12,000 new rooms to be added to current 37,000
THE old Safra clubhouse site in Bukit Merah may get a new lease of life - as a hotel.
It is currently up for developers to indicate interest under the Government's land sale programme, and could wind up being a 540-room hotel.
The site is one of 12 slated for hotel developments - some of which are in the unlikeliest of places.
MAKING ROOM: This old Safra site in Bukit Merah may host a 540-room hotel, under the Government's land sale programme. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIMFor instance, one site, in Jellicoe Road, sits next to the Jalan Besar CC and will offer views of the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority Building in the Lavender area.
Just a few metres away will be another that will sit next to HDB blocks.
The release of the 12 sites - to be completed by the first half of the year, should developers actually take them up to develop rooms - should help ease a hotel room crunch that some players say is threatening to derail ambitious plans to attract record numbers of tourists.
The sites are located in areas as diverse as Bukit Merah - 'minutes' drive from Orchard Road', according to the online prospectus - and in Outram Road, at the edge of Chinatown, a sure-fire tourism hot spot.
The release of the plots follows similar exercises in the last two years, and points to steady growth in the tourism industry.
Some 10.3 million visitors - a record high - visited Singapore last year.
They fuelled increases in the average room rates, which also broke records month after month.
The average room rate last year hit $202 - a growth of 23 per cent over 2006, and total room revenue reached $1.8 billion. Hotel occupancy also hit 87 per cent.
Even more tourists are expected here this year - 10.8 million in all - driven by events such as the Formula 1 Grand Prix in September.
This is likely to make the room crunch worse and push rates up - hotel rates here are already the sixth-highest among Asian cities - squeezing out low-end tour groups and budget travellers, which industry players say may comprise up to 30 per cent of visitors here.
Tour agents are already scrambling to put their guests up, and are having to resort to hotels in Geylang and the East Coast because rooms downtown just aren't available.
And because of rising rates, some agents are being forced to send budget tour groups to Johor Baru or Batam instead.
The release of the 12 sites though, is aimed at averting a real squeeze down the road: in 2010, to be precise.
That is when many predict push will come to shove.
Said Mr Donald Han, managing director of property consultants Cushman & Wakefield: 'It is estimated that in 2010, 14 million foreigners will visit Singapore.
'Based on a conservative average length of stay of 3.4 days, Singapore will experience an acute shortage of rooms.'
He added: 'In short, existing hotel stocks need to be doubled in the next three years to meet rampant demand.'
Singapore has said it wants to get 17 million visitors by 2015.
The 12 sites should contribute about 5,000 rooms to the mix within the next few years.
Another big contribution will come from the Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World at Sentosa integrated resorts, which will add another 4,400 rooms to the inventory.
All told, including other upcoming hotels, 12,000 rooms are expected to be added to the 37,000 now available.
It may not be quite enough, but Mr Robert Khoo, CEO of the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore, will take it.
'If you tell me that the rooms would be here tomorrow, I'd be happier. Hopefully, they'll help bring down the room rates as well.
'Some of my agents have told me about how they have lost tours because they can't secure rooms.'
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