Ho Bee sells 36 units of its Trilight condo

Source : Business Times – 12 Oct 2009

HO Bee Investment has sold 36 of the 60 units it previewed last Friday at its Trilight condo at Newton Road. The 30-storey freehold development is priced at an average of $1,650 psf.

The apartments released cost around $2-4 million per unit and Ho Bee did not offer interest absorption scheme, which was scrapped under the Sept 14 measures announced by the government to cool the private residential property market.

Ho Bee executive director Ong Chong Hua described the outcome as ‘reasonable’.

‘We really could not ask for more, (with our preview) coming after the cooling measures,’ he added.

‘We’ve sold 36 units, but there are many others who are interested and checking on their financials,’ Mr Ong said.

‘This is not a normal shoebox apartment development,’ he quipped, referring to the fact that Trilight does not have anything smaller than two-bedroom units, and even these are generously sized at between 1,109 sq ft and 1,227 sq ft.

The flipside of this strategy of having decent-sized units is that the lumpsum price per apartment is sizeable. The cheapest two-bedder at Trilight costs $1.82 million. It is on the development’s fifth floor (the lowest level in the 30-storey condo).

Reflecting the fact that affordability remains an issue with buyers, the majority of Trilight’s buyers picked up two-bedroom apartments. Twenty-six of the 32 two-bedders Ho Bee offered were taken up, along with eight of the 21 three-bedders and two of the seven four-bedroom apartments on offer.

While two-bedders cost between $1.82 million and $2.2 million, the three-bedroom units are priced at $3.5-3.65 million and four-bedders at around $4 million each.

Trilight’s buyers were predominantly Singaporeans. Only three of the 36 units sold were bought by Singapore permanent residents.

There was even a US tourist couple visiting Singapore that picked up a unit.

As for the Singaporean buyers, Mr Ong said: ‘They have private addresses, are generally over 40 years old, and discerning; they know what they want. They like the location – its proximity to Newton Hawker Centre and the MRT station.’

Trilight, a 205-unit development, comprises two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments and three penthouses.

The 60 units Ho Bee previewed last week did not include penthouses. Each unit in the development has a private lift.

The project is being marketed by CB Richard Ellis and DTZ.

Ho Bee is developing Trilight on the former Elmira Heights site, at the highest point in the Newton area.