Shanghai put four commercial and residential land parcels up for tender this past week, making available new sites valued at a combined RMB 13.7 billion ($2 billion), across three districts of the municipality. The projects are expected to yield at least 3,170 residential units, along with at least 195,000 square metres (2.1 million square feet) of office and retail space.
The land sales are set to further drive up land supply in the first-tier city, which have seen a dramatic increase since the beginning of the year. A total of 94 land parcels were sold during the first five months of 2018, providing a combined floor area of 7.53 million square metres, up by 100 percent year-on-year. The transactions in the period have also boosted the city’s land sale income 25 percent to RMB 40.6 billion, according to local media reports.
Hongkou Commercial Site Up for Sale
The big prize for commercial developers is a 46,100 square metre (496,216 square foot) retail and office site in Hongkou district which requires a minimum bid of RMB 7.1 billion, according to the tender conditions set out by the Shanghai Land Transaction Market (上海市土地交易市场). The plot, HK194-01, on Sichuan North Road can yield 194,800 square metres of floor area, which at the tender’s minimum bid would work out to more than RMB 36,000 per square metre.
Bounded by Sichuan North Road to the east and Jiangxi North Road to the west, the site sits opposite the Sichuan North Road metro station. The tender starts on July 24 and ends on August 2. Shanghai International Plaza, which LaSalle Investment Management purchased for a reported RMB 2.48 billion earlier this year, is just across Sichuan Road from the new site.
Thirty to fifty percent of the site just two subway stations north of Shanghai’s East Nanjing Road commercial area is earmarked for retail use and 50 to 70 percent is designated for office space, according to tender documents. The height of the buildings in the project is capped at 180 metres. The project includes 50-year land-use rights for the office portion and 40-year rights for the retail portion.
Three Suburban Plots Ready For Bidders
In addition to the Hongkou commercial site in Shanghai’s city centre, the municipal government is also making available a set of three suburban plots primarily for residential development.
Jinshan Xincheng JSC1-0701 Unit 02-06, a 123,400 square metre mixed-use site in southwest Shanghai’s Jinshan district, will be sold for a minimum price of RMB 3.6 billion. The buyer will be allowed to build up to 1,748 homes on the parcel, which is 80 percent allocated for residential use and 20 percent for office and retail use. The tender started on June 29th and ends on July 11.
The tender for a pair of residential plots in Qingpu District, western Shanghai, also kicked off on Friday. The 45,200 square metre parcel Huaxinzhen East of Jiangjiaxiang Road 44-02, has a base price of RMB 1.7 billion and allows for a gross floor area of 81,360 square metres, providing a minimum of 798 flats under the tender requirements.
The other residential plot, Huaxinzhen West of Jiangjiaxiang Road 26-01, has a site area of 35,400 square metres and is approved for development of 624 homes across some 63,720 square metres of gross floor area. The two purely residential projects carry with them the usual 70-year land use rights and then tender for both of the Qingpu district parcels will conclude on July 10th.
See you next time says
36k psm! my goodness, how Sichuan Lu has grown up. Seems like the government is keen to keep the property boom going on one hand and reap the associated development and sales tax revenue with the other. Where will it all end?
Ming Gao says
What makes you think the government might be involved? I’m sure this is all market driven, with any officials involved merely facilitating the natural and beneficial development of one of the world’s most utopia-like areas.