarters are located there and last year, SuperBowl sold two adjoining freehold plots at Balestier Road slated for hotel development for $39.8 million, more than double the $17.8 million it had paid for the property a year earlier.

‘That was an attractive offer on the table and we’d found the sites a little too small. So we disposed of them and decided to try bidding for alternative hotel sites,’ Mr Teo said yesterday.

The group last year bid unsuccessfully at state tenders for hotel plots located at Tanjong Pagar, Rangoon Road, Upper Pickering Street, and New Market Street/Merchant Road.

Source : Business Times - 17 Jul 2008

Financial climate and site’s high development requirements may be behind poor showing

A SPRAWLING Balestier Road hotel site integrated with a park attracted just three bids, all well under expectations.

A market expert had tipped a price of about $150 million to $200 million, or $350 to $470 per sq ft (psf) of gross floor area, but the top bidder could not even manage half that.

Niche developer Hiap Hoe Group offered $73.3 million or $172 psf when the tender closed yesterday.

Garden City Hotel Holdings, owned by Mr Tew Boon Kui, lodged $125 psf, while Park Hotel’s unit Park Plaza would stump up only $82 psf.

Knight Frank’s director of research and consultancy Nicholas Mak, who had tipped bids of $350 to $470 psf at the end of March, said market conditions had changed.

Developers were cooling off largely because of the financial turmoil, a slowdown in the growth of visitor arrivals here and high construction costs, said Mr Mak.

Other experts felt that the 99-year leasehold site in front of the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall was not that compelling.

Although Balestier Road has a bright mix of conserved shophouses and modern commercial and residential buildings, it also accommodates budget hotels, cheap and cheerful eateries and karaoke bars.

Another key reason for the low bids could have been the development demands placed on the 1.77ha site, the biggest hotel plot the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has released since 2001.

The developer must build and manage a 0.46ha park in the middle of the plot as well as a public event space within the park.

Savills Singapore’s director of marketing and business development Ku Swee Yong said a developer’s returns would be hit by the need to build and manage the park.

Sixty per cent of the hotel site’s gross floor area must be used for a hotel, which could yield about 675 rooms. The rest of the space can be used for homes, shops and offices.

If Hiap Hoe, which submitted its bid through HH Properties, gets the site, it is expected to use it for hotel and commercial space. It will be Hiap Hoe’s first hotel project.

CBRE Research executive director Li Hiaw Ho did see a glimpse of silver lining in the three bargain-basement offers for the site.

‘It is heartening to see several bids submitted for the site in view of the fact that no bids were received for a hotel site in Race Course Road/Bukit Timah Road that closed in May,’ said Mr Li.

The URA will award the tender once the bids are evaluated.

Source : Straits Times - 17 Jul 2008

Balestier Road hotel site draws three bids

THREE companies have entered bids for a hotel-and-park land parcel along Balestier Road, compared to the zero interest for a Little India hotel site tender that closed just two months ago.

Of the three, the top bidder was HH Properties, a unit of Singapore-listed Hiap Hoe. It offered about $172 per-square-foot per plot ratio, or a total of $73.3 million, :the Urban Redevelopment Authority revealed yesterday.

:The other bids were considerably lower: Garden City Hotel Holdings offered $53.1 million, Park Plaza offered $35 million.

:The 99-year leasehold site flanking Ah Hood Road, covers 190,106 square feet and has a maximum permissible gross floor area of about 426,000 square feet.

:”This can potentially yield some 675 hotel rooms,” said Mr Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of property consultancy CBRE Research. “A hotel built on the location can capitalise on the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall that is located nearby.”

Another unique selling point, he said, would be the upcoming 0.46 hectare Zhongshan Park, which will be integrated with the hotel. Part of the space in the public park can be for commercial uses, like outdoor refreshment areas and tea pavilions.

:Whichever firm wins the tender will have its proposal reviewed by a design advisory panel to ensure “appropriate quality and standard”, as “the site will be a key development along Balestier Road”, URA had said in March when the tender was launched.

Mr Li said even HH Properties’ top bid was “relatively low” compared to those received recently for other hotel sites. :

“However, it is heartening to see several bids submitted for the site in the view that no bids were received for a hotel site at Race Course Road/Bukit Timah Road that closed in May,” he added.

Source : Today - 17 Jul 2008