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Two land plots where developers can build new office buildings are set to come on the market soon.

One is in the Central Business District while the other is in Tampines Regional Centre.

The CBD plot is at the junction of Anson Road and Enggor Street, behind the upcoming Icon condominium.

It has a land area of 39,000 sq ft and can host an office building with a total floor area of about 383,000 sq ft.

The plot’s size will also allow ‘good-sized floor plates of about 18,000 sq ft’, a coveted feature in office blocks, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said.

The URA released this 99-year leasehold site on to its reserve list yesterday. Interested developers can apply to have the site launched for public tender by submitting a bid that meets the URA’s reserve price.

Property consultants expect keen interest in this plot, in view of the acute supply crunch in prime office space.

Mr Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of CB Richard Ellis Research, said that top bids for the land are likely to be between $326 million and $345 million, or about $850 to $900 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr).

The site is ‘likely to be popular with medium-sized developers, or joint ventures between funds and developers or contractors’, added Mr Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank.

Meanwhile, the HDB is launching another 99-year leasehold office site, at Tampines Grande, today.

The 86,000 sq ft plot is located next to the AIA Building on Tampines Avenue 5. It can be built up to 360,000 sq ft of gross floor area.

Mr Mak expects this Tampines site to be ‘fairly popular’, with about four to six bids ranging from $750 to $850 psf ppr.

Regional centres such as Tampines are also seeing an increase in demand for office space as rising rents in the central areas force firms to relocate some operations.

‘There could be demand from financial firms for their backroom operations in non-CBD areas where the cost is lower,’ he said.

Source : Straits Times - 21 Mar 2007

AN unnamed developer has entered a bid of $79.4 million for a 0.24 hectare hotel site at the corner of Tanjong Pagar Road and Gopeng Street, triggering a public tender for the site. Market watchers, however, reckon that the plot could fetch around $100 million in the tender.

The site has a plot ratio of 8.4, giving it a maximum potential floor area of 19,900 square metres, which means that the trigger price works out to about $370 per square foot (psf) of gross floor area.

However, a price tag of around $500 psf is achievable, said Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels executive vice-president Chee Hok Yean.

‘Looking at past transactions, bids were all around $500 psf,’ Ms Chee said. ‘The winning bid will probably be about the same.’ At $500 psf, the price for the site works out to $107.3 million.

This site is the first hotel site to be triggered for sale from the reserve list in 2007. Under the government’s reserve list system, a site is only offered for public tender if it receives an application from a developer who commits to bid for the site at a price which is acceptable to the government.

URA has received an application from a developer who has committed to bid a price of at least $79.4 million for the site. The government body said that the identity of the applicant will not be released.

URA will launch the public tender for the site in about two weeks’ time. The launch date will be announced later and about nine weeks will be set aside for the tender.

‘The land parcel is conveniently situated in close proximity to the Tanjong Pagar MRT station, which will provide hotel guests the convenience of travelling to other parts of the city and the rest of the island,’ said URA. ‘Complementary retail, restaurant and entertainment uses within the development will also add to the diversity of amenities and vibrancy of the area.’

Source : Business Times - 15 Mar 2007

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday gave a detailed breakdown of the price paid by the consortium developing the Marina Bay Financial Centre for the second and final phase of the 99-year leasehold site.

The consortium exercised an option on Feb 16 to buy the remaining portion of the site which can be developed into a gross floor area (GFA) of 194,000 square metres at a total land price of $907.67 million, URA said in a statement announcing yesterday’s signing of the building agreement for the second and final phase of the site.

Based on URA’s figures, the unit land price works out to $435 psf of potential gross floor area. The consortium had earlier paid an option fee of about $63.6 million for the right to purchase the remaining site.

Part of this option fee, amounting to $23.9 million, can be used to pay for the balance land. Thus, the net amount of land price payable by the consortium for the remaining site is $883.8 million.

The consortium members are Keppel Land, Cheung Kong Holdings/Hutchison Whampoa, and Hongkong Land. The group was the highest bidder for the site, with a $381 psf per plot ratio offer, when the tender closed in July 2005.

When the consortium signed the building agreement for the first phase of the project, amounting to 244,000 square metres of GFA, in October 2005, it had taken an eight-year option to buy the remaining 194,000 square metres of GFA.

URA said that the approved development mix for phase 2 would comprise mainly office and residential uses with a small retail component. However, the consortium can propose changes to the development mix and seek URA’s approval.

Source : Business Times - 9 Mar 2007

40% of the 376,295 sq ft site must be for office use and 30% for hotel use

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has released a redevelopment site at Beach Road for sale by tender and bids are likely to top $1 billion.

Beach Road Site

The 376,295 sq ft site has a maximum gross floor area (GFA) of 1.58 million sq ft and 40 per cent must be for office use, and 30 per cent for hotel use.

The future developer will also have to conserve four existing historic buildings, including the former NCO Club.

Knight Frank director (research and consultancy) Nicholas Mak estimates that the Beach Road site could fetch bids of around $600-700 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) or between $950 million and $1.1 billion.

The government will adopt a two-envelope system to evaluate the tenders.

Mr Mak added: ‘The scheme will have to inject vitality to this part of Beach Road.’ As with other ‘trophy sites’, foreign investors are likely to participate in the tender but Mr Mak said the more complex two-envelope system could see foreign investors teaming up with local developers.

Separately, the owners of a 25-unit townhouse development at Bishopswalk have put their homes up for sale by tender for an estimated total price of $108 million. This is around 20-30 per cent more than when the same site was put up for sale through an ‘expression of interest’ exercise less than a year ago. The 69,189 sq ft site has a plot ratio of 1.4.

Jeremy Lake, executive director at CB Richard Ellis, which is the marketing agent, said a development with about 48 new units assuming an average size of 2,000 sq ft each can be built. The price works out to about $1,276 psf ppr, inclusive of an estimated Development Charge of $15.58 million.

Mr Lake also pointed out that the site represents the only opportunity for a developer to build a condominium in the Good Class Bungalow area of Bishopsgate.

Source : Business Times - 8 Mar 2007

HO Bee Investment has teamed up with Malaysia’s IOI Properties group for its top bid on Tuesday for the Seaview Collection condo site at Sentosa Cove.

Their joint bid of $459.8 million works out to $1,361.33 psf per plot ratio - a new record for 99-year leasehold condo land in the upmarket waterfront residential locale.

The Seaview Collection is the second of a total of four condo sites at Sentosa Cove’s Southern Residential Precinct, and is one of the last two condo plots offering unobstructed views of the sea and Southern Islands. With a plot ratio of 2.15, developers can develop the 99-year leasehold plot into an eight-storey condo with a total of 200 units.

Sentosa Cove Pte Ltd said it expects to award the site to the Ho Bee/IOI joint venture in the ‘following weeks’. SCPL said the tender attracted five bids in all.

Source : Business Times - 8 Mar 2007