How much would you pay for around 118,000 sq ft of land? One company just bid S$2.6 billion (RM7.77 billion) for it. Yes, the bid is real and it’s only for a piece of 2.7 acre land in Singapore’s downtown Marina Bay. Wealthy Link Pte Ltd was one of the seven property developers who is attracted to this piece of land to build office. All the bids would be evaluated by Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). Wealthy Link is part of IOI Properties Group Bhd. According to Christine Li, director research at real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, this bid reflects the return of confidence for the Singapore office market. Full article from Starbiz here.
This was the first land sale in Singapore’s Marina Bay in nine years. The offer price, at S$1,689 per sq ft area exceeded the earlier highest price set in 2007 for Asia Square Tower 1 site at S$1,409 per sq ft, according to CBRE Group Inc. The plot sits right next to Asia Square. Besides this land sale, there were also a few recent commercial property deals in Singapore. Asia Square was sold by Black Rock Inc for S$3.4 billion to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. CapitaLand Commercial Trust, Singapore’s largest office REIT, in May agreed to buy a 60 percent stake in CapitaGreen in the central business district for S$393 million, and MYP Ltd., which operates an investment holding company, offered S$560 million for the Straits Trading Building. The site can be developed primarily for office use, with a smaller area reserved for residential housing, a hotel or serviced apartments. Full article in Bloomberg here.
Feeling bullish yet? Maybe not yet but Singapore is a good property market barometer as it is right next to Malaysia. Let’s face it, when Singapore property booms again, everyone benefits, especially Iskandar too. As for the residential market, there has been reports that it is about to start growing again but Nomura recently stated in an article stating why they do not think the Singapore residential market is on the way up again. They offered 5 reasons. Article here. Happy following.
Latest Update, as at 11th November 2016. IOI Properties have won the bid against many other established bidders including Temasek-owned Mapletree Investments, Hongkong Land-Cheung Kong and CapitaLand.
Commenting on this successful tender, its Group Executive Chairman, Tan Sri Dato’ Lee Shin Cheng expressed confidence in the Group’s position to leverage on the strong demand for prime office space in Singapore. “The site is ideally located within the Marina Bay area – Singapore’s premier financial and business district. The future development will be linked directly to the surrounding developments at One Raffles Quay, Marina Bay Financial Centre, as well as the office clusters at Raffles Place and Shenton Way via an extensive network of at-grade, underground and overhead pedestrian links. It is also seamlessly connected to the adjacent Downtown Mass Rapid Transit (‘MRT’) Station, nearby Raffles Place MRT Station and the future Shenton Way MRT Station. The development will be attractive to major financial institutions and multinational corporations. Based on the Group’s experience in developing South Beach, we have strong confidence that we can offer another prime and iconic development at Central Boulevard,” he added.
written on 7 Nov 2016, updated on 11 Nov 2016
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