SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) – A District 9 freehold development along Sophia Road, Casa Sophia, is up for collective sale at a reserve price of $36 million. The announcement of the en bloc sale comes on the heels of the new property cooling measures.
Image credit: ERA
Marketing agent ERA Realty Network said that the reserve price translates into a land rate of about $1,390 psf per plot ratio. All of the owners have agreed to the sale, and each owner stands to receive between $2.69 million and $3.4 million, according to marketing agent ERA Realty Network.
Located in an exclusive locale, the District 9 freehold, 12-unit development sits on 12,327.9 sq ft of land and consists of only three-bedroom units measuring 1,152 to 1,453 sq ft each. Under the Master Plan 2014, the site is zoned “residential” with a gross plot ratio of 2.1. It can be rebuilt into an estimated 34 units at 753 sq ft per unit.
Located in District 9, Casa Sophia is 350 metres away from Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. It is also near reputable educational institutions such as Saint Margaret’s Primary School, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, LASALLE College of the Arts, School of the Arts Singapore and Singapore Management University.
The tender for the District 9 freehold development will close on August 14.
The en bloc sale of the District 9 freehold property comes just a few days after the Government announced new property cooling measures for the private residential market.
The Government said the new property cooling measures were necessary to check the sharp increase in prices, which could run ahead of economic fundamentals and raise the risk of a destabilising correction later, especially with rising interest rates and the strong pipeline of housing supply.
Some observers have suggested that there is a chance that the en bloc sales market will be dampened by the cooling measures. As developers become wary of end-demand and are hurt by the 5 per cent non-remittable Additional Buyers’ Stamp Duty (ABSD) on land purchase, it is expected to have an impact on their offer prices.
Overall private property prices rose across most market segments in the past few quarters, with the largest price surge seen in the Core Central Region (5.5%) and Outside of Central Region (5.6%).
As developers’ existing stock continues to diminish and supply of completed homes remain low, many projects especially those in the CCR have raised prices of their unsold units, some by even double-digits this year. The private residential market continued to gain traction with individual re-sellers have also seized the opportunity of increasing their asking prices in light of the more positive market sentiment fueled by the recent collective sales frenzy.
The higher launch prices at some new projects have however slowed the buying momentum in the primary market and sales volume has dipped considerably quarter-on-quarter. While overall sales had slipped quarter-on-quarter, it rose marginally on a year-on-year basis.
How the collective sale of properties like the District 9 freehold development do, will determine if the Government’s new cooling measures will have a chilling effect in the property market.
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