Vista Park seeking minimum S$350m in collective sale tender

Singapore

THERE appears to be no letting up on the collective sale fever this week. Another project, Vista Park condominium, has launched its tender for en bloc sale on Friday, joining a spate of four other en bloc launches this week.

Owners of Vista Park are eyeing at least S$350 million, which means each unit owner could pocket S$1.16 million to S$3.5 million - a premium of over 60 per cent to what they could otherwise fetch by selling the units individually in the open market.

Two other condominium projects that could launch their collective sale tender soon, having achieved the 80 per cent requisite approval from owners, are Brookvale Park and Kismis View, both marketed by JLL. Their asking prices are not available yet.

Teakhwa Real Estate, which is marketing Vista Park, touted the unique feature for Vista Park being its immediate surroundings.

Vista Park sits at the edge of Kent Ridge Park and faces the sea. Set in lush greenery, the site offers the prospect of a new "nature and wellness" themed residential development project. It is also a 6-7 minute walk from Pasir Panjang MRT station.

"For its unique hill location, land size and reasonable land rate expectation, we can expect very strong developers' interest for the rare site," said the boutique agency's managing director, Sieow Teak Hwa.

Including the estimated lease top-up premium of about S$66 million, the land rate is estimated to be S$932 per sq ft per plot ratio, which can be pared down to about S$903 psf ppr after factoring in the bonus balcony gross floor area (GFA).

This compares favourably with the land rate of S$969 psf ppr transacted for Normanton Park estate located near Kent Ridge Park, Mr Sieow said.

The 209-unit Vista Park, including 22 townhouses, spanning 319,250 sq ft at South Buona Vista Road, has some 61 years left on its lease. The site has a plot ratio of 1.4 and allowable height of up to five storeys, translating to potential GFA of about 446,951 sq ft.

This could yield some 530 apartments of about 800 sq ft per unit for the new residential development subject to relevant authority approval. The tender for Vista Park closes on Dec 13.

Separately, owners of freehold Spanish Village, off Farrer Road, kick-started the en bloc process with the formation of its collective sale committee (CSC) last Saturday. They are in the midst of appointing a marketing agent.

The potential asking price for Spanish Village is above S$810 million, said the CSC chairman Chiu Jia Yu. This is lower than its reserve price of S$839 million in its 2007 attempt and S$825 million in the 2011 attempt.

A sale value of S$810 million for Spanish Village, a 226-unit development at Farrer Road, would translate to a land rate of S$1,575 psf ppr, after factoring in an estimated development charge of S$24 million.

Consultants are expecting some 700 new units to be built on the 30,793 sqm site given its plot ratio of 1.6, Mr Chiu said, adding that there are very few such sizeable freehold sites available in Singapore.

Some market watchers felt that the estimated land rate for Spanish Village is rich vis-a-vis that of another nearby freehold project, Tulip Garden, which is more advanced in the collective sale process as it is now garnering signatures from owners. The latter's reserve price of S$688 million translates to a land rate of S$1,358 psf ppr.

Elsewhere in Tiong Bahru, owners of Central Green condominium have formed the CSC and is also in the midst of appointing their marketing agent and lawyer to work on a collective sale of the 412-unit development.

Four other en bloc tenders were launched on Wednesday. They include the iconic Pearlbank Apartments, Parkway Mansion in Katong, Derby Court near Novena and Riviera Point along River Valley Road.