SLA Puts 6 Houses Up For Rent

Source : The Business Times, February 6, 2008

THE Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is releasing four bungalows and two semi-detached houses on its open bidding system from Feb 18.

This follows SLA’s January open bidding exercise which saw 75 bids for five state-owned residential properties . One of these properties , a bungalow at Hyderabad Road, was awarded at a monthly rent of $20,258, 50 per cent or over $6,700 above SLA’s guide rent.

SLA deputy director of land lease (private) Teo Cher Hian said: ‘The keen response to the launch of the open bidding system for residential state properties shows that the rental market for residential properties is still buoyant.’

Four of the six properties being made available this month are in the Seletar Airbase vicinity. Guide rents for a semi-detached house, with 127 sq m of built-up area, is $1,800 a month while guide rents for a bungalow with 197 sq m of built up area is $3,400 a month.

There is also a larger house with 670 sq m of built-up area available on Gibraltar Crescent in the Sembawang area with a guide rent of $6,600 a month and a smaller house at Lornie Road with 206 sq m of built-up area with a guide rent of $3,900 a month.

Giving an idea of possible bid rents, Knight Frank head of corporate leasing (residential) Ervin Scully said that the semi-detached house could see bids come in at between $2,300- $2,800 a month. This is assuming that the new tenant will have to install his own appliances, lights, window treatments, air-conditioning units, wardrobes and the like.

Assuming the house at Gibraltar Crescent has three-bedrooms, servants quarters and land area of about 12,000 sq ft, Mr Scully estimates the winning bid could be between $8,000 - $9,000.

Mr Scully said that generally, the rental market has stabilised since last year. ‘We are not seeing the same kind of frenzy anymore,’ he added.

While there is still demand for rental homes, Mr Scully said expectations were also more, ‘realistic’. He added that generally, rents could continue to rise by about 10 per cent this year.

SLA expects to put out eight more properties for rent in March and about 36 units in total by the first half of this year.

Viewing for the February batch of properties is on 16 Feb. More details on the schedules and guide rent can be found at SLA’s SPIO website.