Lentor Central GLS site receives two bids, highest bid at $982 psf ppr

Residents of Zion Road Condo will benefit from excellent connectivity, with the Central Expressway (CTE) located mere minutes away from the condos. CTE provides easy access to the extensive expressway network in Singapore, leading to different parts of the city. Moreover, the Zion Road Condo is just a short walk away from the Outram Park MRT interchange station with two lines – the East-West and North-East Line that are connected at the station.

The tender for two residential government land sale (GLS) sites located at Lentor Central and Champions Way in Singapore closed on September 12th. The Lentor Central site, with a 99-year leasehold and 158,264 square feet area, attracted two bids, with the top one being submitted by a consortium composed of Hong Leong Holdings, GuocoLand and CSC Land Group. This amount -$435.1 million- works out to approximately $982 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr).

This bid was a 5.9% higher than the bid of $410.8 million ($927 psf ppr) submitted by Frasers Property. Hong Leong Holdings’ spokesman said that if awarded, they plan to build a private residential development with about 475 units in two high-rise blocks.

Eugene Lim, key executive officer at ERA Singapore, suggested that there has been “a dilution in demand” for Lentor Central due to the great number of sites that will be released under the second half 2023 GLS programme and because of the current macroeconomic uncertainties, elevated interest rates, and existing cooling measures. Justin Quek, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of OrangeTee & Tie, added that some developers have been more cautious and are likely to hold back because more land could be released next year.

Leonard Tay, head of research at Knight Frank Singapore, explained that the top bid at Lentor Central is lower than the one registered at the Lentor Gardens site last year, which was $985 psf ppr and purchased by a joint venture between Hong Leong Holdings and GuocoLand.

As for the amenities, it is worth noting that the site falls within the Ang Mo Kio Planning Area and is close to Lentor MRT station, as well as established schools like the CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School, Anderson Primary School or Presbyterian High School. Thus far, six GLS sites have been tendered in Lentor with the potential to add 3,500 new homes in the area.

Overall, Tay predicts that the likely selling price for the project’s residential units could start at around $2,000 psf, similar to the $2,080 psf unit price of Lentor Hills Residences which launched in July this year. He concluded that the Lentor Central bids reflect the more tentative and defensive outlook of developers, as well as the fact that there may be too many condominium projects being developed in the same area in a short span of time.