MV Land's $68.9m Bid The Highest For Sin Ming Site

Source : The Business Times, October 25, 2007

Unit price of industrial parcel works out to about $50 psf ppr

THE public tender for an industrial site at Sin Ming Lane has closed with the top bid of $68.9 million put in by MV Land Pte Ltd.

Based on land area of about 5.13 ha and a plot ratio of 2.5, the unit price of the parcel works out to about $50 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).

The parcel was the first of the two industrial sites tendered under the confirmed list for the second-half 2007 Government Industrial Land Sales programme. The other site on the confirmed list is at Jalan Tepong.

The tender for the Sin Ming Lane site closed yesterday with five bids received by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The second highest bid of $65.4 million - about 5 per cent lower than MV Land's bid - came from Soon Lee Land Pte Ltd.

This should come as some relief for MV Land, which through associate company Eastpoint Development, recently outbid EL Development for an industrial site at Kaki Bukit Road 3 by 58 per cent to pay $72 psf ppr - the highest-ever unit land price for a 30-year leasehold industrial plot.

Eastpoint Development is controlled by Lim Kim Hong and Lim Huixing.

The top bid of $50 psf ppr for the Sing Ming Lane site is 'reasonable', said Savills Singapore's director of industrial business space Dominic Peters. 'The market for such properties has gone up about 15 per cent in the last six months.'

The site is zoned Business 1 and can be used for clean and light industrial use. Mr Peters expects that the developer will want to build a ramp-up facility. A possible use could be a service centre, he said.

The breakeven price for a project could be around $220 psf, which would mean it could be sold for $250-$280 psf, he reckons. 'Similar developments are already selling for between $260-$280 psf.'

A decision on the award of the tender will be made after the bids have been evaluated by URA.

MV Land and Eastpoint Development have been hot on the acquisition trail this year, bidding for - though not clinching - a commercial site next to HDB Hub in Toa Payoh, a residential site near Potong Pasir MRT Station and the maiden transitional office site next to Newton MRT Station.