Punggol site bids below expectations

As published in The Straits Times
23 Sep 2010

By Jessica Cheam

Lower bids suggest cooling measures starting to have impact, say observers

A PUNGGOL executive condominium site tender closed on Thursday with four developers putting in bids below industry expectations.

The highest bid for the Punggol Drive plot was $136.2 million, coming from Qingdao Construction (Singapore) and working out to be $237 per sq ft (psf) - below the anticipated $250 to $290 psf predicted by analysts.

The bid was only 2.2 per cent higher than the second-highest offer of $133.2 million from Hoi Hup Realty, Sunway Developments and SC Wong Holdings.

SLP International research and consultancy executive director Nicholas Mak noted that Qingdao's bidding price was 23 per cent lower than the amount paid by ChoiceHomes Investments and CEL Development for another exec condo site in Punggol Field earlier in June.

Industry observers say the tender results suggest that the Government's supply-side measures to cool Singapore's red-hot property market are beginning to have an impact on land prices.

For the second half of the year, the state has earmarked the largest potential amount of land for release since the start of the land sales programme in 2001.