Thursday, November 8, 2007

Katong Hostel To Lease Tiong Bahru Flats At Up To $4,500

Source : The Straits Times, Nov 7, 2007

A COMPANY that has just won an HDB tender in a pilot scheme plans to rent out 120 flats at Tiong Bahru for up to $4,500 a month to foreign students and possibly
expats.














General Manager of Katong Hostel, Joyce Sim stands in front of a Tiong Bahru vacated flat. Her company has won a HDB pilot tender to lease them out for up to $4,500 a month to foreign students and possibly expats. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LIM

The flats - said to be the first built in Singapore after independence - will get a $3 million face-lift and be ready for tenants by year-end.

Katong Hostels won the tender in a pilot scheme to lease out flats vacated under a redevelopment scheme.

The original tenants are getting new flats elsewhere. The firm, part of the privately-held Vita Group of hostels, provides international student housing.

It will be managing agent for the 60 three-room and 60 four-room walk-up flats.

The firm plans to rent out at least two blocks to students and possibly the rest as service apartments to expats.

Katong Hostel won the tender with the highest bid of $230,280 a month, 22 per cent above the next bid of $188,000 a month.

That price is the sum the firm will pay HDB to lease the flats for three years with an option for three more years. It will rent them to tenants.

Katong Hostel aims to rent these unusual flats, in Blocks 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 in Tiong Bahru Road, at a relatively high price of between $3,500 and $4,500 a month.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.

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