reporter2
29-05-12, 23:54
http://www.straitstimes.com/Money/Story/STIStory_804139.html
Some govt land sales sites still have tenants
Published on May 29, 2012
By Yunita Ong
SITES released for sale under the Government Land Sales programme are usually vacant but two plots near Potong Pasir MRT station that are on the market still have shophouses with tenants.
Mr Tan Kok Keong, OrangeTee's head of research and consultancy, said that having tenants on land that is released for sale is 'quite unusual', adding: 'Land is usually delivered to the buyer unencumbered, just like a football pitch.'
A Singapore Land Authority (SLA) spokesman said that 'most Government Land Sales sites on the reserve list are vacant land', but some still have tenants.
The spokesman added that having tenants 'optimises the use of the properties as the alternative will be to leave the properties vacant while awaiting development'.
There are more than a dozen shophouses on each of the sites.
The new owners will be responsible for any demolition, said the SLA.
Tenants at the 0.49ha plot at Pheng Geck Avenue were told in January that their leases would be terminated on May 31, after the decision to sell the site was confirmed on Dec 7.
The residential site is on the confirmed list, meaning that it will go on sale regardless of interest.
A 0.82ha plot in Tai Thong Crescent is on the reserve list. The area is slated for residential with commercial use on the first storey.
The tenants will have at least three months' notice to move out, from the point at which a developer has triggered the site for sale, that is when it has submitted an acceptable bid to the Government.
When The Straits Times visited the area last week, most of the units in Pheng Geck Avenue had been vacated except for a Geneva Face Body Spa outlet. The receptionist said that the business would be moving out by the end of the month.
Tenants ranging from provision store owners to coffee-shop stallholders were still operating at some of the three-storey shophouses in Tai Thong Crescent.
The owner of Ong Hock Chye Trading, which sells car accessories, said she was caught off guard as she learnt that the site had been released for sale only from The Straits Times.
She and a mutton soup stall owner, both of whom did not want to be named, said they saw the writing on the wall last August when a neighbouring site was sold.
They are looking for new places to set up shop. A cashier at a nearby provision shop said the firm, which has been in business for about 50 years, would not reopen elsewhere.
Last August, Tuan Sing Holdings came ahead of 14 other property developers with a $185 million bid for the neighbouring 0.87ha land parcel. It can accommodate an estimated 330 homes in blocks of up to a height of five storeys.
[email protected]
Some govt land sales sites still have tenants
Published on May 29, 2012
By Yunita Ong
SITES released for sale under the Government Land Sales programme are usually vacant but two plots near Potong Pasir MRT station that are on the market still have shophouses with tenants.
Mr Tan Kok Keong, OrangeTee's head of research and consultancy, said that having tenants on land that is released for sale is 'quite unusual', adding: 'Land is usually delivered to the buyer unencumbered, just like a football pitch.'
A Singapore Land Authority (SLA) spokesman said that 'most Government Land Sales sites on the reserve list are vacant land', but some still have tenants.
The spokesman added that having tenants 'optimises the use of the properties as the alternative will be to leave the properties vacant while awaiting development'.
There are more than a dozen shophouses on each of the sites.
The new owners will be responsible for any demolition, said the SLA.
Tenants at the 0.49ha plot at Pheng Geck Avenue were told in January that their leases would be terminated on May 31, after the decision to sell the site was confirmed on Dec 7.
The residential site is on the confirmed list, meaning that it will go on sale regardless of interest.
A 0.82ha plot in Tai Thong Crescent is on the reserve list. The area is slated for residential with commercial use on the first storey.
The tenants will have at least three months' notice to move out, from the point at which a developer has triggered the site for sale, that is when it has submitted an acceptable bid to the Government.
When The Straits Times visited the area last week, most of the units in Pheng Geck Avenue had been vacated except for a Geneva Face Body Spa outlet. The receptionist said that the business would be moving out by the end of the month.
Tenants ranging from provision store owners to coffee-shop stallholders were still operating at some of the three-storey shophouses in Tai Thong Crescent.
The owner of Ong Hock Chye Trading, which sells car accessories, said she was caught off guard as she learnt that the site had been released for sale only from The Straits Times.
She and a mutton soup stall owner, both of whom did not want to be named, said they saw the writing on the wall last August when a neighbouring site was sold.
They are looking for new places to set up shop. A cashier at a nearby provision shop said the firm, which has been in business for about 50 years, would not reopen elsewhere.
Last August, Tuan Sing Holdings came ahead of 14 other property developers with a $185 million bid for the neighbouring 0.87ha land parcel. It can accommodate an estimated 330 homes in blocks of up to a height of five storeys.
[email protected]