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Yishun condo site draws record bid of $213.5m |
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By:fiona Chan The Straits Times 26 March, 2008
A YISHUN condominium site drew a higher-than-expected top bid when its tender closed yesterday, belying expectations of a property market slide.
Developer MCL Land offered $213.5 million for the 99-year leasehold plot, which works out to about $350 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr) - believed to be a new benchmark for Yishun.
Property consultants said this could translate into the finished project selling at record prices for the area, even as home buyers are now holding out for lower prices in a subdued market.
Mr Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank, estimated that the end units for the Yishun project could be priced from $830 psf up to almost $900 psf.
This would be almost double what the 99-year leasehold Orchid Park Condo down the road is fetching. Four units at the 14-year-old development have been sold there this year at an average price of $460 psf.
MCL Land's bid pipped four others and came in almost 70 per cent higher than the next bid, from Peak Green, at $127 million, or $208 psf ppr.
Frasers Centrepoint, Sim Lian and Hong Kong's Cheung Kong also tabled offers ranging from $57.7 million to $109.7 million, or $95 to $180 psf ppr - which some consultants said were 'unrealistically low' bids. They had predicted bids of between $200 and $300 psf ppr.
But Mr Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of CBRE Research, said the response was 'fairly robust' and signalled 'developers' confidence in the suburban segment despite the current lukewarm response to new projects'.
For more information: http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/Money/Story/STIStory_220606.html
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