RECALLING: August 13 2007

Killiney Road site for sale

A freehold residential redevelopment site in Killiney Road has been put up for sale by tender. It’s a 39,972 sq ft site zoned for residential use with a gross plot ratio of 2.8 and a maximum building height of 10 storeys. On the site is a two storey pre-war building formerly called Mitre Hotel and a two-storey outhouse. They can be redeveloped into a luxury residence of up to 111,922 sq ft, subject to approval and payment of $700,000 in development charges. Jones Lang LaSalle is marketing the project, and the tender will close on Sept 12. According to market observers, the property could fetch a price above $200 million, or $1,900 psf per plot ratio (ppr).

Source: JLL

URA launches Simon Road tender

The URA launched the residential site at Simon Road for sale by public tender last week. The land parcel is one of 10 sites on the confirmed list under the Government Land Sales Programme for 2H2007. With a site area of 1.76ha (189,812 sq ft), the site has the potential to be developed into a residential project with a gross floor area (GFA) of 664,343 sq ft.

The site is located next to Wing Tai and NTUC Choice Homes’ 778-unit Kovan Melody condominium, which sits right on top of the Kovan MRT station. It is already fully sold with transaction prices in resale market for the last two months at $600 to $700 psf, says Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of CBRE Research. Over at Buangkok, newly-released units in The Quartz were sold at an average of $680 psf. “We expect that units in the subject property can be marketed at $750 psf to $800 psf when it is launched in mid- 2008,” says Li. “As such, bids can be expected to range from $350 psf ppr to $400 psf ppr, or $232 million to $265 million.” The tender for the project will close on Oct 2.

Pearl Bank Apartments for sale for $750 million

The 37-storey, 99-year leasehold Pearl Bank Apartments is up for collective sale. The offer will close at 3pm on Sept 18. To date, owners with more than 80% of the total share value in the development have signed the collective sale agreement. The actual number is now being verified by Lee & Lee, solicitors acting for the majority owners.

Pearl Bank Apartments has 62 years remaining on its 99-year lease. Situated next to Pearl’s Hill City Park, it was one of the first all-housing projects to be constructed on a URA land parcel. There are currently 280 apartments and eight commercial units in the development. Due to its elevation, even the lower level units will have unblocked views of the city skyline — a rarity in urban sites. There is also opportunity for the developer to integrate Pearl’s Hill City Park into the redevelopment.

The site is designated for residential development with a plot ratio of 7.2, and the URA has stipulated a baseline GFA of 56,998.837 sq m. Based on an average unit size of 1,200 sq ft, 500 new apartments can be built on the site. Marketing agent Knight Frank expects to achieve a price of at least $750 million for the site. Together with lease upgrading premium estimated at $137 million, the land price works out to $1,445 psf ppr, assuming the developer can fully develop the site to the baseline GFA.

Source: Knight Frank

OFFSHORE

CapitaLand in JV to develop 300 villas in HCMC

CapitaLand announced last week that it has signed a joint venture (JV) agreement to develop a residential site in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The 1.26 million sq ft site in District 9 is owned by an affiliate of Azure City Co Ltd, a local Vietnamese company involved in infrastructure and property development. The site is 35 minutes from the city centre and 10 minutes from the Saigon Hi-Tech Park.

CapitaLand will take a 75% stake in the JV company and pump in US$31.5 million ($48 million) for its stake. The local partner will hold the remaining stake. CapitaLand, as the lead development manager, plans to build a gated community with 300 luxurious villas on the site. The development will be ready for launch by 3Q2008. This marks the third residential project in HCMC for CapitaLand.

Ascendas launches two China property funds

Ascendas, a business space provider and wholly- owned subsidiary of JTC Corp, announced last week that it has launched two China real estate funds. They are the Ascendas China Industrial & Business Parks Fund and Ascendas China Commercial Fund. The first fund will invest up to $600 million in industrial and business park assets, while the latter will invest up to $800 million in commercial assets.

The seed investment for the industrial and business parks fund is Ascendas’ flagship project in China. Located within the Suzhou Industrial Park, Xinsu and currently has 54 built-to-suit and readybuilt facilities with a total GFA of 2.8 million sq ft. It has another 5ha of development land that can provide a pipeline of assets for the fund in the future.

The commercial fund’s seed investment is Ascendas Ocean Towers, a 25-storey Grade-A commercial office building with a total net lettable area of 540,267 sq ft. It’s located in the prime CBD of Huangpu in Shanghai. The fund is looking to develop Grade- A commercial properties in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The two funds are sponsored and managed by Ascendas, while investors include both Singapore and global institutional investors.

Source: Ascendas

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