Located in district 15, along Arthur Road - LIV@MB was formerly The Katong Park Towers site in one of the best locations in eastern Singapore well-known for its idyllic and upmarket lifestyle. Katong Park Towers, a 99-year leasehold condominium was sold enbloc to a unit of Bukit Sembawang Estates who bought the estate for $345 million following a competitive tender which attracted a total of 10 bids and all were above the reserve price.
Katong Park Towers, which comprises 111 standard apartments, five penthouses and two commercial units, sits on a land area of 140,758 sq ft. It is located about 200 metres from the future Katong Park MRT Station, which is slated for completion in 2023. At the sale price of $345 million, the land rate for Katong Park Towers translates to $1,280 per sq ft per plot up to the development baseline, taking into account an estimated $60 million for the lease upgrading premium.
Piccadilly Grand achieved average prices of about $2,150 psf, which has set a new benchmark for District 8 with more than 90% of the buyers consisting of Singaporeans while the remaining 10% of buyers are Permanent Residents and foreigners from China, India, Malaysia, the USA, Hong Kong, and Indonesia.
United Venture Development (2021) was awarded the tender for a private housing site in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 in June last year (2021) for $381.4 million, or $12,031 per sq m of gross floor area or around $1,118 psf ppr. The JV partners say they will develop a 24- or 25-storey project of more than 370 units on this plum land parcel site, capitalising on the unblocked views towards Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park and Lower Pierce Reservoir Park.
There are only a handful of remaining upcoming mass market condo projects in the pipeline this year - Lentor Modern, Tanah Merah Kechil condo and Jalan Anak Bukit condo.
Real estate professional Kiwi Lim from Huttons Asia believe these upcoming mass market condo launches can easily achieve more than 70% sales on preview day as long as developers maintain an affordable price range of between $2,200 psf to $2,400 psf due to a severe shortage in supply of new condo units in the current market. With at least 70% of existing new condo projects already seeing more than 80% of their total units sold, developers are once again hungry for land. Faced with limited choices of government land parcels up for sale, developers will have to consider paying more to enbloc older residential developments which will then drive up the price further.