UOL and CapitaLand Bid S$1.4 Billion for New Upper Changi Site at a Record S$1,537 psf ppr for Bedok

The joint venture bid from UOL, Singapore Land and CapitaLand Development blew past expectations and was a “wide” 13.8 per cent higher than the next-highest bid from City Developments and Hong Realty, noted Tricia Song, CBRE research head for South-east Asia and Singapore.

It was also 15.6 per cent above the S$1,330 psf ppr price that Allgreen Properties paid for a nearby Bedok Rise site tendered in November 2025. The consortium’s top bid for the New Upper Changi plot marks a benchmark price for a pure residential parcel in the suburbs, added Huttons Asia chief executive Mark Yip.

The last pure residential government land sales site to fetch more than S$1 billion was a Dunman Road plot sold in June 2022, where the 1,008-unit Grand Dunman now stands.

Tuesday’s second-highest bid from CDL and Hong Realty was S$1.252 billion or S$1,350 psf ppr. That was followed by GuocoLand, Hong Leong Holdings and Mitsui Fudosan at S$1.242 billion or S$1,340 psf ppr. Coming fourth was Sim Lian with a S$1.215 billion offer or S$1,310 psf ppr.

In a joint statement issued after the tender outcome was released, UOL and CapitaLand Development highlighted the site’s “exceptional” location within a mature residential neighbourhood, with reputable schools and East Coast Park nearby.

“Residential developments in the East are highly sought after and this project will appeal to a broad base of buyers, including HDB upgraders and residents from the surrounding landed housing estates,” they said. The developers added that the project would comprise two to four-bedroom formats, “keeping total price quantum realistic”.

The 30,769 square metre New Upper Changi parcel is bounded by New Upper Changi Road and Bedok South Road, and sits on a plot that includes the former Temasek Primary School and Temasek Secondary School. The parcel has a maximum gross floor area of 86,154 sq m and is one of the largest residential government land sales sites launched in the suburbs in recent years.

Knight Frank’s Leonard Tay reckoned that the conviction behind the developers’ top bid could have been reinforced by the depth of the surrounding residential catchment. Some 274,360 residents live in Bedok, making it the second-largest planning area in Singapore, behind the nearby Tampines with a resident population of 290,000.

Based on a land rate of S$1,537 psf ppr, Tay said the project’s future selling price would likely be “meaningfully” higher than current eastern-region launch benchmarks, starting from S$3,000 psf and averaging at S$3,100 to S$3,200 psf.

In comparison, Nicholas Mak, Mogul.sg chief research officer, noted that the median prices of units at nearby Bedok Residences was S$1,824 psf in the year thus far, almost 20 per cent behind Tuesday’s top bid. CBRE data showed that median prices for comparable projects ranged from S$1,230 at East Meadows to S$2,863 psf at Vela Bay, in the year to date.

The mixed-use Sceneca Residence, located just one stop away from the New Upper Changi Road site, sold 60 per cent of its units at an average price of S$2,072 psf during its launch weekend in January 2023. Its sub-sales recorded a median price of S$2,312 psf in the year so far, Song noted.

Nearly 2,300 Housing and Development Board flats in the area also reached their minimum occupation period from 2022 to 2026. With the median resale price of five-room and four-room HDB flats under 15 years old in 2025 standing at S$1.03 million and S$860,000 respectively, ERA chief executive Marcus Chu previously said this could create a pool of public housing upgraders with substantial capital in Bedok.

Market watchers noted that three other government land sales sites have been sold in the Bedok planning area since 2025. These include a Bayshore Road site, now housing the 515-unit Vela Bay, that closed with eight bids in March 2025 and a top offer of S$1,388 psf ppr from Sing-Haiyi. More recently, in July, a Bayshore Drive mixed-use site was sold to a Frasers Property joint venture at S$1,323 psf ppr, while Kuok Group’s Allgreen bagged the Bedok Rise site at S$1,330 psf ppr in November 2025.

Altogether, these four sites will inject 3,185 new private homes between 2025 and 2028, which analysts said may take some time for the market to absorb.

At S$1.4 billion for the land, the New Upper Changi Road project will require significant financial outlay. The successful bidder will also have to bear the cost of demolishing existing buildings on the site, and engaging an asbestos surveyor to conduct checks and sampling.

UOL and CapitaLand Development have collaborated on several projects previously. Most recently, they bagged a Hougang site for S$1.5 billion or S$1,179 psf ppr in December 2025, after acquiring Thomson View Condo for S$810 million at a collective sale. Their latest tie-up represents a timely replenishment of the consortium’s residential pipeline, ahead of the launch of the 1,268-unit Thomson Reserve in mid-October.