Huge sites take collective sales game to new level
Home owners are taking Singapore's latest collection sale craze to a new level, with mega developments - sitting on sites close to or over one million sq ft each - joining the bandwagon.
Owners of Mandarin Gardens, a 99-year condominium on a one million sq ft plot off East Coast Park, have given the green light to kick-start its collective sale process.
Mr Alan Cheong, Savills Singapore's research head, said the deal could go for "way past a billion", while ZACD Group executive director Nicholas Mak estimated that a redevelopment could yield almost 3,000 new housing units.
Late last year, the 1.124 million sq ft Braddell View estate voted to form its collective committee, after the 918-unit development was privatised.
In Upper Bukit Timah, 999-year leasehold Cashew Heights also formed its committee last year. It occupies a 953,000 sq ft parcel and is on its third collective sale attempt.
In the Holland area, Pine Grove is collecting signatures for the 80 per cent mandate. Its owners have a reserve price of $1.65 billion for the over-893,000 sq ft site. It is also the estate's third try.
Last year, over 30 collective sales sites were sold for close to $8.7 billion. Another six tenders have closed but sales have not been concluded.
Mandarin Gardens, built in 1986, has 1,006 units and is near other en bloc hopefuls such as Lagoon View and Laguna Park.
While these big projects are in attractive locations, they face the same hurdle to a successful collective sale - their size, which was a major factor in the failure of previous sale attempts.
Mandarin Gardens' sheer land size could make it a "tough sell", said Mr Mak.
"It is so big that even the big boys may want to go in as a joint venture to basically share the risk," he added.
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