Robin Residences’ sales gallery to close

/ The Edge Property |

August 26, 2015 9:00 AM SGT

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Sing Holdings will tear down the sales gallery after the National Day weekend. With the project completing and Stevens MRT station opening by year-end, will there be a step-up in sales?

Robin Residences, located at the corner of Robin Road and Bukit Timah Road, has been seeing “slow and steady sales” since it opened its sales gallery and show flats for VIP preview at end-July 2014, says Lee Sze Hao, CEO of listed property developer Sing Holdings. Many of the buyers were initially Lee’s business associates and friends. In fact, the biggest penthouse in the freehold private condominium project was one of the first units to be snapped up at the preview. The 2,939 sq ft six-bedroom duplex penthouse with a private rooftop swimming pool was sold for $5.7 million ($1,941 psf).

Following the VIP preview, units were sold at private previews by appointment only, with the project being marketed by CBRE and Huttons Asia. It was only in April this year that the show flat and sales gallery was opened for public preview. Instead of cutting prices or offering star buys, which some dev elopers have resorted to in order to boost sales, Sing Holdings actual ly adjusted prices upward “slightly” at Robin Residences. The average price of units is around $2,400 psf, Lee says. To date, about 50 units (or 37.3%) of the total of 134 have been sold.

“This location is superb in terms of accessibility and there is no shortage of people who want to buy a unit for investment,” adds Lee. “The project is within one kilometre of the Singapore Chinese Girls’ School and Anglo-Chinese School, a boys’ school. So, we have the best of both worlds — a mix of families buying for owner occupation and investors.”

Unit sizes, convenience Robin Residences was designed with a wide array of unit types, from stu dios to two- to five-bedroom units. The studios, which are 409 sq ft, make up just 10% of the units. Two-bedroom units account for 48% of the overall units in the project, and there is a wide range of sizes — from 538 to 850 sq ft. They are priced from $1.2 million to $2 million. The larger of the two-bedroom units appeal to young families with children, while the smaller ones are popular with young professionals, parents buying for their adult children and investors. The studios also appeal to investors.

Lee has appointed Patty Mak of Suying Metropolitan Studio to design the interiors of Robin Residences. Mak had designed the interiors for Sing Holdings’ other luxury project, The Laurels. “When it comes to highend projects, the focus of buyers is on the master bedroom and master bathroom. For mass-market projects, the kitchen seems to be the most important,” Lee observes.

Many buyers are looking forward to the opening of the Stevens MRT station on the Downtown Line Stage 2 in December. It will be an interchange station for the Thomson- East Coast Line in 2021. Robin Residences is located just 250m from the Stevens MRT station.

Lee, therefore, wants to dovetail the completion of Robin Residences with the opening of the MRT station. The show flat and sales gallery, currently on the site, will be closed after the SG50 holiday from Aug 7 to 10, to make way for the construction of the sub-station. When the project is completed, one of the units will be turned into a new show suite.

Showflat of the living room of a 1,498 sq ft, four-bedroom unit at Robin Residences

Big and bigger Besides location, another attraction of Robin Residences is its large site area compared with most projects in the enclave, which are single-tower blocks. A larger site allows the dev eloper to provide more facilities for resi dents, says Lee. As Robin Residences is sitting on a freehold site of 88,748 sq ft, the developer is able to provide a 33m swimming pool, a gene rous-sized gym, clubhouse and resi dents’ lounge, as well as a rooftop tennis court.

The site was an amalgamation of four smaller land parcels which took over two years to purchase, recounts Lee. It started with the purchase of the 15-unit Robin Court at 3 Robin Drive. The two adjoining sites were put up for sale by tender by the former Credo Real Estate (now part of JLL) five years ago. Sing Holdings purchased the sites for $77.33 million in September 2010. It also bought a piece of state land adjoining Robin Court, which was available for sale, and thereby enlarged the site area to over 41,000 sq ft.

Following Sing Holdings’ acquisition of Robin Court and adjoining bungalow, owners of the neighbouring projects were more willing to con sider selling, says Yong Choon Fah, JLL’s national director of capital markets, who was involved in the series of en bloc purchases by Sing Holdings then. In January 2011, Sing Holdings succeeded in purchasing Robin Star at 10-12 Robin Road for $47 million in a private treaty deal. The developer also secured another 16-unit apartment block on a freehold site at 2-8 Robin Road for $52 million. All in, Sing Holdings paid $176.3 million for the four sites.

Lee is familiar with the Robin Road neighbourhood. “I used to live there when my children were very young,” he says, pointing to a house whose red rooftop is just visible from behind Robin Residences. “My parents lived in the house next door, which was where I grew up. So, I know the area very well,” he adds.

‘Lucky’ One street away on Keng Chin Road, just off Bukit Timah Road, is Sing Holdings’ other project, the 51-unit boutique condo Bellerive, which was completed in 2011. The company had purchased the site en bloc jointly with US-based fund Forum Asian Realty Income II LP for $37.2 million in December 2006. It was a 70%:30% joint venture (JV), with Sing Holdings taking the bigger stake.

Bellerive was officially launched in May 2009 at prices ranging from $1,325 to $1,464 psf, after 50% of the units were sold in private previews. The project contains two- and three-bedroom units, with sizes ranging from 958 to 1,679 sq ft. Most of the units were snapped up within a few months after the global financial crisis. “Twoand three-bedroom units of such generous sizes are rare today,” remarks a property consultant who declines to be named.

In March 2010, Sing Holdings launched its freehold luxury condo, The Laurels, on Cairnhill Road. The 229-unit project is a redevelopment of the former Hillcourt Apartments, which Sing Holdings had purchased with Forum in March 2007 for $361 million. The Laurels, launched at an average price of $2,850 psf, was fully sold by mid-2014, within months of its completion in late 2013.

Sing Holdings was able to sell all the units in its high-end condos within two years of completion. It was, therefore, not subjected to extension charges, which some developers have had to pay for unsold units under the conditions of the Qualifying Certificate (QC). Neither did it have to cut prices to clear unsold stock to avoid paying the extension charges. “I think we have been quite lucky in selling all the units in our projects, including the high-end [condos],” says Lee.

Pickup in activity The number of enquiries and buying activity at the high-end segment has started to pick up since mid-2015, notes Lee. Robin Residences has likewise benefited from the increase in buying interest. “Interest is coming mainly from Chinese and Hong Kong buyers, who feel Singapore’s luxury property prices look attractive at current levels,” he says. “Hong Kong introduced another round of property cooling measures early this year, including mortgage tightening, which has a similar effect as our total debt servicing ratio.”

The end of this year will be significant as it will see the completion of Robin Residences, as well as Waterwoods, Sing Holdings’ first venture into the executive condo segment, a public- private property hybrid. Waterwoods is a JV with UE E&C Ltd, which has a 30% stake in the development, while Sing Holdings holds 70%. Launched in November 2013, only 21 units in the 383-unit Waterwoods in Punggol remain unsold to date. The latest median price achieved for the EC, a 99-year leasehold project, was $787 psf, according to URA’s June data. Not surprisingly, the developer has been actively looking to replenish its depleting landbank. Sing Holdings has participated in several government land sales since last year, including the tender for the sites at Lorong Puntong, off Upper Thomson Road; Potong Pasir; Dundee Road; and Toa Payoh.

“There aren’t too many freehold sites that are available for en bloc sale in the prime districts today,” says Lee. Sing Holdings is also looking at diver sifying its portfolio and since last year, has been actively exploring investments in commercial buildings in the UK “for recurring income”.

This article appeared in the City & Country of Issue 688 (Aug 3) of The Edge Singapore.

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