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The tender for a 99-year leasehold commercial site at Beach Road closed on Thursday (28 September) after drawing five bullish bids, revealed the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
GuocoLand entities GLL Prosper and GLL Thrive jointly submitted the top of $1.622 billion for the approximately 238,979 sq ft site, or $1,706 psf per plot ratio.
The second-highest bid of $1.57 billion came from Kingsford Hurray Development, followed by a $1.451 billion offer from Anise Link.
Located near Bugis MRT station, the approximately 2.0ha site will have a maximum permissible gross floor area of 950,601 sq ft, of which at least 665,430 sq ft is for office use.
Launched for sale on 6 July, the land parcel was originally on the reserve list. On 21 June, the URA received an application from a developer for the site to be put up for tender. The unnamed developer had committed to bid a minimum price of $1.138 billion, which was acceptable to the government.
“The location of the site justifies the high bid,” said Lee Nai Jia, senior director and head of research at Edmund Tie & Co. He pointed to URA Realis data which shows that monthly rents in the Beach Road area have been averaging at $10.30 psf, which are close to average rents at Raffles Place ($12.30 psf).
Lee added: “There are many cultural amenities in the area and a diverse array of shopping, retail and F&B outlets serving the needs of the workforce in the neighbourhood.
“Over time, we anticipate the CBD will extend to the Kallang River areas given the URA’s plans, and the Beach Road area will be a prime office site for information technology, business and the financial services sector.”
Meanwhile, JLL Singapore research head Tay Huey Ying noted that the tender results for the site reflect developers’ bullish outlook on Singapore’s office property market.
She reckons that the winning bidder may also look to ride the current positive home buying sentiment and incorporate private apartments into the future project.
The URA said a decision on the award of the tender will be made after the bids have been evaluated.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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