THE Government has released a second temporary office site for sale, this time at the Tampines Regional Centre.
This followed the strong response to a similar plot along Scotts Road last month, which drew a better-than-expected 11 bids.
The two sites are the first plots of office land to be offered in Singapore on 15-year leases as part of the Government's efforts to ease an office crunch that has sent rents and prices soaring.
The Tampines plot 'will continue to help meet the demand for office space in the short to medium term', the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said in a statement yesterday.
Located at the corner of Tampines Concourse and Tampines Avenue 5, the 1.15ha site can be built up to a maximum gross floor area of about 124,000 sq ft.
A low-rise development of about three storeys can be built on the plot 'quickly in about a year', the URA said.
While they expect a good level of interest in the Tampines parcel, property consultants said competition for it is likely to be less keen than that for the Scotts Road plot.
The 1.04ha site, next to the Newton MRT station, drew a top bid of $37 million, or $219 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr).
Mr Donald Han, managing director of property firm Cushman & Wakefield, said the Scotts Road site was hot due to its prime location.
In contrast, the Tampines plot is in the suburbs. It will also be competing with nearby sites at the Changi Business Park, which are sold on short-term, 30-year leases.
Mr Han expects five or six bids for the site, which are likely to be lower than the price fetched for the Scotts Road plot. Offers could range from $140 to $160 psf ppr, or about $17.3 million to $20 million, he said.
'On top of everything, the market now expects that more transitional sites will be released,' Mr Han added.
Mr Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank, predicted, on the other hand, that while the Tampines site would fetch fewer bids than the Scotts Road plot, the bid levels would be the same.
'Suburban offices with good locations and well-developed infrastructures are in strong demand,' he said.
His estimate for the site: $24.8 million to $32.2 million, or $200 to $260 psf ppr.
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