Daily Archives: 19 Nov 2009

Balestier factory en bloc after rezoning

The owners of a terrace factory building off Balestier Road have put up their property for an en bloc sale following the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) decision in 2008 to consider rezoning the site for residential use upon redevelopment.

The freehold property is being marketed by Credo Real Estate with a price tag in the region of $27 million to $30 million.

About $18.7 million is payable as development charge (DC) for the rezoning of the site. After factoring the DC payable, the estimated price tag reflects a per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) price of $586 psf ppr to $625 psf ppr. Breakeven for the project is at about $950 psf to $1,000 psf.

The three-storey strata-titled development at 6 Jalan Ampas comprises four terrace factory units built in the 1980s. They belong to four unrelated owners. The building sits on a corner rectangular-shaped land measuring just over 2,586 square metres. Tan Hong Boon, Credo’s deputy managing director, said that the URA issued a circular in July 2008 to say that it had completed a review on a cluster of 15 industrial buildings at Jalan Ampas/Lorong Ampas, and was prepared to consider rezoning the properties to residential use at a gross plot ratio of 2.8 upon redevelopment. Based on this rezoning, the site may be redeveloped into a high-rise residential development comprising some 100 apartments with an average size of 780 square feet.

The tender for the launch closes at 3pm on Dec 10. Credo said that the site is about 50m from Shaw Plaza, a shopping mall that houses a major supermarket, a multiplex cinema, banks and fast food eateries such as McDonald’s.

A new development in the same vicinity, Prestige Heights, was recently launched at a median sale price of $1,322 psf.

Source : Business Times – 19 Nov 2009

Mapletree starts work on south China project

Mapletree Investments yesterday unveiled plans for the US$342 million first phase of its Nanhai Business City, a mixed-use development in Foshan City, China.

Twenty high-rise apartment blocks with about 2,000 residential apartments and a four-storey retail mall called VivoCity@Nanhai will be developed in phase one, Mapletree said.

Nanhai Business City is the group’s first commercial project in south China and its largest project so far.

The project is being developed by a Mapletree- sponsored private real estate fund called Mapletree India China Fund, which holds 80 per cent of a joint venture company set up to develop the project. The remaining 20 per cent is held by local Chinese partner Pan Shun Ming, who is chairman of Southern Packaging.

Nanhai Business City is the Mapletree fund’s third investment in China.

Mapletree celebrated the ground-breaking ceremony for phase one yesterday. This phase, expected to be completed by 2013, involves the development of 10 hectares of land into the high-rise residential blocks and retail mall.

The residential component will also have facilities such as a recreation centre, gymnasium, cafe, basketball court, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and themed gardens. The first batch of 270 units will be ready for sale in the third quarter of 2010.

VivoCity@Nanhai, the four-storey retail mall, will have about 100,000 sq metres of gross floor area. Mapletree said the mall will incorporate the ’successful attributes’ of its VivoCity shopping mall in Singapore.

The entire Nanhai Business City will cover more than 35 ha and will be developed in four phases over the next five to eight years.

‘Our investment in Nanhai Business City underscores the importance of South China as an investment location for Mapletree, particularly, the Nanhai district in Foshan City,’ said Mapletree chief executive Hiew Yoon Khong.

He said Mapletree is evaluating several other suitable investments in China and India for its US$1.16 billion Mapletree India China Fund, which was set up to fund the group’s expansion in these countries.

Source : Business Times – 19 Nov 2009