State tenders for three 99-year leasehold housing sites comprising two adjoining private housing sites in Canberra Drive in Singapore's north and an executive condominium or EC site along Fernvale Lane in the Sengkang area closed yesterday.
Analysts noted that bidding participation was decent although the top bids for the three sites were in somewhat conservative territory.
Canberra Drive (Parcel A) drew five bids, with the highest offer of nearly $129.20 million or about $644 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) from Oasis Development, controlled by boutique developer JBE Holdings Group. The site can yield about 220 homes.
The Canberra Drive (Parcel B) site next door drew four bids, the highest from United Venture Development (2020), controlled by UOL Group, United Industrial Corporation and Kheng Leong Company. Their bid of $270.2 million works out to around $650 psf ppr. This site can yield about 455 homes.
The two Canberra Link sites are connected to Sembawang Road and Seletar Expressway, and are a stone's throw from Canberra MRT station, as well as Sembawang Shopping Centre, Sun Plaza and Sembawang Primary School.
Meanwhile, the Fernvale Lane EC site fetched seven bids.
Frasers Property unit FCL Lodge was the highest bidder, at $286.54 million or about $555 psf ppr. The second-highest bid of $285.1 million or $552 psf ppr came from a partnership between Sing Holdings Residential and MCC Land (Singapore). The lowest bid of about $500 psf ppr was by a consortium led by Evia Real Estate.
The Fernvale Lane EC site is across the road from shopping mall Greenwich V and is near Fernvale LRT station, The Seletar Mall, Fernvale Primary School and Sengkang Green Primary School.
Ms Tricia Song, head of research for Singapore at Colliers International, said the land bids are generally within market expectations.
"We believe developers probably took some comfort from the decent home sales in recent months and healthy buying interest in certain upcoming projects," she said.
Mr Nicholas Mak, head of research and consultancy at ERA Realty, noted that sentiments for land bidding remained positive among developers amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
"However, the modest number of bids for the two condo sites at Canberra Drive illustrated a certain level of caution among developers," he said.
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