Citing recent cooling measures, Horizon Towers extends tender closing date

HORIZON Towers has extended its collective sale tender closing date by more than a month, following cooling measures that took effect the day after the site had launched for sale on July 5 with a S$1.1 billion reserve price.

The collective sale committee, in consultation with marketing agent JLL and lawyers Lee & Lee, decided to extend the deadline in light of those changes, which include an increase in the rates of the additional buyer's stamp duty (ABSD), a tightening of mortgage loan-to-value limits across the board and a non-remissible ABSD of 5 per cent for residential land purchases, JLL said in a Tuesday morning statement.

"The decision was made following feedback from developers that they remain interested in the prime site, but would now require more time to observe and re-assess the market going forward, re-evaluate the project in the light of these new measures and monitor the sales of new projects," it added.

The tender closing date, previously Aug 7, is now Sept 12.

If the sale does go through, the District 9 site could well be the first billion-dollar deal in the current en bloc upcycle. Its reserve price translates to a land rate of S$1,786 per square foot per plot ratio at GPR (gross plot ratio) of 3.6105 after factoring in the 10 per cent bonus gross floor area plus a lease top-up premium estimated to be in the region of S$220 million. No development charge is payable for the site which has an "as-built" GPR of around 3.28.

In 2009, a S$500 million collective sale bid of Horizon Towers had fallen apart following a dispute among the owners, and the Court of Appeal's finding that the sales process was improperly handled.