Tampines executive condominium site for 560 units put up for sale
The plot comes out of the confirmed list of the government land sales programme for H2 2024
AN EXECUTIVE condominium (EC) site which can yield some 560 housing units in Tampines Street 95 is up for sale, tendered by the Housing and Development Board (HDB).
The plot comes out of the confirmed list of the government land sales programme for H2 2024, and the tender will close on Oct 24.
Recent tenders for EC land have seen firm interest and bullish top bids even as developers turn more conservative and risk-averse on private-housing sites. Market watchers expect at least four, and up to eight, bids for the Tampines site, with estimates ranging between S$650 and S$750 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).
Earlier this month, an EC site in Jalan Loyang Besar near Pasir Ris drew four bids, and was awarded to a joint venture between CNQC International (the parent company of Qingjian Realty), China Communications Construction Company and ZACD at S$557 million or S$729 psf ppr.
The bid of S$729 psf ppr marked a new record land rate for EC plots, surpassing the last high of S$721 psf ppr chalked up for a parcel in Tampines Street 62 sold to Sim Lian.
EC projects continue to be popular among homebuyers and sell well at their launch.
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Wong Siew Ying, PropNex’s head of research and content, said that with a stable demand pool, ECs typically present lower risks to developers.
“The last EC project that was launched for sale in Tampines – Tenet – sold 72 per cent of its 618 units on its launch day in December 2022. Meanwhile, the 512-unit Lumina Grand EC in Bukit Batok that was put on the market in January 2024 shifted 53 per cent of its stock on its launch weekend,” she noted.
Mark Yip, chief executive officer of Huttons Asia, said that the site now up for tender sits in a mature estate which has had quite a number of Build-to-Order launches in the past few years, and that there is a large pool of potential buyers looking to upgrade to an EC.
The latest market cooling measures announced by HDB on Monday (Aug 19) are “unlikely to affect the new EC market as there is no impact on the four-room and larger flats market and these owners tend to make up the bulk of HDB upgraders”, Yip added.
The Tampines Street 95 plot spans 22,488.9 square metres (sq m) with a maximum gross floor area of 56,223 sq m. It is also close to the Tampines West MRT station.
With three upcoming EC launches between 2025 and 2026, the eastern part of Singapore could see nearly 2,000 units being offered, said Marcus Chu, ERA Singapore’s CEO.
Justin Quek, CEO of OrangeTee & Tie, noted that only one other EC plot is slated for launch in Tampines – in Tampines Street 62 – and this will likely be only in 2025.
While ECs continue to draw buyers, prices are on the uptrend and PropNex’s Wong cautioned that the selling price of new EC units may “test the affordability threshold of buyers”. Buyers are subject to a 30 per cent mortgage servicing ratio, and a monthly household income ceiling of S$16,000, among other conditions, for purchasing new EC units from developers.
Based on the latest URA Realis data, the median unit price of new ECs sold this year up to Aug 10 was S$1,502 psf, up 6 per cent compared with S$1,417 psf in 2023, and 12.3 per cent higher than the S$1,337 psf median in 2022, as well as 28 per cent more than the 2021 median of S$1,175 psf.
Huttons Asia expects bidders for the Tampines Street 95 plot to take their cue from the tender results for an adjacent mixed-use site in Tampines Street 94 which will close on Sep 19.
“To be competitive, there has to be a comfortable price gap between the two sites,” Yip said.
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