Location plan for the Lentor Gardens site (Picture: URA)
SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - The tender for a residential government land sale (GLS) site at Lentor Gardens closed today. The 99-year leasehold site drew just one bid from GuocoLand and Intrepid Investments (a subsidiary of Hong Leong Group). The joint venture partners submitted a bid of $486.8 million, which translates to a land rate of $985 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr).
“For the Lentor Gardens site, we are envisioning a new high-end residential development with around 533 units, and with 600 sqm of childcare facilities," say a GuocoLand spokesperson. “The future development will complement our other two upcoming developments – Lentor Modern and Lentor Hills Residences – in our plans to transform the Lentor Hills estate to be widely known as a premium residential area.”
According to Mark Yip, CEO of Huttons Asia, the $958 psf ppr bid "is the lowest for a land parcel in the Lentor precinct". It is also the first residential GLS tender to see only one bid since the tender of the Silat Avenue GLS site in 2018, which a consortium led by UOL Group won for $1.035 billion. The site was launched as the 1,074-unit Avenue South Residences in September 2019 and is now fully sold.
The last two residential GLS sites to be sold in Lentor were at Lentor Central and Lentor Hill (Parcel B), both of which were awarded last September. Lentor Central was awarded to a consortium comprising China Communications Construction, Soilbuild Group Holdings and United Engineers, who submitted a bid of $481.03 million ($1,108 psf ppr). Meanwhile, TID (a joint venture between Hong Leong Group and Mitsui Fudosan) was the top bidder for Lentor Hills (Parcel B) at $276.36 million ($1,130 psf ppr). The two land parcels can yield about 470 and 265 units respectively.
Prior to this, a GLS site at Lentor Hills Road (Parcel A) was sold for $586.6 million ($1,060 psf ppr) in January 2022. The 598-unit Lentor Hills Residences by GuocoLand, Hong Leong Holdings and TID (a joint venture between Hong Leong Holdings and Mitsui Fudosan) is expected to be launched soon.
There are a number of existing and upcoming sites around the Lentor area: EdgeProp LandLens
Meanwhile, GuocoLand’s launch of the 605-unit Lentor Modern integrated development last September saw 84% of the units sold on launch weekend. Based on caveats lodged, the project is 88% sold at an average price of $2,104 psf. GuocoLand purchased the GLS site for $784.1 million ($1,204 psf ppr) in July 2021.
Huttons’ Yip notes that since the launch of the first GLS site at Lentor, bids have been on a downward trend. “This is probably because developers are mindful of an area where the government has been pushing out land for sale regularly,” he remarks. He further points out that developers may have been deterred by the cloudy economic outlook, along with the risk of being slapped with Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty if they are unable to sell all units within five years.
Two other GLS sites at Lentor are available for sale under the 1H2023 GLS Programme. A site at Lentor Central, which can yield 475 units, is expected to be launched for tender this month, while a 500-unit residential site at Lentor Gardens is on the Reserved List.
Leonard Tay, head of research at Knight Frank Singapore notes that all seven residential sites in Lentor – comprising one closed tender, the four sites that have been sold and the two still available for sale – could potentially bring about some 3,500 new units to the area. This would translate to almost 11,000 new residents. “Developers could be considering whether this might constitute too many homes and people in an area of less than 0.5 sq km to be developed within a span of three to six years, assuming all seven sites are sold,” he comments.
The upcoming Lentor Hills estate, where GuocoLand has emerged as a dominant player (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
Nonetheless, he highlights that the Lentor Gardens site that closed today is within walking distance of the Lentor MRT station. “ Potential homebuyers would be drawn by the site’s connectivity to public transport and recreational facilities such as Thomson Nature Park and Yio Chu Kang Stadium and Sports Complex,” he says.
The site is also about 1km from CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School, which Tay says should appeal to parents of school-going children. “Furthermore, retirees and older residents currently living in the landed estates around Lentor and Yio Chu Kang Road might consider downsizing their residences as their space requirements and priorities change, serving as a source of potential buyers for the new condominium in this location.”
The Lentor Gardens site can yield about 530 residential units. Steven Tan, CEO of OrangeTee & Tie, believes that the eventual launch at the site could see units priced around $1,950 to $2,050 psf.
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