SINGAPORE - Hong Kong-listed Shun Tak Holdings has reportedly withdrawn from the collective sale deal for High Point condominium, less than a month after it announced the acquisition.
The Business Times reported on Friday (Dec 24) that Shun Tak is understood to have forfeited its $1 million tender deposit. The cancelled deal could possibly be the first casualty of the latest property cooling measures announced by the Government last week.
Savills, which brokered the deal, declined to comment when contacted by The Straits Times on Friday.
ST has contacted Shun Tak for more information.
Shun Tak announced on Dec 9 that its wholly owned subsidiary, Shun Tak High Point, had successfully won the bid for High Point for about $556.7 million.
It was the group's fifth property acquisition in downtown Singapore in five years.
High Point is located at 30 Mount Elizabeth and in the downtown District 9 enclave, with a site area of approximately 47,606 sq ft and a maximum gross floor area of around 226,815 sq ft.
Savills said in a statement then that the land price for High Point was around $2,537 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr), including the development charge of $18 million, which made it the highest land price psf ppr sold since July 2018 and the third-highest in Singapore's history.
Shun Tak had said it planned to redevelop the property into a luxury residential development with a targeted project completion in 2027.
Its group executive chairman and managing director Pansy Ho had said in a statement: "With the acquisition of this fifth property, we shall further expand our portfolio and foothold in Singapore, and continue to bring in top-quality and unique elements to enrich the vibrant development of the city."
Shun Tak's reported withdrawal from the deal comes about a week after Singapore implemented a new round of property cooling measures on Dec 16.
These include higher additional buyer's stamp duty (ABSD) rates - up by 5 to 15 percentage points - for all entities except Singapore citizens and permanent residents buying their first residential property.
At the same time, the remittable ABSD for residential developers was raised from 25 per cent to 35 per cent.
This means that if a developer fails to complete the project and sell all its units within five years of acquiring the site, it will be liable for 35 per cent ABSD with interest. Developers are also subject to a 5 per cent non-remittable ABSD.
Analysts have said that with the new cooling measures, developers are likely to be even more selective and cautious with collective sale sites.
