Analysts attributed the lacklustre interest to the high price of the land and uncertainties over the CBD office and hotel sectors.
The tender for the white site at Marina View closed on Tuesday (21 September), with Boulevard View emerging as the sole bidder for the 99-year leasehold site.
In a release, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said: “This is not an announcement of tender award. A decision on the award of the tender will be made after the bid has been evaluated. This will be publicised at a later date.”
Analysts noted that Boulevard View’s bid of $1.508 billion or $1,379 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr) is the same bid price that triggered the site to be released from the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme’s Reserve List.
The 7,817.6 site is intended for mixed-use development with hotel, residential, commercial and/or serviced apartments. It can yield 905 private residential units, 540 hotel rooms and 2,000 sq m in gross floor area (GFA) of commercial space.
Huttons Asia CEO Mark Yip said it is the first tender to draw only one bidder since the Circuit Breaker.
“The last time a GLS tender saw one bidder was for a site at Silat Avenue in 2018,” he added.
Tricia Song, Head of Research for Southeast Asia at CBRE, said the sole bid for the site is in stark contrast to the competitive bidding seen in the five suburban or city fringe residential sites.
These include Tampines Street 62, Lentor Central, Ang Mo Kio Ave 1, Tengah Garden EC and Northumberland sites, which attracted seven to 15 bids each with bid prices exceeding expectations.
Song attributed the lacklustre interest for the site to “the large quantum of over $1.5 billion land cost, near-term uncertainties over the CBD office and hotel sectors, and competition from projects that are unsold and potential new supply from redevelopments in the area”.
With land tenders within the Outside Central Region (OCR) reaching $1,204 psf ppr and International Plaza going en bloc for $2,170 psf ppr, Yip noted that Boulevard View’s $1,379 psf ppr bid appears to be on the low side, which may be viewed as opportunistic by the Government.
And since there is no other bidder for the site, this gives the Government another reason not to award the site, he said.
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Victor Kang, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this story, email: victorkang@propertyguru.com.sg
