Tag Archives: Guoco-Land

Hong Leong site’s design, concept to be cutting edge

Serangoon project’s units sized according to buyers’ needs

Hong Leong Holdings, which recently won a site along Serangoon Avenue 3 in a hotly contested government tender, says that it will build a one-of-a-kind project on the site with more than 400 units.

The developer is now finalising the project but says that it will be ‘cutting edge’ in design and concept. It will also feature units sized according to the needs of buyers, said Hong Leong Holdings executive Quek Kon Hui.

Hong Leong won the 99-year leasehold site this month in a tender by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. It put in the top bid of $221 million or $529 per sq ft of gross floor area.

Addressing concerns over ’shoebox’ units, Mr Quek said that Hong Leong will give value without compromising on functional living space.

The project is expected to be launched the first half of next year.

Separately, sales at the 175-unit Lincoln Suites in Khiang Guan Avenue, which was soft-launched last week, have been brisk, the companies developing the project said yesterday. Continue reading

Bids for Dakota Crescent plot soar above expectations

UOL Group bid tops 12 others as developers vie for choice piece of land

The result of yesterday’s tender for a plum condo plot at Dakota Crescent shows just why the government recently raised the ‘definite possibility’ that it will restart confirmed list land sales from next year.

A total of 13 bids were received, reflecting developers’ voracious appetite for mass-market and mid-tier private housing land.

The top bid from UOL Group was above market expectations of about $420-450 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) just a few days ago. UOL’s price yesterday was slightly more than $329 million or about $508 psf ppr – just 3 per cent shy of the $524 psf ppr that Ho Bee and NUTC Choice Homes paid during the peak in June 2007 for the plot next door on which they are developing Dakota Residences, which has achieved an average selling price of about $970-980 psf.

However, after taking into account changes in planning regulations since then, whereby planter boxes and bay windows are not exempted from gross floor area calculations, UOL’s bid yesterday is probably higher than the equivalent 2007 bid for the next-door plot, some market watchers say.

BT understands that UOL is gunning for a high proportion of smaller units in its proposed scheme, and thus push for a higher average selling price of about $1,000-1,050 psf. ‘They should be able to achieve this kind of psf price – so long as they keep the absolute price quantum within an affordable range,’ an industry observer said.

BT understands UOL’s breakeven cost will be about $920 psf. Continue reading