URA nod for 4,107 units at Tampines Court, Normanton Park

Frasers Property also gets provisional permission to build 500 apartments & serviced residences on Jiak Kim site

Wed, Aug 01, 2018


THE Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) granted provisional permission for several residential projects in the second quarter of the year.

These include two large projects with well over 1,000 units each on sites sold through collective sales.

Sim Lian won URA's provisional nod in June to develop a 2,225-unit condo on the Tampines Court site.

In the same month, Kingsford Huray Development was granted approval for a 1,882-unit project on the Normanton Park site - comprising 1,863 apartments and 19 strata terrace houses. Normanton Park is near Science Park and Kent Ridge Park.

JLL senior consultant Karamjit Singh expects developers which have clinched collective sale sites to try and quickly secure provisional permission for their proposed projects on the sites in order to insulate themselves from further hikes in development charge (DC) rates during the upcoming revision on Sept 1.

"We're going to continue to see further increases in DC rates for non-landed residential use, with the biggest percentage increases likely to be in the prime districts where we have had several en bloc sales in the past six months, including that of Park House."

The freehold Orchard Boulevard site set a new record price for residential land in Singapore, of S$2,910 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).

Mr Singh said that for suburban locations, however, the percentage increases in DC rates are likely to be more subdued; in fact some areas may not even see any increase, following the steep hikes during the previous two rounds of revisions.

In Q2 this year, URA also granted provisional permission to some developers for their projects on sites clinched at state tenders. Notably, Frasers Property received approval to develop a residential and serviced apartments project totalling 500 units on the former Zouk site in Jiak Kim Street.

Market watchers note that Frasers Property's project combines developing apartments for sale with a long-term investment approach by also including a serviced residences component which the group is likely to retain for recurring income.

In May, URA granted provisional permission to City Developments Ltd (CDL) to develop the 718-unit Whistler Grand project on a site in West Coast Vale that the group clinched at a state tender earlier this year.

In Q2 this year, several residential projects received Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) - including Coco Palms condo in Pasir Ris Grove and Trilive along Tampines Road

Le Grove Serviced Residences along Orange Grove Road also received TOP following the completion of a S$30 million revamp. This included increasing the number of apartments to 173 from 97, as well as upgrading the building facade, interiors, swimming pool, tennis court, gym, lobby and lounge. The Le Grove Serviced Residences reopened in mid-July with healthy occupancy, a CDL spokeswoman said when contacted.