SINGAPORE - One of two Pine Grove residential sites was put up for sale by public tender on Thursday (Feb 24), in a move to increase private housing supply in the face of dwindling units and pent-up demand in the city-fringe area.
The 99-year leasehold plot of 22,534.7 sq m has a maximum gross floor area (GFA) of 47,323 sq m and can yield 520 homes.
The tender - launched under the confirmed list of the first half's Government Land Sales (GLS) programme - closes on June 2.
A second site in Pine Grove remains on the reserve list.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) noted that the tender for a plot in Dunman Road - one next to Dakota MRT station and the Geylang River - will be launched in March and will also close on June 2.
This site has been moved from the reserve list to the confirmed list and can yield about 1,035 private homes.
The Pine Grove and Dunman Road land parcels are among several sites on the first-half's confirmed list that can accommodate about 2,800 units, a 40 per cent increase from the amount on the second-half GLS programme for 2021.
This comes against a backdrop of a buoyant property market over the past year and unsold stock that hit a new low of 14,154 units as at Dec 31 last year, PropNex said.
Analysts noted that the maximum number of housing units that can be built on the Pine Grove site has been capped at 520 to manage traffic flow.
Ms Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at PropNex Realty, said the project should draw interest, given the limited supply of new private homes in the vicinity.
The 660-unit Ki Residences at Brookvale launched in December 2020 is about 81 per cent sold, with an average sale price of $1,815 psf in 2021, based on URA Realis data.
But while more recent launches such as Ki Residences and Clavon in Clementi Avenue 1 are near the Pine Grove GLS site, they are "not quite comparable" in terms of location, noted JLL senior director of research and consultancy Ong Teck Hui.
"Clavon is in Clementi town, an HDB heartland, while Ki Residences is deep within the Sunset Way estate and less accessible. Although the Pine Grove parcel is in Ulu Pandan Road, it is an extension of the prime Holland Road corridor and shares its desirable attributes," he added.
Analysts estimated that the Pine Grove tender could attract five to eight bidders and fetch a top bid of between $1,100 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr) and $1,200 psf/ppr.
ERA Realty head of research and consultancy Nicholas Mak sees the top bid coming in at between $484 million and $535 million, reflecting a land rate of $950 psf ppr and $1,050 psf ppr.
But Huttons Asia senior director of research Lee Sze Teck believes "developers will be cautious", as the second Pine Grove parcel could be released for sale if demand and land bids for the first one are robust.
"If (this site) is put up for sale, it will be a direct competitor to (the first one)."
The second Pine Grove parcel spans 25,039.2 sq m, with a maximum GFA of 52,582 sq m. It can yield 565 units.
