Marina Gardens Crescent GLS plot bid too low, rejected: URA

The only bid submitted for a 99 year leasehold plot at Marina Gardens Crescent was rejected because it was too low. Therefore, the site wasn’t awarded.

Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), said Thursday, February 8, that the only bid submitted by GuocoLand Singapore, Intrepid Investments Singapore and TID Residential was deemed to be too low.

At a tender which closed on January 18, the white site in Marina South designated for residential and business development attracted only one bid, amounting to S$770.5m or S$984 psf per plot ratio.

Market watchers were not surprised by the URA’s announcement, which was made after a much longer than usual wait for a final tender result.

“It is worth noting that GLS sites located further away from the city such as Clementi or Toa Payoh have fetched higher rates of land last year”.

The Business Times reported three weeks prior to the end of the tender that the land price was below expectations and that market participants did not expect that the tender would be awarded. The price of the bid was almost 30 per cent less than what Kingsford Group paid in June last year for a plot adjacent to Marina Gardens Lane.

The bid from GuocoLand, Hong Leong and other related entities for the downtown site is lower than the highest bid in the west. A joint venture between Qingjian Realty and Forsea offered S$1,191 per square foot per person (ppr) for a Media Circle plot that was also tender on January 18. URA awarded the site to that bidder, which was worth nearly S$395.3 millions.

The cautious bid for the Marina Gardens Crescent site reflects a cautious approach to large sites that require substantial land and construction costs, especially in developing and undeveloped areas like the Marina South Precinct.”

A joint venture between GuocoLand and Guoco Group, along with Intrepid Investments, had bid earlier for the site which was awarded to Kingsford. The consortium came in second with a bid of S$985 per square foot per person, just above Marina Gardens Crescent.

Kingsford’s S$1.03billion plot is zoned residential, with commercial space at the first floor. The plot can produce 790 private houses, which is similar to the 775 units of private housing for the Marina Gardens Crescent site.

Marina South MRT Station is just next to the Marina Gardens Crescent plot. The plot can be developed up to a maximum Gross Floor Area (GFA) that is approximately 783,000 sq. ft. This is about 6% more than the maximum GFA of 738,000 sq. ft stipulated for Kingsford’s plot.

URA will launch the Marina Gardens Crescent plot to be sold by tender under the confirmed list for the H1 GLS Program in June 2023. The site is now on the reserve list for H1 2024 to allow interested bidders to submit an application to sell the site at a price acceptable to the government.

The sites on the list of confirmed sites are sold according to plan, regardless if there is demand. The sites on the reserve list can only be launched after a successful application from a developer who has committed to offering a bid price acceptable to the government.

The Marina Gardens Crescent may not be activated so soon, as there will be more new homes available in the future.

Skywaters Residences, and Newport Residences are two developments that have yet to be put on the market. Developers may be less confident about residential sites in the city due to an abundance of supply.

It will be interesting to watch if the site is put out for tender again. This will especially be the case if three or more bids are received. The bids will be closely monitored to see if they are around S$984 per square foot per person.

Developers have expressed concern that the doubled Additional Buyer Stamp Duty (ABSD), which is charged to foreign buyers, will reduce the potential sales of their homes

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