Sinarmas Land and MCL Land submit highest bid of $1,223 psf ppr for Pine Grove Parcel B

Pine Grove (Parcel B) is set to see its GLS tender close on November 7, with three bids. The highest bid was submitted by a joint venture between Sinarmas Land and MCL Land, at $692.388 million – the equivalent of $1,223 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr). This bid was 23.8% higher than the second-highest bid of $988 psf ppr.

Concurrently, the development of Senja Residences EC will provide a combination of lifestyle, entertainment and comfort to its tenants. Furthermore, they can enjoy forthcoming neighbourhood malls such as Rail Mall, Hillion Mall, The Lagoon, and JCube. Senja Residences EC is also close to a number of reputable academic institutions such as National University of Singapore and Ngee Ann Polytechnic. With recreational parks such as Bukit Batok Nature Park and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve nearby, the residents of Senja Residences EC can look forward to a plethora of leisure activities.

This rare Senja Residences EC is located near the Jurong Region Line MRT station at Senja Close. The connectivity of western Singapore will be improved with the addition of the seventh MRT line, the JRL. As a result, this new development has an advantage for buyers living in the West of Singapore. The development of Senja Residences EC boasts a combination of lifestyle, entertainment and comfort. Tenants will have future shopping malls like Rail Mall, Hillion Mall, The Lagoon and JCube. Moreover, they will also be located near to esteemed educational institutions such as National University of Singapore and Ngee Ann Polytechnic. With green spaces like Bukit Batok Nature Park and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve a short distance away, Senja Residences EC offers enjoyable leisure activities.

The tender for government land sale (GLS) site at Pine Grove (Parcel B) closed on November 7, with three bids. If the joint venture between Sinarmas Land and MCL Land win the site, this will mark Sinarmas Land’s first residential development in Singapore. Advertisement

Sinarmas Land is a Singapore-listed real estate developer and a subsidiary of Indonesia’s largest conglomerate, Sinar Mas Group, controlled by the Widjaya family. MCL Land, on the other hand, is a member of the Jardine Matheson Group and has been involved in developing residential projects in both Singapore and Malaysia. Incidentally, the joint venture between MCL Land and Chinese developer CSC Land submitted the highest of six bids for the Clementi Avenue 1 site at the close of the tender on Nov 7.

At the closing of the Parcel B tender, the bid price of $692.388 million translates to $1,223 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr). However, the highest bid was 7.2% lower than the $1,318 psf ppr submitted for the neighbouring Parcel A by UOL Group and Singapore Land (SingLand) Group.

Parcel A had drawn five bids at the close of its tender last year, compared to just three for Parcel B. Wong Siew Ying, PropNex head of research and content, notes that this is “not unexpected, given that there is competing supply right next door at Pine Grove (Parcel A), which is being developed as 520-unit Pinetree Hill”.

In mid-July, UOL-SingLand launched Pinetree Hill. To date, 152 units (29.23%) sold at an average price of $2,388 psf. Justin Quek, deputy CEO of OrangeTee & Tie, reasons that “there may be a sufficient time gap between the launch of Pinetree Hill and the future project at Parcel B to ensure enough demand to absorb the additional supply of new homes in the area”.

The 269,552 sq ft, 99-year leasehold site at Parcel B has a maximum gross floor area of 566,003 sq ft. PropNex’s Wong estimates the future average selling price of the new condo at Parcel B to be around $2,300 to $2,400 psf.

Uncompleted and unsold residential units in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) totalled 4,470 units in 3Q2023, the lowest point since 4Q2021. SRI head of research and data analytics at SRI, Mohan Sandrasegeran, notes that this may have motivated some developers to secure residential sites in the RCR segment in order to replenish their land banks.

The multiple bids received for Parcel B suggests that developers may still prefer GLS sites to potential collective sales, such as the neighbouring Pine Grove privatised HUDC estate, which was launched for collective sale in September with a guide price of $1.95 billion.

OrangeTee’s Quek adds that the highest bid of $1,223 psf ppr is also the lowest of the three sites that closed for tender today, which were at Toa Payoh Lorong 1, with a top bid of $1,360 psf ppr; Clementi Avenue 1, with a top bid of $1,250 psf ppr; and Pine Grove (Parcel B).

Overall, the lukewarm response for the Pine Grove (Parcel B) tender could be due to developers not wanting to disrupt the pricing of Pinetree Hill, or to defend its pricing. With the current low levels of unsold inventory in the RCR, opportunities exist for developers to secure residential sites in order to replenish their land banks and capitalize on the lack of supply.