At the close of the tender for the Sumang Walk Executive Condominium (EC) site on Feb 27, Singapore-listed property giant City Developments Ltd and joint venture partner TID Pte Ltd beat 16 others with a top bid of $509.37 million ($583 psf per plot ratio).

"This marks an all-time record price in the EC land sales market," says ZACD Group's executive director Nicholas Mak. The land rate is 39.3% higher than the last record ($418.53 psf ppr) set by the Lake Life EC site in the Jurong Lakeside district, notes Mak.

The top bid was 4.8% higher than the second-highest bid of $486 million ($556 psf ppr), which came from Chinese developer Qingjian Realty. The third-highest bid of about $450 million ($515 psf ppr) was submitted by Singapore-listed, China-based developer Yanlord Land Group and Singapore-based privately held Soilbuild Group Holdings.

The 291,235 sq ft, 99-year leasehold EC site is bordered by Sumang Walk, Sumang Link and Punggol Way. It has a maximum gross floor area of 873,705 sq ft and plot ratio of 3.0. The site is also located opposite Punggol Cove Primary School.

According to CDL, the new development is going to have 13 blocks of 10- to 17-storeys with a total of 820 units. CDL CEO Sherman Kwek says that the site, being next to My Waterway@Punggol, "offers the opportunity to create a landmark waterfront residence with pleasant views".

ZACD Group's Mak expects the breakeven price for the project to be about $960 psf to $1,000 psf. "This is 14% to 19% higher than the average price of $842 psf at the most recently launched EC project, Hundred Palms Residences", notes Mak. Developed by Hoi Hup, the 531-unit Hundred Palms Residences EC was fully sold within hours of its launch in July 2017.