A 99-year residential site at Yishun Avenue 9 fetched an unexpectedly high top bid of $278.8 million in a five-way contest on Tuesday.

The top bid for the 221,239 sq ft land parcel was lodged by EL Development and works out to $450 per sq ft (psf) per plot ratio (ppr).

This was higher than the range of $390 to $431 psf ppr that consultants had predicted, though the number of bids was on the lower end of the range they had tipped.

EL Development's bid trumped the next highest offer of $441 psf ppr - from a Frasers Centrepoint-led consortium - by only 2 per cent.

The lowest bid was $365 psf ppr from Sim Lian.

The site is able to yield 685 units, and is within walking distance of future mixed-use development Junction 9 by Chip Eng Seng.

Chip Eng Seng was also one of the bidders in the tender for the Yishun Avenue 9 plot and lodged an offer of $423 psf ppr.