CDL Places Top Bids for Two Suburban Singapore Residential Sites

One of Singapore’s most aggressive suitors for Government Land Sales plots is poised to add to its project pipeline, with City Developments Ltd having entered the top bid in separate tenders for two suburban residential sites.

The builder controlled by tycoon Kwek Leng Beng submitted a bid of S$360.9 million ($280.3 million) for an executive condo site at Woodlands Drive 17 in the city-state’s northern reaches, the Housing & Development Board announced after the tender’s closing on Tuesday. CDL’s offer for the plot, which can yield 420 public-private hybrid EC units across a gross floor area of 461,266 square feet (42,853 square metres), surpassed a runner-up bid of S$360.3 million by a Sim Lian Group joint venture.

Tuesday also saw the closing of the tender for Senja Close, an EC site in western Singapore’s Bukit Panjang area, with CDL’s bid of S$252.9 million easily besting a S$238 million offer by TID Residential, a tie-up of Kwek Leng Beng’s Hong Leong Group and Japanese giant Mitsui Fudosan. The Senja Close plot can provide 295 EC units across 328,062 square feet of GFA.

“ECs represent an important segment of Singapore’s housing market and with the full sell-out of our recent EC projects, Lumina Grand in Bukit Batok West and Copen Grand in Tengah, these two new sites totalling over 700 units represent a timely replenishment of our development pipeline in Singapore,” CDL CEO Sherman Kwek said in a release.

New EC Benchmark

CDL’s bid for Woodlands Drive 17 translates to S$782 ($607) per square foot of built area, setting a new record high for EC land prices, according to local property agency SRI.

Both the Woodlands tender and CDL’s offer of S$771 per square foot for Senja Close topped the previous mark set by Sim Lian’s winning bid of S$768 per square foot for an EC plot at Tampines Street 95 in November 2024, SRI said.

“This move aligns with CDL’s broader land acquisition strategy, as seen in its recent successful bid for the private residential site at Lakeside Drive, which reinforces its commitment to building a balanced pipeline across both public-private hybrid and private residential segments,” said SRI research head Mohan Sandrasegeran. “By securing sites in both emerging and mature estates, CDL is positioning itself to capture demand across a diverse buyer profile.”

In June, CDL overcame five rival bids for the Lakeside Drive site with an offer of S$608 million, equivalent to S$1,132 per square foot of GFA. The decisions on tender awards for that site and for the two EC plots are expected to be announced at a later date.

Developers Keen

Each of the two EC sites received five bids, drawing interest from seasoned players like Wee Hur Development, EL Development and a Hoi Hup-Sunway JV.

Huttons Asia CEO Mark Yip said ECs have seen good take-up rates in the last few years, ranging from 53 percent to 90 percent at launch.

“Developers were keen to tap on this market segment for its stability,” Yip said.

The top bids for Woodlands Drive 17 and Senja Close also represent a comeback of sorts for CDL in the EC segment, according to SRI, after the company last made a successful EC tender in 2022 for the Bukit Batok West Avenue 5 plot — subsequently developed into Lumina Grand.

“These latest moves reflect CDL’s renewed focus on the public-private hybrid housing segment and a strategic effort to re-establish its presence in the mass market,” Sandrasegeran said.