A commercial site at Cecil Street/Telok Ayer Street attracted four bids at the close of tender yesterday, with the top bid of S$924 million coming from Fraser & Neave unit FC Commercial Trustee, data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority showed.
The 99-year leasehold site, originally made available through the Reserve List of the Government Land Sales programme last December, was put up for tender in June after the URA announced that it had accepted a successful application for it to be put up for sale.
The site sits on 81,840 sq ft of land and has a maximum permissible gross floor area of 830,564 sq ft. The top bid from FC Commercial Trustee, as trustee of Aquamarine Star Trust, works out to S$1,112.44 per sq ft per plot ratio.
Directly connected to Tanjong Pagar MRT Station, the land parcel is expected to be developed into a high-quality office project and contribute towards strengthening the area as an attractive business and financial hub, the URA said.
At least 80 per cent of the gross floor area must be allocated for office use, while the rest can be developed for other commercial uses such as retail, as well as food and beverage uses.
Average Grade A office rents in Singapore rose 4.2 per cent in the second quarter to S$9.03 per square feet per month from the previous quarter, according to property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield.
Mr Desmond Sim, Associate Director of real estate firm CBRE, said: “Given the view that the office market is at its trough, the top bidder can ride on the possible upswing in rents in the next few years.”
Based on the top bid, CBRE estimates the break-even for this site will be as much as S$1,900 per sq ft, he said.
The URA will award the tender at a later date.
Source : Today – 16 Aug 2013