Consortium makes top bid for Holland Drive site
SINGAPORE: The first state land tender for a prime 99-year leasehold site in Holland Drive since 2018 attracted three bids on May 14, with a top bid of S$805.4mil cast by a consortium led by UOL Group and CapitaLand Development.

If awarded the tender, the consortium plans to develop two 40-storey condominium towers on the District 10 site, which can yield 680 units and is next to the One Holland Village mixed-use development, a spokesman said.

The consortium, Holly Development, comprises CapitaLand Development (35%), UOL (35%), Singapore Land (20%) and Kheng Leong (10%).

Its bid works out to a land rate of S$1,285 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr).

GuocoLand and two entities of Hong Leong Group Singapore – Intrepid Investments and Hong Realty – came in second with a bid of S$765.3mil, or S$1,221 psf ppr.

Japura Development, an entity linked to Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing’s CK Asset Holdings, came in third with its S$632mil bid.

“With the top bid being just 5.2% above the second bid, this shows that despite the challenging environment, there are parties with resources still contesting for sites with good attributes,” said Knight Frank Singapore’s head of research Leonard Tay.

The Holland Drive site has a maximum gross floor area of more than 626,000 sq ft. With its attractive location and proximity to Holland Village MRT station and commercial amenities in Holland Village, it should command a potential price quantum of up to S$1bil, analysts had said after the tender for the site was launched in February.

Instead, the bids came in below expectations.

Tay noted that the number of bids for state land tenders has also shrunk from more than seven in 2021 to fewer than five in 2023 and 2024.

Tricia Song, CBRE head of research for Singapore and South-East Asia, said: “The measured number of bids reflects continued risk aversion for prime sites and bigger sites that require larger capital outlay, in the light of economic headwinds, interest rate uncertainty and cooling measures.”

She added that developer sales had slumped to a 15-year low of 6,421 units in 2023, and remained tepid in the first quarter of 2024 despite more new launches, amid layoffs and interest rate uncertainty.

The S$805.4mil top bid is 31.9% below the winning bid at the last state land tender for a neighbouring Holland Road site, which was S$1.21bil, translating to a land rate of S$1,888 psf ppr, back in May 2018. — The Straits Times/ANN
Property,HollandDriveTender,PrimeSiteBids,UOLCapitaLandConsortium,District10Condo,CoolingMarketImpact
The first state land tender for a prime 99-year leasehold site in Holland Drive since 2018 attracted three bids on May 14, with a top bid of S$805.4mil cast by a consortium led by UOL Group and CapitaLand Development.