Thursday, December 11, 2008

Govt suspends industrial sites on Confirmed List

For H1 next year, Reserve List will have 8 sites with a total of 15 hectares

THE Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) yesterday said that it would be suspending the Confirmed List for its industrial government land sales (GLS) programme for the first half of 2009.

To continue to meet potential demand for industrial land, sites will be made available on the Reserve List under the industrial GLS programme, MTI said.

For the first half of 2009, there is a total of eight sites under the Reserve List with a total site area of about 15 hectares.

Under the reserve list system, a site is only offered for public tender if the government receives an application from a developer who commits to bid for the site at a price which is deemed acceptable.

MTI’s announcement follows an October one by the Ministry of National Development (MND), which also said that it will suspend the sale of commercial, residential and hotel sites from the Confirmed List for the first half of next year.

In the light of this, MTI’s announcement yesterday was ‘not unexpected’, said Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank.

‘Looking at some of the recent government land sales, the bids that have been received have been quite low,’ said Mr Mak. ‘So there might have been feedback that the Reserve List system would be better.’

Under the second half of 2008 industrial GLS programme, MTI placed a site on Tampines Industrial Avenue 4 on the Confirmed List. But in view of the current uncertainties, MTI will now transfer the site to the Reserve List, it said.

MTI also said that in October 2008, two Reserve List sites at Kallang Pudding Road and Ubi Avenue 4 were sold.

To continue to meet potential demand for industrial land, MTI would introduce two new sites - at Kaki Bukit Road 2 and at Woodlands Industrial Park E5/Woodlands Avenue 4 - to the Reserve List.

In addition to three sites mentioned above, another five sites are being carried over from the second half of 2008 Reserve List - making up a total of eight sites in all.

Source : Business Times - 11 Dec 2008

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