Ex-Parkway boss in $48m Hilltops deal

Source : Business Times – 22 Aug 2009

A GROUP led by former Parkway Holdings boss Tony Tan is understood to have picked up 18 apartments in the sub-sale market at Hilltops condo at Cairnhill Circle for a total of $48.2 million or an average price of about $2,560 per square foot (psf).

BT could not ascertain the loss suffered by the seller, who is believed to be a Hong Kong investor that bought the units in late 2007.

But according to back-of-the-envelope calculations by some analysts, the loss is estimated at 30-35 per cent.

The freehold project reportedly achieved an average price of just over $3,900 psf for the first 28 units, according to a news report in late 2007.

Government statistics show the project’s developer, SC Global subsidiary Taraville, sold 24 units in October 2007 at a median price of $3,711 psf.

According to the latest Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) statistics at the end of last month, 31 units in the project had been sold by the developer.

This is the same number of units that SC Global had released in the 241-unit condo by the same date. The project, comprising two 20-storey towers and a 14-storey block, is expected to be completed next year.

Savills is understood to have brokered the latest sub-sale deal involving the 18 units, which comprise mostly two and three-bedders.

The apartments were bought by companies whose shareholders include Mr Tan and Hasetrale Holdings, which is controlled by Mr Tan, his uncle Tan Chin Nam and a string of other Malaysians.

Hasetrale is also a shareholder in Napier Properties, developer of the 8 Napier condo on the former Eng Lok Mansion site.

Despite the loss suffered by the Hong Kong party in the sub-sale of 18 Hilltops apartments, market watchers described the $2,560 psf average price as attractive for the seller.

Keppel Land is understood to have sold a handful of units at The Promont nearby at prices ranging from just below $1,900 psf to $2,060 psf recently. The Promont is a 17-storey apartment development with just 15 apartments.

Earlier this month, BT reported that a property fund had bought the remaining 21 units at Sui Generis condo in Balmoral Crescent for $65 million or about $1,260 psf on average from the freehold project’s developers.

However, the price is understood to have been agreed much earlier in the year, when sentiment was still weak.

The latest URA statistics on developers’ home sales show an improvement in sales of high-end projects in July.

City Developments sold 79 units at Volari in Balmoral Road at a median price of $2,059 psf.

Four units each were sold at Nassim Park Residences ($3,273 psf median price) and The Orchard Residences ($2,815 psf median price).

Ho Bee found buyers for nine units at The Orange Grove at a median price of $2,334 psf.