A residential site at Sims Drive attracted only four bids at the close of a Housing & Development Board (HDB) tender on Tuesday.
First Changi Development, a unit of Guocoland, submitted the highest bid of S$530.9 million for the 23,900.1-square-metre site.
The price translates to S$687.9 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).
The second highest bid came from a consortium comprising Verwood Holdings, Intrepid Investments and TID Residential at S$502 million.
The other two bidders for the site are Sim Lian Land and a consortium that includes Fraser Centrepoint unit FCL Topaz.
Analysts said the low number of bids attest to the continued weakened sentiment in the property market.
OrangeTee’s head of research & consultancy, Christine Li, said: “The sheer size of the development has also deterred developers from overbidding, as bigger projects would invariably carry bigger risks, and this applies especially so during challenging market conditions.”
The 99-year leasehold site is for the development of condominium or flats.
It can also be developed into a combination of flats and strata landed homes with prior written approval.
Some 900 units are expected to be developed on the site.
CBRE Research’s head, Desmond Sim, said in a note that “while land prices are affected by general market sentiments and specific site attributes, they are also a reflection of other considerations such as foreign labour crunch, and pre-fabrication requirements that have contributed to the rise in development cost”.
The site at Sims Drive was launched for public tender on 30 December 2013.
HDB said the decision on the award of the tender will be made at a later date.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 29 Apr 2014