The Rochester Averages $1,300 PSF

Source : The Business Times, August 7, 2007

All 366 units sold at $900 to $1,600 psf in benchmark price for District 5

UNITED Engineers has achieved an average price of $1,300 per square foot (psf) after discounts for The Rochester, a 99-year leasehold condo in the one-north precinct.

Designer home: The Rochester is designed by Paul Noritaka Tange of Tange Associates and developed by a wholly owned subsidiary of UE

The price - a new benchmark for District 5 - easily exceeds the $900 psf average achieved earlier this year for One North Residences just a stone's throw away.

Sales of The Rochester began on July 16 and all 366 units have been snapped up at prices ranging from $900 to $1,600 psf.

UE staff bought about 13 per cent of the units and foreigners, excluding permanent residents, about 10 per cent.

Foreigners - including Koreans, Japanese and Britons - bought seven of the nine penthouses. The average price per penthouse was about $6 million.

The units were sold through an expression-of-interest exercise.

'We are extremely pleased to have set a new benchmark of $1,300 psf in average price for private property in District 5,' said UE Group's managing director and chief executive, Jackson Yap.

The Rochester, designed by Paul Noritaka Tange of Tange Associates, is being developed by a wholly owned subsidiary of UE.

The last time the group sold a private residential development in Singapore was more than a decade ago - UE Square at River Valley Road.

In two or three months, UE hopes to launch a boutique condo at Balmoral Crescent, in a joint venture with Kajima Overseas Asia.

This freehold development, designed by award-winning SCDA Architects, will comprise about 40 large apartments.

The current target price is $2,500 psf on average but this will be finalised closer to the launch, a UE spokesman said.

The condo will be developed on the former Balmoral View site that Kajima and UE bought in August last year for $52 million or $733 psf of potential gross floor area including an estimated $7.9 million development charge.

The 51,080 sq ft freehold site is zoned for residential use with a 1.6 plot ratio and a 12-storey height limit.