The public tenders for a land parcel at Clementi Avenue 1 and an executive condo site at Canberra Link, both under the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme, closed on July 3. The land parcel at Clementi Avenue 1 is zoned for residential use and attracted five bids, while the EC site saw eight bids. A final decision on the award of the tenders will be made known at a later date.
Two subsidiaries of UOL Group, namely UOL Venture Investments and UIC Homes, submitted the top bid of $491.3 million for the 178,064 sq ft plot at Clementi Avenue 1. It translates to about $788 psf per plot ratio (ppr) on the maximum allowable gross floor area (GFA) of 623,229.8 sq ft. This means the potential average selling price of the new development could be about $1,400 psf, says Tricia Song, head of research for Singapore at Colliers International.
It is close to The Clement Canopy, a twin 40-storey, 505-unit condo that was completed in March this year. That development is built on a GLS site also awarded to UOL Group, in 2015, when it submitted the successful bid of $302.1 million ($615 psf ppr).
“We like this Clementi Avenue 1 site for the same attributes that contributed to the 100% sell-out for our adjoining development, The Clement Canopy. From our experience, we believe that there is very strong demand for this locale due to its close proximity to a strong educational cluster anchored by NUS, NUS High School and Nan Hua High,” says Liam Wee Sin, group chief executive of UOL Group.
Desmond Sim, head of research of Southeast Asia at CBRE, also believes that bidding sentiment for the site was encouraged by the complete sell-out at The Clement Canopy, as well as the continual need for land-bank shoring on the part of developers.