Marina Gardens Crescent site bid too low, plot not allocated: URA
URA announced the Marina Gardens Crescent parcel for sale in June of 2023, under the confirmed list H1 2023 GLS programme. The site has been placed on the reserve schedule of H1 2024, allowing interested parties to submit bids for a sale at a price the government will accept.
The confirmed list is launched according to the schedule regardless of demand. Sites are only launched on the Reserve List if a developer has successfully applied and committed to offer the government a price at which they will accept.
Marina Gardens Crescent could be delayed due to the upcoming supply of new housing in the city.
Skywaters Residences & Newport Residences haven’t been put up for sale yet. The abundance of residential development sites may affect the confidence of developers in the city.
The sole bid for the 99-year leasehold site in Marina Gardens Crescent, which was part of a GLS tender that attracted a lot of attention, was rejected by the GLS as being “too high”, and so the plot wasn’t given.
Urban Redevelopment Authority, URA, has deemed the bids of GuocoLand Singapore (GiocoLand), Intrepid Investments (Intrepid) and TID Residential as too low.
A tender closed on 18th January received only one bid for the white site at Marina South. It was designated as a residential and commercial development. The winning bid was S$770.5 Million or S$984 Per Square Foot per Plot Ratio (psfppr).
Marina South MRT is located right next to the Marina Gardens Crescent. It is possible to develop the plot to a maximum of approximately 783,000 sq. ft. This is 6 per cent higher than the 738,000-sq.-ft. maximum GFA specified for the Kingsford plot.
If the site goes up for tender, it will interesting to see whether the government awards it the next time around, especially if it receives three bids, or more. Also, if they come in under the S$984/sf/ppr price mark.
Could this be the new market benchmark? After all, when developers see that their sales potential is reduced due to the 60 per cent Additional Buyer Stamp Duty for foreign buyers, it could become the new benchmark.
Market observers were not surprised at the URA decision. It came after an unusually long wait for the official result of a tender.
Land rates were higher last year for GLS sites further away from city centers, like Clementi or Toa Payoh.
Market players were not expecting the award of the bid at the close three weeks earlier. The bid was almost 30% less than the S$1,402 per square foot ppr Kingsford Group had paid for an adjacent plot in Marina Gardens Lane, in a state-run tender that ended in June.
The GuocoLand-related entity’s bidfor the plot in downtown is also lowerthan the top bid made for a site on the western fringe of the city. Qingjian Realty – Forsea joint partnership offered S$1,191 for each square foot of Media Circle parcel, which was also bid on January 18th. URA has given the site to this bid, which amounted at nearly S$395.3 Million.
The calculated bid for Marina Gardens Crescent reflects the cautious view towards large sites requiring significant land and development costs. This is especially true in districts that are emerging and have not been developed, like the Marina South area.
Noteworthy, GuocoLand had previously bid with Guoco Group and Intrepid Investments for the Kingsford site. The consortium placed second at S$985psfppr, just a little bit above Marina Gardens Crescent’s bid.
Kingsford’s S$1.03billion land plot is zoned to residential use with commercial space on first storey. It could generate 790 homes similar to those on the Marina Gardens Crescent.
