A strata retail unit at East Village, a mixed-use development on Upper Changi Road, was put up for auction by Knight Frank last month. It was a mortgagee sale — the first to surface in the four-storey, freehold project that features 108 strata shop units on the first level and 90 apartment units on the second to fourth floors.
The opening price for the 366 sq ft strata shop was $1.35 million ($3,689 psf) at the auction last month. As there were no bids, the property was withdrawn. It is now available for sale by private treaty.
The unit, which is currently vacant, used to be leased to an F&B outlet operator. It can also be used as a retail outlet, says Noelle Tan, auction and sales manager at Knight Frank Singapore, who is handling the sale.
The commercial podium of East Village is anchored by a Cold Storage supermarket. When the project was launched in 2012, many of the strata shops and F&B units were snapped up by investors at an average price of $5,200 psf. At the time, strata commercial units were popular with investors, who switched from the residential sector following a series of property cooling measures in 2011.
The all-time-high in terms of psf price was achieved in March 2013 when a 108 sq ft unit changed hands in a sub-sale for $712,000 ($6,615 psf). The unit was purchased for $546,811 ($5,080 psf) in April 2012 when the project was launched.
East Village was completed in August 2014. The latest resale of a strata shop unit at the development was that of a 205 sq ft unit, which changed hands for $600,000 ($2,934 psf), according to a caveat lodged with URA Realis in January 2017. That same unit was purchased for $981,677 ($4,800 psf) in April 2012 from the developer.