Yanlord chief Zhong Sheng Jian is taking on his first project in Singapore
Shanghai-based Yanlord Land is jumping into Singapore’s residential market for the first time, teaming up with Hongkong Land subsidiary MCL Land to snap up a prime en bloc site in the city-state for S$906.9 million ($691.5 million).
The deal for the freehold complex Tulip Garden on Farrer Road in District 10 marks Singapore’s second-largest residential collective sale to date in 2018. Asia Radiant, a joint venture between Yanlord and Singapore-based home builder MCL Land, is paying a 20.4 percent premium over the owners’ reserve price of S$753 million.
The site is zoned for a 670-unit residential project with a gross floor area of around 506,733 square feet, implying a sale price of S$1,790 per square foot of buildable area – higher than other recent en bloc sales in the vicinity.
The deal comes in the same week that Singapore-listed, China-based Yanlord snapped up stakes in a pair of residential projects in the mainland city of Tianjin.
Yanlord Takes a Stab at Singapore Housing
The Tulip Garden site, which spans about 316,708 square feet of land area, is zoned for a development with a gross plot ratio of 1.6 and a height of up to 12 storeys. The current complex has 162 units of apartments and maisonettes, ranging from 1,701 to 3,412 square feet, along with two shop units.
Tulip Garden can be redeveloped into a 670-unit residential property
The site is located near the Farrer Road MRT station on the Circle Line. Expected to be completed in 2023, the new project is poised to benefit from initiatives by the Urban Redevelopment Authority to expand the nearby Holland Village enclave.
“The successful acquisition of this prime site marks our inaugural venture into the Singapore property market,” commented Yanlord chairman and CEO Zhong Sheng Jian in a filing to the Singapore stock exchange. “As a key global financial centre, Singapore’s residential market presents a good value proposition for developers seeking to develop additional growth opportunities.”
Listed in Singapore in 2006, Yanlord has a portfolio of residential, commercial and integrated developments across 15 cities in China. The Tulip Garden deal comes two days after the second-tier city enthusiast announced it had grabbed stakes in a pair of residential sites in Tianjin for a total of RMB 7.55 billion ($1.2 billion). The suburban sites are zoned for housing developments totalling 415,634 square metres.
The company has a market cap of S$3.38 billion ($2.75 billion). Yanlord’s partner MCL Land, a member of the Jardine Matheson Group under Hongkong Land Holdings, has amassed a portfolio of residential properties in Singapore and Malaysia over the past 50 years.
Plot in Holland Road Area Brings 40% Over Reserve Price
“Despite a spate of collective sale deals done in the Holland Road area in recent months and a large slate of redevelopment sites on the market, the tender for Tulip Garden still attracted very keen interest – a testament to its excellent locational attributes,” commented Tang Wei Leng, managing director at agency Colliers International, which brokered the sale.
The collective sale tender was launched on February 28 and closed on Wednesday. Tang pointed out that the site’s large contiguous land area will give the buyers more flexibility in planning and developing the new residential project, including space for social areas and other facilities.
“Large plots in prime central locations are rare and Tulip Garden provides an opportunity for the developer to capitalise on the upturn in the high-end homes segment,” she said.
After 11 Months, Singapore’s En Bloc Fever Rages on
Singapore’s collective sale gold rush kicked off in earnest last May, when the privatised estate Rio Casa changed hands for S$575 million. The flurry of en bloc residential deals shows no signs of slackening. Last month, firms controlled by Singaporean tycoon Kwek Leng Beng and his cousin Quek Leng Chan teamed up to buy the Pacific Mansion prime freehold site in the River Valley neighborhood for S$980 million ($744 million), which takes the crown for the biggest en bloc deal in more than a decade.
The surging enthusiasm for collectively sold housing sites reflects a broader upturn in Singapore’s housing market. Colliers estimates that prices could climb by 10 percent in Singapore’s Core Central Region – consisting of districts 9, 10, and 11, the downtown core and Sentosa – during the full year 2018.
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