The plans to rejuvenate Bugis have taken another step forward as two rare residential sites have been launched for sale under the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme.
According to analysts, these sites located within the Central Area are set to draw keen interest from property developers due to the potential that Bugis presents.
One of them is located along Middle Road and has been officially launched under the Confirmed List. This site has a total land area of around 80,300 square feet and is expected to yield approximately 375 private homes.
It was noted that the Middle Road GLS site has two zones. One of them is the low-rise zone, which has a height restriction of 6 storeys while the other is the high-rise zone that can go as high as 20 storeys.
Market watchers believe that the top bid could come in at around $1,400 psf ppr – translating to a land price of around $475 million.
Another site for sale within the Bugis precinct is located along Tan Quee Lan Street. It is launched under the Reserve List under the GLS programme.
The Tan Quee Lan GLS site has a site area of around 124,100 square feet for residential development and is able to yield approximately 580 private homes.
Similar to the Middle Road site, this site also has 2 zones with 2 height limits: 30 storeys and 6 storeys for each zone.
For this site, market watchers said the top bid could come in higher at around $1,500 psf ppr – translating to a total land price of $780 million.
The reasons for a higher price point is due the fact that the future new launch project will be sitting just above Bugis MRT Station and the nearby DUO Residences has sold a total of 655 units out of 660 – at an average psf price of $2,036 since it was launched back in 2013.
Another 2 sites outside of the Central Area have also been launched for sale at same time. One of them is located along Sims Drive (on the Confirmed List) and another one at Dairy Farm Walk (on the Reserve List).
The 174,600 square feet site along Sims Drive in Geylang, sitting next to the newly completed Sims Urban Oasis by GuocoLand is expected to yield around 570 private homes.
The expected number of units to be built on the Sim Drive site has been reduced from the initial 650 units as the site will be subjected to a larger minimum average size for its units – from the previous 70 sq metres to 85 sq metres.
Analysts have highlighted that the Sim Drive site will likely draw lesser interest as compared to the rest which are available for sale. The reason is because that the site located relatively far away from the nearest Aljunied MRT Station and is also next to the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE).
Back when the neighbouring site of Sims Urban Oasis was launched sale under the GLS programme in 2014 (when the property market was relatively soft), it only drew 4 bids back then – with GuocoLand submitting a top bid of $530.0 million.
The last site announced on Friday is located at Dairy Farm Walk, under the Reserve list. However, analysts felt that the site will not be triggered for sale anytime soon.
If it was to be triggered for sale, the 168,600 square feet site is likely to draw a lower bid amounts as compared to another GLS site next to it – which was clinched by United Engineers (UEL) back in September for $368.8 million or $830 psf ppr.
That site at Dairy Farm only managed to draw 5 bids.