A transitional office site on Mountbatten Road, which was put up for sale by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) last month, drew 11 bidders at the close of the tender yesterday.
The top bid of $15.01 million or $119 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) came from an individual, Chen Chew Yen. If the site is awarded, it will be the first time in more that 18 months that a transitional office site – that is, office sites that are launched for sale with 15-year leases – will be sold.
Mr Chen’s bid was 12.6 per cent higher than the second highest bid from Heeton Holdings. Heeton bid $13.3 million or $106 psf ppr.
Analysts expected a top bid of $100-120 psf ppr when the site was launched for sale.
The Mountbatten Road land parcel has a site area of about 1.17 hectares and a maximum permissible gross floor area of about 126,000 sq ft. The site was first made available for sale through the reserve list in October 2008.
Analysts said that the site could be popular with office users who have budgetary constraints.