Singapore Luxury Residential Site Hits the Market at $41M After Q4 Housing Rebound

With sales of new private homes in Singapore rising 25 percent in the fourth quarter from the preceding three months, the owners of an aging apartment block in one of the city-state’s priciest areas are hoping that developers have a growing appetite for prime sites.

Knight Frank announced on Monday that River Valley Apartments, a boutique-sized residence along River Valley Road in Singapore’s posh District 10, has been launched for collective sale at a guide price of S$56 million ($41.2 million), after demand for new homes drove prices up by an average of 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter from the end of September.

With the River Valley area where the project is located having been the site of a number of government land sales in 2024, Knight Frank, which is representing the owners in the marketing effort, expressed confidence in the project’s appeal.

“The attractiveness of the location is evidenced by the sale of the three GLS sites in 2024, during a period when developers adopted a more cautious approach towards land acquisition,”  said Chia Mein Mein, head of capital markets for land and collective sale at the consultancy. “While home sales activity in the Central Region was lacklustre, the interest in the River Valley and Zion Road location demonstrates that developers continue to be attracted to this area, perhaps possessing the belief that when these projects are ready for launch, there will be ready demand for prime products after a long period of subdued activity.”

Potential for 37 Homes

A new owner of the River Valley Apartments would be lined up to redevelop the 12,407.6 square foot (1,152.7 square metre) site into as much as 34,741 square feet of residential space, under the project’s 2.8 plot ratio. At the sale’s guide price, those figures translate to a rate of S$1612 per square foot of built area.

Knight Frank estimates that at an average of 915 square feet per unit, the project would yield 37 homes. Subject to regulatory approval, the site could also be developed for co-living or serviced residences, the consultancy said.

Fronting Jalan Mutiara, as well as River Valley Road, the site is less than one kilometre  (0.62 miles) from Great World MRT station and close to the River Valley and Alexandra primary schools as well as the Great World City commercial complex.

After Singapore in April 2023 imposed stamp duties of up to 100 percent on new home purchases by non-local buyers, collective sales of condo blocks have struggled to find developers willing to commit large sums to projects in the luxury segment popular with foreign investors. Knight Frank also managed the sale of the last condo site to change hands in the vicinity when Sin Thai Hin Development acquired 132 Sophia Road in District 9 for S$33.59 million in December 2023.

However, given the small scale of the River Valley Apartment project and its up-market location, the consultancy sees opportunities for a deal before the tender closes on 18 February.

“With its desirable locational attributes, boutique scale and palatable price quantum, we anticipate keen interest from developers and investors for this tender, where a boutique residence can be constructed that provides the developer the time and space to thoughtfully market a manageable number of units,” Chia said.

River Valley in Vogue

Despite home price growth in Singapore having slowed to 3.9 percent in 2024 from the 6.8 percent level recorded a year earlier, or the 8.6 percent surge witnessed in 2022, the River Valley area continued to attract developer interest.

In July, Allgreen Properties, part of Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok’s Kuok Group, won the rights to a site near Havelock MRT with a bid of S$730 million in a government land sale. That purchase gave the developer the rights to build an estimated 610 homes just one kilometre from the River Valley Apartments.

That acquisition on Zion Road in District 10 came just one month after Wing Tai Properties agreed to pay S$464 million at a government land sale for a site at River Valley Green. That 380-home project connects directly to the Great World MRT station.

In April, a joint venture between local titan City Developments Ltd and Japan’s Mitsui Fudosan won an earlier government residential tender on Zion Road with a S$1.1 billion bid.

Knight Frank pointed to the success of these government land sales as evidence of the area’s market appeal.

“The attractiveness of the location is evidenced by the sale of the three GLS sites in 2024, during a period when developers adopted a more cautious approach towards land acquisition. While home sales activity in the Central Region was lacklustre, the interest in the River Valley and Zion Road location demonstrates that developers continue to be attracted to this area, perhaps possessing the belief that when these projects are ready for launch, there will be ready demand for prime products after a long period of subdued activity,” Chia said.