Land sales: When flour is costlier than bread

LAND prices in China and Hong Kong have shot through the roof amid a buying spree by mainland developers, with the cost of buying land in some prime areas even surpassing the cost of buying a nearby apartment on a per square foot basis. This anomaly of "flour being more costly than the bread", to borrow a Chinese saying, is proving to be a major headache for regulators.

Thankfully, Singapore's property market has not reached that level of headiness. But it may be too early to assume that it will not head that way, going by the recent bidding patterns of developers here. It's worth deliberating if their optimism is justified.

One land deal that stood out is the collective sale of Sun Rosier, which was acquired at S$271 million or S$1,325 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) by SingHaiyi Properties and Huajiang International Corporation,…