Pine Grove will hold its third collective sale for $1.95 billion
On the 23rd of July the more than the 80% homeowners of the 660-unit, privateised HUDC (Housing and Urban Development Corporation) estate Pine Grove gave their go-ahead for a collective auction. It is their fourth attempt and it is the third time that they have reached the 80% majority.
The tender for the collective sale is expected to go live in the next month, with an initial cost that is $1.95 billion. “If it is successful, it will be the largest collective sale transaction that has been completed since Farrer Court,” says Benjamin Poh, ERA senior division director as well as the designated marketer for the Pine Grove collective sale.
Formerly, Farrer Court which was which was a privatised HUDC estate comprising six18 apartments, was sold in group to a consortium led by CapitaLand to the tune of $1.3388 billion on June 7, 2007. The record price for the collective sale of the site has not been broken for 16 years.
Farrer Court has been renovated into the 1,715-unit D’Leedon designed by Late Zaha Hadid. The 99-year leasehold District 10 condominium was officially launched in the year 2010 and was finished in 2014.
Because of the scale of the project The units in d’Leedon are being traded on a regular basis, with transactions happening almost every month. Based on caveats filed in July the development has seen four units change ownership. They vary from a 635 square foot one-bedder, which was purchased at $1.35 million ($2,126 per square foot) to an area of 2,443 square feet, four-bed unit that sold for $4.55 million ($1,862 per sq ft).
Pine Grove is larger than the old Farrer Court by the number of units at the rate of 660 (compared with Farrer Court’s 618 units) and also in terms of land size at 893,219 sq feet (versus Farrer Court’s 838,488 sq feet).
located in District 21 Pine Grove is near schools like Henry Park Primary School Singapore Polytechnic and Yale-NUS College. It is also close to the amenities of Holland Village and one-north.
It is believed that the Pine Grove site can be developed into a new, 24-storey residential development with 2500 units, with an average of 915 square feet for the new units, according to Poh. The lease is 99 years old that dates back to 1984. This means it has a lease remaining for 60 years.
A few apartments located at Pine Grove have changed hands between May and July. The prices are priced between $1.455 million ($1,099 per square foot) for one-bedroom units that are 1,324 square feet up to a price of $2 million ($1,140 per sq ft) for one-bedroom with 1,755 square feet.
In Pine Grove are some 99-year leasehold condos constructed in the mid-1990s. For instance one of them was the 170-unit Astor Green which was completed in 1995 and the 254 unit Cavendish Park in 1996.
There were two sales on the market at Astor Green on July. A 980 sq feet two-bedroom unit which was sold to the value of $1.54 million ($1,572 per sq ft) and three-bedroom 1,378 sq ft unit which was purchased at $1.88 million ($1,365 per sq ft).
The property at Cavendish Park, the last two caveats that were lodged occurred in May of this year including selling a 1,270 square feet, three-bedroom property which sold for $1.8 million ($1,417 per square foot) as well as an 1,227 sq ft, three-bedroom unit which was sold at $1.8 million ($1,467 per sq ft).
Setting a new benchmark in the District 21 neighborhood is the brand new 520-unit private condominium Pinetree Hill by a joint partnership between UOL Group and Singapore Land Group (SingLand). The project was officially launched on July 14th. approximately 146 units of the 99-year leasehold condo were sold at an average of $2,383 per sq ft.
Pinetree Hill is developed on an official property sale (GLS) site at Pine Grove Parcel A, which UOL and SingLand took over in an 80/20 joint venture that had an offer for $671.5 million ($1,318 psf/plot proportion) in June of this year.
The next door neighbor next to Pinetree Hill is Pine Grove Parcel B that is scheduled to opening in August as part of the GLS program. The site will yield 565 brand new housing units.
The ERA’s Poh remains optimistic about the potential for redevelopment of the privatised HUDC estates, as they are often located on large sites. There are seven of these HUDC estates, including Pine Grove. The remaining estates include Braddell View, Ivory Heights, Lagoon View, Laguna Park, Lakeview Estate and Neptune Court.
The remaining units have been sold in a block and then redeveloped. One example is the 2203-unit Treasure located at Tampines by the Sim Lian Group, which has already been granted it’s temporary Occupation Permit (TOP). It is a renovation of the old 560-unit Tampines Court, a privatised HUDC estate that Sim Lian bought in a single transaction at $970 million the month of August.
Treasure at Tampines began to be officially launched in March of 2019, with the initial installment of units that were sold at an average of $1,280 per square foot. The entire 2,203 units within the project were purchased over the course of three years and the project being sold in February 2022.
The month of July saw five apartments of Treasure at Tampines were sold on the marketplace for resales. Prices varied from $770,000 ($1,664 per square foot) for four63 square feet of one-bedder unit to $1.7 million ($1,645 per square foot) for 1 033 square feet three-bedroom apartment in accordance with caveats that were lodged.
Formerly, 488 units Normanton Park, another private HUDC property, was purchased in a single transaction through Chinese developer Kingsford Huray Development for $830.1 million in October of 2017.
Kingsford kept its Normanton Park name and launched its new development, which will include 1,862 residential units as well as eight commercial units from strata in January 2021.
Over 550 units in Normanton Park were sold on the weekend of the opening weekend (Jan 15-16 2021) for an average of $1,759 per sq ft. The entire project was sold 18 months later, in the month of July 2022. The project has been awarded the Building and Construction Authority’s High Quality Mark for each unit, and TOP.
A recent sub-sale, which took place in the month of May witnessed a square feet two-bedroom apartment located at Normanton Park change hands for $1.55 million ($2,000 per square foot).
Since Covid the homebuyers have favored larger-scale and “mega developments” (those that exceed 1,000 units) because of the amenities and appealing maintenance costs in comparison to smaller developments, ERA’s Poh observes.
“We believe this is a good moment for a collective sale of Pine Grove,” Poh adds.