Sites near Gardens by the Bay are now cheaper than plots near NUS (Getty Images)
A site in Singapore’s western suburbs fetched richer offers than a plot in the city-state’s downtown on Thursday, as interest rates put prime land outside of the reach of many developers and home purchase restrictions crimp the market for high-end housing.
A joint venture between Malaysia’s GuocoLand, its Singapore cousins at Hong Leong Holdings and Hong Leong’s TID Residential tie-up with Japan’s Mitsui Fudosan, made the sole bid for a mixed-use site in Singapore’s Marina South, offering the equivalent of S$984 per square foot for the site within a few minutes’ walk of the Gardens by the Bay landmark, according to tender results released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.
In a separate tender announced the same day, a joint venture between China’s Qingjian Group and Forsea Residence, a Singapore-based firm backed by Chinese state-run construction giant CCCC shouldered aside a pair of competing offers to place the high bid for a residential plot in Queenstown’s One-North master-planned development at S$1,191 per square foot of gross floor area.
“Bidding interest among developers continues to be cautious, following on from what we witnessed in 2023,” Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at PropNex Realty said of the Marina South plot, noting that the top bid was well below market expectations. She added that, “We think the large quantum has limited the number of bidders for the site.”
The Guocoland-led consortium offered S$770.5 million ($574 million) for the Marina Gardens Crescent plot, nearly double the top bid for the One-North site.
Downtown Flexibility
The Marina Gardens Crescent parcel, which is approved for development of up to 782,978 square feet (72,741 square metres) of either residential or commercial space, including serviced apartments, is being offered by Singapore’s URA as a “white site” which gives the builder flexibility in choosing how to allocate space developed through the project among the allowed uses.
Quek Leng Chan’s GuocoLand has been a persistent presence in Singapore land sales
Should the GuocoLand team be awarded the site and opt for residential use, they would be set to 775 new homes on the 186,420 square foot (17,319 square metre) parcel.
On a price per unit area basis, the sole bid for the white site is 30 percent below the S$1,402 per square foot which a consortium led by Chinese builder Kingsford paid to acquire the adjacent Marina Gardens Lane residential plot in July.
Following the Marina Gardens Lane sale, Marina Gardens Crescent was the second site offered by the government in the southernmost portion of the Marina Bay financial district,
While the plot’s central location would ordinarily be a draw, Propnex’ Wong said developer appetites for the site may have been dampened by the additional buyer’s stamp duty levied on foreign buyers in April last year, with wealthy non-residents having traditonally been the top target for luxury condo projects in downtown Singapore.
Should the tender be awarded, Wong estimates that homes in the Marina Gardens Crescent project could sell for over S$2,500 per square foot.
The GuocoLand, Hong Leong and TID JV reunities a team which in January 2022 acquired the Lentor Hills Residences project. That development is currently underway in Ang Mo Kio’s up-and-coming Lentor Hills neighbourhood.
Mainlanders Clinch One-North Plot
Qingjian and CCCC’s Forsea Residence unit faced competition for the Media Circle plot in One-North’s Mediaopolis area, with joint ventures led by Hong Leong and mainland investor Gordon Tang’s Singhaiyi Group also bidding to build up to 331,948 square feet of homes on the site.
The mainland duo offered S$395.3 million for the 114,442 square foot residential and commercial plot, with Lee Sze Teck, senior director for data analytics at Huttons Asia, tracing the stronger-than-expected auction results to unmet demand for housing in the One-North area near National University of Singapore.
“It is a reflection of developers’ confidence in the demand for homes in one-north,” Lee said.
When developed, the Media Circle plot can yield 355 homes with another 400 square metres of commercial space on the ground floor. Once the project is launched, homes in the Media Circle development are expected to sell for S$2,400 per square foot.
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