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Completed in 1972, City Plaza is an 18-storey mixed-use property which comprises of 531 units, including 66 residential flats. (Photo: City Plaza)
Unit owners of City Plaza are set to meet on Saturday (29 July) to discuss a possible collective sale of their freehold building for up to S$1 billion, reported The Straits Times.
Situated close to the Paya Lebar MRT station, the 18-storey mixed-use property comes with 531 units, including 66 flats. Built in 1972, it is known for its wholesale shops, which primarily sell clothes.
According Derrick Chan, who has convened the unit owners’ first annual general meeting in years, “it is the right time” to talk about a collective sale for City Plaza.
“There is en bloc fever now and Paya Lebar is developing into a business centre. The building is over 40 years old. If we do not go en bloc now, the cost of maintenance will be extremely high.”
Another reason for considering this move is that businesses in City Plaza are not flourishing. “Retail sales are suffering, and wholesale retail is being taken over by (Chinese online site) Taobao. It is not economical to have a shop space and rental is very low.”
Chan, who has six units in City Plaza with a combined area of 5,400 sq ft, revealed that they are targeting a sale price ranging from S$800 million to S$1 billion.
For the meeting on Saturday, over 100 people are anticipated to attend. Chan hopes that a collective sale committee can be set-up by that time, noting that more than half of the unit owners he has talked to are keen on an en bloc deal.
Among them is James Tan, who is displeased with the declining rent for his 20 sq m unit in City Plaza that he bought in the 1990s. The rent he was getting during the market’s heydays was around S$1,800 per month, but nowadays he just gets about S$1,200.
According to Edmund Tie and Company’s Research Head Dr Lee Nai Jia, the collective sales frenzy in the housing market has spilled over into the commercial property sector, citing the successful S$430.1 million en bloc deal for the Citimac industrial complex.
While he expects healthy interest for City Plaza in light of the upcoming developments in Paya Lebar like the Paya Lebar Quarter, he thinks the asking price for City Plaza is “on the high side”.
This article was edited by Denise Djong.
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