Sing-Haiyi Garnet—backed by tycoon Gordon Tang and his wife Celine— submitted the top bid of S$658.9 million ($495 million) for the first residential plot the government auctioned at the Bayshore Road precinct, overlooking the beach along the East Coast Parkway.
The government received eight bids for the site, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority. The other bidders included billionaire Kwek Leng Beng’s City Developments and a joint venture between Thai drinks-to-property tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi’s Frasers Property and its Japanese partner Sekisui House.
The competitive auction adds to signs the housing market in the city state is rebounding, with British consultancy Knight Frank noting that this is the first time in recent years that a plot of land had drawn this much interest.
“Perhaps developers were saving their gunpowder at previous tenders for the more attractive sites, such as Bayshore Road,” Leonard Tay, head of research at Knight Frank in Singapore said by email.
Developers are seeking to replenish their landbank as demand for private residential properties is off to a strong start this year, with more than 2,600 new housing units (excluding government-subsidized executive condominiums) in the first two months of the year. “This positive momentum was met with prominent launches,” Tay said in a separate note this week.
Other bidders for the 10,497-square-meter site on Bayshore Road included Malaysian billionaire Jeffrey Cheah’s Sunway Developments and its local partner Hoi Hup Realty. About 515 homes could be built on the 99-year leasehold plot, which sits right next to the Bayshore MRT station on the newly opened section of the Thomson East Coast Line.
Depending on the design and construction cost, the project may sell at a minimum price of S$2,700 per square foot, a premium on the top bidder’s offer price of S$1,388 per square foot, according to Tay. That translates to a starting price of S$1.35 million for a one-bedroom unit measuring 500 square feet (46 square meters).
The Tangs have been stepping up investments in Singapore real estate in recent years. In 2022, Chip Eng Seng and a joint venture between SingHaiyi Group and Haiyi Holdings—which are controlled by the couple—bought a 21% stake in the former Temasek Tower on the edge of the Raffles Place central business district. A 63-story skyscraper, which would be the tallest in the city-state when completed in 2028, is currently being constructed on the property by the Tang-backed companies and partners including e-commerce giant Alibaba and Perennial Holdings, which is owned by palm oil billionaire Kuok Khoon Hong with tycoons Ron Sim and Pua Seck Guan, CEO of Perennial.
Read the full article here