Privatised HUDC estate Ivory Heights may soon go on the market after winning initial backing for a collective sale.

The sale committee is making a push to secure backing from the required 80 per cent of home owners, with a whopping $1.34 billion price in its sights. This would match the record overall price paid for Farrer Court in 2007, and would work out to about $979 per sq ft per plot ratio, based on the 825,502 sq ft land area.

Owners could each pocket more than $2 million, said marketing agent SLP International. Flats in the estate have sold for between $1.248 million and $1.31 million this year.

The winning bidder would also have to cough up an estimated $160 million to top up the 99-year lease on the 654-unit estate, built in 1986.

Mr Richard Hui, vice-chairman of the collective sale committee, told The Straits Times: "As the estate ages, the land will depreciate, so 69 years is a very nice moment for developers to come in."

He pointed to its plum spot in the Jurong Lake District, which will be turned into Singapore's second Central Business District, saying: "I am sure a lot of big developers want the land for a development in our area."

There has been a flurry of collective sale interest at former HUDC estates, kicked off by Rio Casa in May. Five have been sold this year, with the biggest deal at Tampines Court, which went for $970 million in August.

Meanwhile, owners at other developments are not sitting idle. Florence Regency is now weighing bids after asking for $600 million.

Pine Grove owners, who have yet to kick-start the tender process, are hoping for $1.65 billion, and those at Braddell View will meet today to form a collective sale committee with a target price of over $2 billion.

But perhaps not all former Housing and Urban Development Company estates will hit the jackpot so quickly.

Mr Tan Hong Boon, JLL regional director of investments, said: "The ones who come in later will ask for higher and higher prices, and developers will not be willing to pay."

Annabeth Leow