With last July's property cooling measures in mind, the owners of Spanish Village in Farrer Road have put the freehold private estate up for sale en bloc again, while working to lower the reserve price - just like two other collective sale relaunches so far this year.
"Despite the cooling measures introduced last year, the collective sale committee (CSC) had come to a decision to launch the tender the third time as it is the final chance that Spanish Village, being a choice site with many positive attributes, can have a shot at the market this round," said its sole marketing agent Edmund Tie & Company today.
The owners of the estate's 226 units are in the process of signing a supplementary agreement to lower the reserve price of the development by about 6 per cent to $828 million from $882 million, it added.
Last month, the 48-unit Gilstead Court near Novena MRT relaunched its collective sale, announcing that its CSC had proposed lowering the reserve price to $153 million from $168 million.
More than 60 per cent of the owners had signed the supplemental agreement to do so as of the end of last month, but lowering the price requires the approval of at least 80 per cent of the owners in terms of overall share value and total floor area.
The CSC for the 120-unit Lakeside Apartments in Yuan Ching Road also proposed cutting the property's reserve price to $205 million from $240 million.
As of the end of last month, 70 per cent of the owners had agreed to do so, shy of the 80 per cent required.
The tender exercises for Gilstead Court and Lakeside Apartments will both close on Feb 27.
This is the third stab at a collective sale for Spanish Village, which was built in the 1980s with an area of 331,457 sq ft. Its current guide price of $882 million translates to a land rate of $1,721 per sq ft per plot ratio, inclusive of a development charge of about $30 million, said Edmund Tie & Company.
The firm said the Land Transport Authority gave in-principle approval last September for 703 units to be built on the site based on a pre-application feasibility study.
Spanish Village is in District 10 and located near the Botanic Gardens. It is also close to Nanyang Primary School, Nanyang Girls' High School and Raffles Girls' Primary School.
The site is near Holland Road, the Pan Island Expressway and Ayer Rajah Expressway. The tender exercise for the site will close on March 11 at 3pm.
