GLS Tender Results for Fernvale & Canberra Drive

The latest GLS (government land sales) tenders for three housing sites closed yesterday 3 March 2020. These comprised an EC (executive condominium) land parcel at Fernvale Lane in Sengkang, and two adjoining private residential sites at Canberra Drive in Sembawang. All three are on 99 years leasehold tenure.

There was a fair number of bids for the three sites, though their top bids were all rather conservative.

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Two Parcels at Canberra Drive

Parcel A, the smaller of the Canberra Drive sites, received five bids. The top bid came in at close to SGD$129.20 million, from Oasis Development, a subsidiary of boutique developer JBE Holdings Group. (May 2021 Update: This site will be developed into the Commodore condo.)

This equates to roughly $644 PSF PPR (per square foot per plot ratio). The Commodore condo site can accommodate around 220 homes.

Parcel B, the adjacent site at Canberra Drive that should be able to yield about 455 homes, fetched four bids.

The highest bid in this case was SGD$270.2 million, from United Venture Development (2020), a collaboration of UOL Group, Kheng Leong Company, and United Industrial Corporation. (2021 Update: This site is being developed into a low-rise condo to be called The Watergardens at Canberra.)

The land price for the Watergardens at Canberra works out to approximately $650 PSF PPR, quite close to the land rate for the Commodore condo.

Both the Watergardens condo and the Commodore condo site can be accessed from Sembawang Road, via Seletar Expressway, to join the CTE. In future, there will be a more direct connection to the expressway network via the North-South Corridor due for completion around 2026. In the meantime, the sites are within walking distance of Canberra MRT station (near where the upcoming Provence Residence EC will launch soon), as well as to Sembawang Shopping Centre and Sun Plaza.

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Fernvale Executive Condominium Site

The third parcel in this tender exercise, the Fernvale Lane executive condominium site, drew seven bids, all within a tight band.

FCL Lodge, a unit of Frasers Property, topped the bidding at SGD$286.54 million, or roughly $555 PSF PPR. This was followed very closely by a joint venture of MCC Land (Singapore) and Sing Holdings Residential with a bid of $285.1 million or $552 PSF PPR. A consortium led by Evia Real Estate put in the lowest bid of around $500 PSF PPR.

This EC site is near Seletar Mall and Fernvale LRT station, and just opposite Greenwich V mall. However it is not within walking distance of an MRT station. It is likely to launch around the end of 2021 or beginning of 2022, about six months after Provence Residence EC opens for sale.

The head of research and consultancy for ERA Realty Network, Mr Nicholas Mak, observed from the results of the tenders that sentiment among developers have remained positive, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

However he noted that, “… the modest number of bids for the two condo sites at Canberra Drive illustrated a certain level of caution among developers.”

Colliers International head of research for Singapore, Ms Tricia Song, also felt that the bids were within market expectations in general.

She said that, “We believe developers probably took some comfort from the decent home sales in recent months and healthy buying interest in certain upcoming projects.”

See source article for the land tender results.

Source: The Straits Times . 4 March 2020