SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) The government land tender for a mixed-use site at Tanah Merah Kechil Link closed on Oct 29. The tender exercise attracted 15 bids and the highest came from MCC Land (Singapore) which submitted a $248.99 million bid for the 95,583 sq ft site. This translates to $930 psf per plot ratio (ppr) for the 99-year leasehold site.

Separately, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) also announced the tender closing of a new Executive Condominium (EC) site at Yishun Avenue 9. The government land sale (GLS) site attracted seven bids, and the highest came from Sing Holdings which submitted a $373.5 million bid for the 231,575 sq ft site. This translates to $576 psf ppr for the 99-year leasehold site.

The official tender award decision for the sites will be announced at a later date.

According to Tricia Song, head of research for Singapore at Colliers International, the high number of bids for the Tanah Merah GLS site exceeded her expectations. “This is the highest number of bids since the Holland Road commercial and residential site (Concept and Price) tender in May 2018 which drew 15 bids from 10 consortiums. This is also much higher than the four to nine bids seen for private residential government land sales sites over the past 18 months,” she says.

MCC Land’s top bid is also higher than expected and Song had expected the mixed-use site to draw in a top bid of about $900 psf ppr. The top bid is also 4.6% higher than the second highest bid from Tucana Residential and Tucana Commercial, which jointly submitted a $238 million bid.

The 99-year leasehold site is beside Tanah Merah MRT station on the East-West line and will be developed into an integrated development with commercial units on the ground floor and about 265 residential units. The entire development has a maximum permissible gross floor area of 267,633 sq ft.

The tender for the EC site at Yishun Avenue 9 also attracted a higher than expected price, says Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at PropNex Realty. “[The price] is better than market expectations that range from $500 psf ppr to $550 psf ppr. The land rate of $576 psf ppr is also among the highest for an EC site, following the $578 psf ppr for the Tampines Avenue 10 EC site awarded in January 2019 and the record of $583 psf ppr for the Sumang Walk EC site that was successfully tendered in March 2018,” says Wong.

The top bid by Sing Holdings is also 8.2% higher than the second highest bid of $342.9 million which was submitted by Maximus Residential SG. The keen interest in this EC site is unsurprising says Wong, as end-user demand for such properties is expected to be robust considering the sales performance by the most recent EC projects – Signature at Yishun and The Criterion, she says.

Check out the latest listings near: Yishun Avenue 9, Tanah Merah MRT station