Whitley Heights enbloc: Sign of things to come?

The owners of Whitley Heights, just off Whitley Road, are re-launching their estate for tender at a lower price.

Credo Real Estate, which is handling the collective sale exercise, revealed yesterday that the first attempt in January this year was unsuccessful.

The offers received for the 130,165sqft freehold site in one of Singapore’s prime neighbourhoods, District 11, were below the owners’ initial reserve price.

“Earlier, the owners were hoping to achieve between $185 million to $120 million, which reflected a land rate of $1,421 to $1,613psf,” said Credo managing director Karamjit Singh.

Now, they have lowered their price target to $165 million, or $1,268psf, he said.

More than 80% of the owners have consented in writing to the reduced reserve price.

Asked if the tender would be successful after the adjustments, Mr Singh said he remains optimistic.

“It should be all right because the owners have made a significant enough adjustment to attract developers’ interest,” he said.

“At $165 million for the land, the developer may expect to break even at around $3 million per strata terraced. They should be able to sell the new strata units at an average of $3.6 million to $3.7 million per unit.”

Whitley Heights is a stone’s throw from the large houses in Chancery Lane and a number of top schools.

Analysts reckon the unsuccessful tender earlier this year is not so much reflective of the current market, but more of the nature of the site and its development uses.

When most residential apartment sites go en bloc, they are typically redeveloped into high-rise condominium units.

But for Whitley Heights, the site – which currently houses a 45-unit condo development – is to be redeveloped into two-storey landed homes.

This means the developer of the site could choose to build a combination of conventional terraced, semi-detached and detached houses, as well as strata terraced, strata semi-detached houses and strata bungalows.

This implies potentially less “intensive” use of the land for any developer, said SLP’s head of research, Mr Nicholas Mak.

“The en bloc sale premium could be less, as a result, for the developer,” he said.

The tender for Whitley Heights closes at 2.30pm on July 8.

Source: The Straits Times

A couple of thoughts came to mind after reading the article:

• A reduction from $185 million to $165 million – that equates to a discount of about 11% or over $400k less per household (assuming all 45 units are of equal size). Owners of Whitley Heights are definitely motivated sellers!

• Even if the original intention is to redevelop Whitley Heights into two-storey landed homes, surely this is not set in stone (or is it?). Would the buyer not have the option of building condos (albeit low-rise, as we believe there is height limitation on the site) if they feel that this will bring them better returns? So at the end of the day, wouldn't the cause of the initial failed enbloc attempt be the (high) reserved price (which is a function of what developers are willing to accept based on current market) rather than nature of the site and its development uses?

• More interestingly, will we see the likes of Pine Grove and Pearlbank Apartments following suit and start dropping their reserve prices in their next round of sale?

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Launching soon: Skyline Residences (Updated)

Skyline Residences is located along Telok Blangah Road, where Fairways Condominium currently stands.

The 146,532sqft freehold site was sold to Bukit Sembawang via a collective sale back in 2007 for $244.3 million. The price worked out to $785psf ppr.

Bukit Sembawang has really taken their time to redevelop the Fairways site. But a friend of ours living across from Fairways has seen the showflat being constructed since a couple of months ago, so the wife and I were expecting some announcement on the impending project launch. We now understand that the preview date for Skyline Residences is estimated to be around end-June or early-July.

Skyline Residences is supposedly within short walking distance of the upcoming Telok Blangah MRT Station and will probably be quite closely watched given its location.

However, we heard that price is expected to be around $2,000psf. If this true, the price is even higher than the $1,900psf initial launch price of Foresta @Mount Faber located further down the road.

So it will be interesting to see how "well received" the project is during the preview.

For those who are interested, you can find out more about Skyline Residences here:
http://www.condoexpert.sg/skyline-residences-telok-blangah 


Update (16/06/2011):
We understand from a reliable source (thanks, Jonathan) that the price for Skyline Residences will be between $2,200 to $2,300psf.

Kinda steep if you ask us, especially given current market sentiments. However, if Foresta can sell at $1,900+psf, why can't Bukit Sembawang ask for $2,200psf (or more)?

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May 2011 private home sales figure (Updated)

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Data released Wednesday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed that 1,575 private homes were sold last month - a 12.7% on-month drop from the 1,805 units sold in April.

Including Executive Condominiums (EC), the total sales in May would have reached an even more impressive figure of 1,825.

Chalking up the best sales was Terrasse at Terrasse Lane, which sold 184 units at a median price of $994psf.

The best selling EC was Belysa at Pasir Ris drive 1, which sold 162 units at a median price of $691psf.

The most expensive property sold in May was The Marq on Paterson Hill - a luxury property in the city centre - where a unit was sold at a median price of $5,842psf.

The lowest transacted price was at $486 per square foot for a city fringe landed property called The Hiloft.

According to analysts, private home sales fell by almost half to just under 3,800 units in the first half of this year.

Analysts said this is due to a slew of property cooling measures, with the latest and most drastic introduced in January this year.

Source: Channel News Asia

If you think the May sales number is bad, just wait till you see the June figures!


Update (from News @10 tonite):
The number of new units launched in May was down 41% to about 1,200 units, as developers anticipated new housing policies to be introduced after the General Election.

Demand in the suburban area remained the strongest , with 945 units sold. The city fringe area saw sales of 458 units, while the central region saw the least number of units sold - 172.

Analysts expect further decline in private home sales for June, at around 900 - 1,200 units.

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For those claiming that private home sales are still strong...

New home sales appear to be cooling, with key indicators down by half so far this year from those in the same period last year.

Not only has there been a plunge in the number of new private homes sold, but the total value of sales has also more than halved, according to a new report by property consultancy CB Richard Ellis (CBRE).

Expert attribute this to weaker market sentiment this year, as well as the cooling measures in January, which were the strictest seen in the past few years.

CBRE also highlighted how smaller homes are gaining favour. Median sizes of new homes hovered around 1,200sqft in the first six months of last year, but they have shrunk to around 900sqft now.

These smaller units, with their lower overall prices, could be partly to blame for the reduced transaction values, said CBRE.

About $5.1 million worth of new homes have been sold so far this year, less than half the $12.3 billion in the first half of last year.

CBRE data also show a drop in sale volume: 3,796 private homes were sold this year till last week, well down from the 7,189 sold in the first half of last year. This translates to a median price of around $1 million for each home sold this year, compared with about $1.2 million last year.

Analysts say the muted numbers this year could be a sign that the recent cooling measures are taking effect.

Extracted from : The Straits Times

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Home sales slowed last week

Developers and property agents reported slower home sales last week following National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan’s cautionary remarks on his blog.

However, seller in the primary and secondary marketing are said to be remaining firm on pricing.

Some property consultants estimate that developers’private home sales in May – the official number from URA will be released tomorrow – may come in close to the level in April, when they sold 1,788 private homes excluding executive condos.

Terrasse
The project in Hougang, which has been on the market since May 21, is said to have seen sales in the single-digit last week, compared with about 20 units in each of the preceding two weeks.

The five-storey, 99-years leasehold project is priced at about $950psf on average, with about 210 of the total 414 units now taken up.

Woodhaven
Far East Organization is said to have sold over 80 units at its Woodhaven condo project in Woodlands. The average price is said to be over $900psf.

The 99-year leasehold project has three components – regular apartments; soho-style apartments with greater floor-to-ceiling height; and townhouses.

Buckley Classique

City Developments Ltd has sold 17 out of 25 units released at its 64-unit Buckley Classique between Friday and Sunday. The early-bird average price for the private preview, which began on Friday, was $1,950psf.

Lump-sum prices are said to range from $2.27 million for a 1,098sqft, two-bedroom apartment on the second storey to $7.1 million for a 4,359sqft penthouse with five bedrooms and a family area.

The freehold development comprises two blocks (five and six storeys) on the former Buckley Mansion at No 11 Buckley Road and will incorporate a conservation bungalow next door (No 9 Buckley Road) for use as a club house for the project.

Seastrand

This project in Pasir Ris by Far East and Frasers Centrepoint is said to be garnering strong interest.

The average price is said to be about $850psf and sales could begin as early as later this week if all the requisite approvals are secured in time. The 473-unit project will have one to four-bedroom units.

Extracted from: The Business Times


After the reading the article above, two thoughts come to our mind:

• It’ll be interesting to see what the June private home sales number will be like.

• Developers seem to be launching new projects with a vengeance these days – is it really due to strong   demand, or are they also concern that the “bull run” on property prices may come to end soon?

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