One day after unveiling cooling measures, the Government has put 3,032 new flats up for sale – the largest supply of public housing in a single launch to date – and released five residential sites for private homes.
The five 99-year leasehold plots is expected to yield a total of 2,045 units.
Yesterday, the Government announced that under the Build-To-Order (BTO) system, 1,408 new flats will be offered under the Yishun Riverwalk project. Located at the cross junction of Yishun Ring Road, Yishun St 31 and Yishun Ave 6, the project comprises units ranging from studio apartments to five-room flats.
Another 1,624 units spread over 10 non-mature estates – including Bukit Batok, Hougang and Woodlands – will be available under the Sale-of-Balance Flats exercise. The units range from two-room to executive flats.
With yesterday’s launch, the HDB would have offered close to 13,000 flats for sale since the start of the year. Buyers can expect BTO projects in areas like Bukit Panjang, Punggol and Sengkang later this year.
Of the five sites released for private residential housing, the land parcel at Petir Road was launched for sale under the Confirmed List. The other four sites – Alexandra Road, Tanah Merah Kechil Road, West Coast Link and Pasir Ris Drive 3 – were made available for application for sale under the Reserve List of the second half of this year’s Government Land Sales Programme.
Commenting on the Government’s move to release the sites, Mr Colin Tan, Chesterton Suntec International research and consultancy director, said: “It’s trying to get people and developers less panicky by assuring them that there will be enough sites and that prices should not be increasing.”
Most of these sites are located in the suburban areas or in “Rest of Central Region” locations, where more affordable private housing are expected to be built.
Ms Chua Chor Hoon, senior director of research at property consultancy DTZ, noted that “all these sites are in areas where previous projects were sold very well”. She said: “The West Coast site is near The Vision and the one in Tanah Merah Kechil is near The Optima. So these sites are close to developments that have a lot of demand.”
Given the Government’s anti-speculative measures, analysts expect the new projects to be more affordable as developers would be less bullish in their bids, compared to the first half of the year.
Said Mr Tan: “Most likely, the (new) developments will be mass-market condominiums.”
Source : Today – 1 Sep 2010