The private residential site at Margaret Drive has drew strong interest property developers – resulting in a hotly contested tender that saw 14 bids submitted.
The top bid came from MCL Land (also developers for the latest Lake Grande) – a whopping $238.39 million or $997.85 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), which is almost 8% higher than the second-placed bid ($925 psf ppr) from Allgreen Properties.
The Margaret Drive GLS site was triggered for sale last month when a minimum bid of $185.76 million was received.
With a total gross floor area of approximately 238,905 square feet, the future development can yield approximately 275 private homes.
The overwhelming response received for this site is likely due to its close proximity to Queenstown MRT Station and wide variety of dining and retail options.
Market watchers have mentioned that such healthy demand from property developers may prompt the Government to start releasing more land parcels for sale in the 1H2017 Government Land Sales programme (which will be due to announced this month).
They have also noted that the top bid was rather bullish as it’s 14.5% higher than the nearby land parcel sold back in June 2015 – which will be housing Queens Peak condo. It’s also noticeably much higher than the Commonwealth Towers site (at $883 psf ppr back in February 2013).
Looking at the entire district, the top bid received for the Margaret Drive GLS site is the highest since Highline Residences site at Kim Tian Road in 2013 – for $1,163 psf ppr, overtaking the bid for Alex Residences site of $970 psf ppr in December 2012, in second place.
The breakeven price for the Margaret Drive GLS site is likely to be in the range of between S$1,450 to S$1,550 psf and the market could be expecting a launch price of more than S$1,700 psf for this new condominium.
The Margaret Drive GLS site has been developed into Margaret Ville – launched during end May 2018.