Monday, December 10, 2007

STB Approves Sale Of Farrer Court

Source : The Business Times, December 10, 2007

The Strata Titles Board (STB) has given the go-ahead for the sale of Farrer Court to a CapitaLand-led consortium.

New look in 2009: CapitaLand wants to turn the site into a 36-storey condominium with about 1,500 apartments

At a price tag of $1.34 billion, it is the largest amount ever fetched for a collective sale. The approval was granted last Saturday.

The consortium - comprising CapitaLand, Hotel Properties and US-based Wachovia Development Corporation - said in June that they would pay a record-setting $1.34 billion for the 618-unit development.

This beat the reserve price of $1.2 billion but is still lower than the owners' asking price of $1.5 billion.

Farrer Court owners had upped their reserve price from $700 million to $840 million at the start of the year, and then increased it to $1.2 billion in March.

The unit land cost to the developers for the leasehold District 10 site works out to $762 to $783 psf of potential gross floor area.

BT understands that owners of two units objected to the sale, on grounds that the price was not high enough.

The privatised HUDC estate has 618 existing apartments of two sizes - 1,615 sq ft and 1,453 sq ft - and their owners will get $2.238 million and $2.122 million per unit, respectively. Based on the apartments' existing strata areas, the proceeds to owners work out to $1,386 psf and $1,460 psf, respectively.

Credo Real Estate brokered the sale, and law firm Rodyk & Davidson represented the majority owners.

CapitaLand wants to turn the site into a new 36-storey condominium with about 1,500 apartments, likely to be ready for launch in the first half of 2009.

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