The tender for the Government Land Sale (GLS) site at Tengah Gardens Avenue closed on Jan 14 with three bids. A Hong Leong-led consortium, including GuocoLand Singapore and CSC Land Group, submitted the top bid of $675 million, or $821 psf per plot ratio (ppr).
Zoned ‘Residential with Commercial at 1st storey’, the 99-year leasehold site measures approximately 273,906 sq ft with a maximum gross floor area (GFA) of 821,720 sq ft. URA estimates that the site could potentially yield up to 860 residential units.
If awarded, the Hong Leong-led consortium plans to build an 860-unit condo, leveraging enhanced connectivity from the upcoming Jurong Region Line (JRL) nearby. The JRL will contribute to the growing development of the new Tengah estate, says Loke Kee Yeu, general manager (Projects) at Hong Leong Holdings Limited.
The Tengah Gardens Avenue site is near the upcoming Hong Kah MRT Station on the JRL. It will be one stop from the upcoming Tengah Town Centre and offer a direct route to the second CBD at Jurong Lake District.
The top bid of $821 psf ppr for the Tengah Gardens Avenue site is just 0.73% higher than the second-place bid of $815 psf ppr, submitted by Chinese developer Kingsford Group. Local developer Sim Lian Group submitted the third and final bid of $812 psf ppr.
Bid price spread of less than 1%
Despite the acceleration of homebuyer activity seen in the tail end of 2024, developers’ sentiment has remained cautious, says Leonard Tay, head of research at Knight Frank Singapore. Another GLS site at Dairy Farm Walk closed on Jan 14. It received two bids.
“Developers could have decided to concentrate on the existing sites that are presently being prepared for launch in 2025,” Tay adds. He also points out that the tight bid price spread between the three bids (less than 1%) indicates that developers are more conservative in their bids.
According to Mark Yip, CEO of Huttons Asia, developers are mindful of keeping their land bids reasonable to maintain an attractive selling quantum for buyers.
Yip expects more property developers to submit joint bids for GLS sites this year to diversify risk. This may be one reason that the number of bids for GLS tenders has hovered around three.
Another factor contributing to the low number of bids could be the current availability of GLS sites, says Marcus Chu, CEO of ERA. “With seven sites still open for tender and six more to launch in the first half of 2025, developers are taking a measured approach, weighing their options amid moderated interest rates.”
Interest in the site may also have been tempered by the availability of another nearby GLS site, notes Justin Quek, CEO of OrangeTee & Tie. Developers may be considering bidding on a different GLS site along Lakeside Drive and Lakeside MRT. The site is scheduled to launch for tender in April 2025
Tengah’s first non-EC private condo
If awarded, the Tengah Gardens Avenue site will be home to the first private residential site (excluding Executive Condominium (EC)) in the Tengah HDB township.
Copen Grand, the estate’s first EC, was successfully launched for sale in 2022. The 639-unit project sold out within a month of its launch by joint developers, City Developments Ltd (CDL) and MCL Land. The joint developers had secured the EC site with a winning bid of $400.32 million, or $603 psf ppr, in May 2021.
The opportunity to launch the first private condo in the new Tengah estate may have attracted the Hong Leong-led consortium, says ERA’s Chu. “Having made forays into sites at Lentor, Upper Thomson and Bugis, they see this as an opportunity to do the same in Tengah.”
As the first private condo, the development could attract a wider range of buyers than ECs, which are subject to HDB eligibility criteria and restrictions such as a five-year minimum occupation period (MOP) and a monthly household income ceiling of $16,000, says Mohan Sandrasegeran, head of research & data analytics at SRI.
The Tengah Gardens Avenue site is situated within 2km of the future Anglo-Chinese School (Primary), according to Ismail Gafoor, CEO of PropNex. With the school set to become a co-ed school in 2030, the site’s proximity to the school could be very attractive to families with school-aged children, he adds.
If the site is awarded at the top bid of $821 psf ppr, PropNex estimates that the average selling price of the new private condo could be around $2,000 psf.
And pictures added ten times that foundation day
Pound-pounds are not required after a particular building has been awarded, causing builders to wait a year before they will proceed
Hong Leong-led consortium conceptual giant GLS-led consortium with interests in Tengah Gardens and the nearby Aizen aerial attraction, planned for five 2020s must submit costs of $821-001 to renovation, licensing and permitting before Opening will be time-consuming to do in development
Forty-seven year old Tengah Gardens Avenue, near Napoli, was the 28th building in the development project.
Ian Gordon is Quanta Magazine author of ‘Followful Cities Worldwide: How a Full-Time “Real-Time Research” Review Mediated Russia’s Great Recession’. Follow him on Twitter – @TD_Gordon
