Mayfair Gardens up for collective sale

Source : Business Times – 22 Dec 2009

Bids expected to start at $210m for the Bukit Timah site

THE collective sale market is gradually warming up, with a residential site in Bukit Timah up for bidding.

CKS Property Consultants has launched Mayfair Gardens, in Rifle Range Road, for tender. The asking price starts from $210 million, with the winner expected to fork out a further $40 million as a development charge and to top up the site’s lease to 99 years.

This means a developer will have to pay at least $857 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr).

The 124-unit Mayfair Gardens has a remaining lease of about 72 years. The land area is 208,475 sq ft, with a gross plot ratio of 1.4. A new development could yield a maximum gross floor area of around 292,000 sq ft – equal to about 200 apartments of 1,500 sq ft.

CKS expects Mayfair Gardens to generate ‘keen interest’, especially as there are ‘no other such sizeable private sites available in the vicinity’.

The site is next to other private residential projects and near Bukit Timah Plaza and Beauty World Plaza.

It is also not far from Raffles Girls’ Primary School and Nanyang Girls’ High School and will be within walking distance of the upcoming Blackmore MRT station.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic real estate lecturer Nicholas Mak reckons there is a ‘fair chance’ the site will sell because of its location.

But he believes only major developers can afford it because the land alone will cost at least $250 million. He estimates the launch price would have to be above $1,300 psf.

Caveats show units in Mayfair Gardens changed hands at $695-$740 psf or $1.1-$1.33 million in August. At nearby Gardenvista, transaction prices ranged from $916-989 psf or $1.04-$1.12 million last month.

The tender for Mayfair Gardens closes on Jan 14, 2010, at 4pm. CKS had obtained consent from more than 80 per cent of the owners to proceed with the sale in March.

CKS was also behind the collective sale of Dragon Mansion early this month – the first such deal of the year. Roxy-Pacific picked up the site for $100.8 million or $863 psf ppr – less than the original asking price of $120 million or $1,020 psf ppr.

CKS investment manager Chia Mein Mein believes there will be demand for collective sale sites if prices are realistic.

Mr Mak expects to see more plots sold en bloc next year but says a lot depends on how the mid to high-end property segments perform.