This week in property: Bukit Sembawang buys Makeway View en bloc, four developments up for collective sale, developers scramble for Holland Road GLS site

Property highlights of the week from March 19 to March 23:

Makeway View located on Makeway Avenue, off Kampong Java Road in prime district 9 was sold en bloc for $168 million. The buyer was Singapore-listed property group Bukit Sembawang Estate, and the purchase price translates to a land rate of $1,626 psf per plot ratio (ppr), including a development charge of $21.26 million.

This is the second en bloc purchase by Bukit Sembawang this month. On March 16, the developer acquired the 117-unit, 99-year leasehold Katong Park Towers en bloc for $345 million ($1,280 psf ppr).

Property owners continue to try to catch the en bloc wave, with a continuous stream of properties being put up for collective sale. Among them this week is: Peak Court, a 20-unit freehold project on Thomson Road, near Novena. The project, located within 1km radius to prominent schools like Anglo-Chinese School (Primary), CHIJ Primary (Toa Payoh), and St. Joseph’s Institution Junior, has been put up for collective sale by tender at $106 million, or $1,398 psf per plot ratio (ppr).

At 15 Holland Hill, the freehold 128-unit Olina Lodge was launched for collective sale at a reserve price of $220 million, or $1,631 psf ppr. Due to its high development baseline of a gross plot ratio (GPR) of 1.6, there is potentially no development charge payable.

At Serangoon Road, the 84-unit Euro-Asia Apartments has been launched for en bloc sale at a reserve price of $200 million or a land rate of $1,160 psf ppr.

Elsewhere, Verdun House makes it maiden attempt at en bloc sale. The price tag on the mixed-use development is $60 million, translating to $2,100 psf ppr. Located next to Mustafa Centre, Verdun House is zoned for commercial use and comprises four shops and 12 apartment units. It’s also located 400m from the Farrer Park MRT station on the Northeast Line.

The tender for the Holland Road Government Land Sale (GLS) site closed on March 20. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) announced that the commercial and residential site attracted a total of 15 bids, and some developers submitted more than one bid through Joint Ventures and consortiums.

Although the price could exceed $1 billion, the site was highly contested because of the lack of sizable integrated mixed-use developments along transport nodes in the pipeline.

Two developers that teamed up are Perennial Real Estate and Qingjian Realty. They jointly submitted two concept proposals, via their subsidiaries. Perennial has experience in the Singapore retail market, while Qingjian's parent company has a construction arm, which can help control construction costs.

Other developers who have teamed up are Roxy-Pacific, Chip Eng Seng, and JBE Holdings who submitted a bid through their subsidiaries. City Developments Limited, CapitaLand, and Singapore Land also submitted bids.