Perennial Real Estate, Kuok Khoon Hong joint entity pay S$280.9m for Mediacorp's Caldecott Hill site

PRE 10 Pte Ltd, an entity which will be jointly owned by Perennial Real Estate Holdings and its chairman Kuok Khoon Hong, has clinched the former Caldecott Broadcast Centre site for S$280.9 million.

The property is being sold by Mediacorp.

The 752,015-square-foot island site currently has a balance lease term of 73 years, and is zoned for civic & community institution use under Master Plan 2019.

It is located at the heart of the Caldecott Hill Good Class Bungalow Area. Mediacorp has been granted an Outline Approval by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) for a proposed site redevelopment into two-storey bungalows with a minimum land area of 800 square metres per house.

"PRE 10, may, however, explore development options upon completion of the transaction," CBRE and Showsuite Consultancy said in a release on Tuesday.

The two companies were jointly appointed by Mediacorp to advise and market the property. The tender, which closed on Dec 9 was closely contested, the two firms said in a release on Tuesday.

Michael Tay, head of capital markets for Singapore at CBRE, who led the negotiations, said: "This is the largest private redevelopment site sold in 2020, and this is testament to developers' confidence in the Singapore market. We understand that the purchaser will be working with relevant authorities to review redevelopment options."

Karamjit Singh, CEO of Showsuite Consultancy, said: "The tender exercise attracted multiple competitive bids with the under-bidders falling close to the winning submission. It is after all, a rare opportunity to acquire a massive plot of elevated land for redevelopment. The entire estate would stand to benefit from the eventual harmonisation of the plot with it."