Two government land sale (GLS) site tenders, one at Lentor Central and the other at Champions Way were officially closed on 12 September 2023.
A total of 6 competitive bids were received for the Champions Way GLS site, which has the potential to house 350 private residential units.
The frontrunner was City Developments Limited (CDL), which submitted the highest bid of $294.889 million.
This equates to a land rate of $904 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), which represents an 8.3 per cent premium over the runner-up bid of $272.26 million from TID, a joint venture between Hong Leong Group and Mitsui Fudosan, which equated to $835 psf ppr.
This Champions Way GLS plot is the first land tender launched in Woodlands since 2011, with the exception of executive condominiums.
A site at Rosewood Drive and Woodlands Avenue 2 was tendered for $367 psf ppr back then, which is today’s Parc Rosewood that has 689 units in total
CDL’s group CEO, Sherman Kwek, emphasises the importance of this site in supplementing their landbank and ensuring a consistent launch pipeline.
The GLS plot at Champions Way garnered considerably higher attention from real estate developers than the Lentor Central site, which saw only two bids.
According to one analyst, the Champions Way site received the most bids for a plot that is not zoned for executive condominium (EC) this year.
It was also noted that a significant difference between the highest and lowest bids received for the Champions Way site.
CDL’s offer was 45 per cent more than the $203.33 million (or $623 psf ppr) that was put up by Innova Investments Limited.
Market watchers believe those conservative bids that were less than $750 psf ppr are an indication of property developers adopting a cautious approach for the locale.
Nonetheless, analysts have emphasized the site’s advantageous location, which benefits from the development of the Woodlands Regional Centre, an increase in demand from Woodlands upgraders, and its close distance to the new Woodlands South MRT Station.
It’s expected that the future new launch condo at Woodlands could command a starting price that is slightly below $2,000 psf.
That would be over 53 per cent more than the median resale transaction price at Parc Rosewood condo this year, which is $1,301 psf.
Several analysts expressed comparable views, forecasting that the forthcoming median selling price is poised to surpass $1,900 per square foot.
They also noted that this upcoming condominium would establish a new standard for pricing in new residential developments within the Woodlands planning district.