View Full Version : URA launches tender for the first sale site in Woodlands Regional Centre
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) launched a land parcel in Woodlands Regional Centre for sale by public tender today. This is the first sale site in the Woodlands Regional Centre since the detailed plans were announced as part of the Draft Master Plan 2013 on 20 Nov 2013.
Woodlands Regional Centre
Envisioned as the Northern Gateway to Singapore, Woodlands Regional Centre will be transformed into a vibrant live-work-play precinct. It will have a bustling commercial centre, with a mix of office, retail and attractive public spaces. Woodlands Regional Centre consists of two distinctive districts – Woodlands Central and Woodlands North Coast.
With about 100 hectares of land available for development, Woodlands Regional Centre can potentially yield 700,000 sqm of commercial floor space. This will anchor it as the key commercial cluster in the northern part of Singapore and an attractive business hub for companies that do not need a Central Business District location. When fully developed over the next 10 to 15 years, the regional centre will also bring some 100,000 new jobs closer to homes, reducing commuting time for Singaporeans and easing traffic congestion during peak hours. An aerial photograph of the Woodlands Regional Centre is provided in Annex 1. A fly-through video of the regional centre can be viewed here.
Land Parcel at Woodlands Square
The land parcel at Woodlands Square is strategically located in the heart of Woodlands Central. It is within walking distance from the Woodlands MRT Station which will serve as an interchange between the North-South Line and future Thomson Line.
Existing developments in this district include the Woodlands Civic Centre and Causeway Point where amenities such as retail, food and beverage and entertainment uses are easily accessible.
In line with the plan for Woodlands Regional Centre to be developed as a major employment centre in the north of Singapore, the proposed development on the sale site will have at least 90% or 58,492 sqm of total GFA dedicated for office use. The remaining GFA can be set aside for complementary uses such as childcare centre, retail and food and beverage uses. An extensive pedestrian network has also been planned to connect the sale site seamlessly to Causeway Point, the Woodlands Civic Centre, the existing MRT station and bus interchange, and the future Thomson Line MRT station in the vicinity.
Other Details
Details of the sale site and the location plan are provided in Annex 2 and Annex 3 respectively. More details of the site are available on the URA website: http://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/land-sales-repository/sites/wlds-sq-cl.aspx
A tender period of about sixteen (16) weeks will be allowed for the sale site at Woodlands Square. The tender will close at 12 noon on 8 April 2014. Selection of the successful tenderer will be based on the tendered land price only.
Developer’s packets containing details of this site and conditions of tender are available at $107 each (inclusive of GST). These can be purchased from the Customer Service Counter on the 1st storey of The URA Centre, 45 Maxwell Road, Singapore 069118.
The developer’s packets can also be purchased via URA-Online (delivery charges applicable) at http://www.ura.gov.sg/LspWeb/.
Buy all regional centres property if u can afford. It is the next area of growth.
Allthepies
17-12-13, 10:15
Huat Ah !!!! Huat Ah !!!
Let's all buy together =)
http://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/land-sales-repository/sites/~/media/User%20Defined/URA%20Online/land-sales/Sites/wlds-sq/images/aerialmap.ashx
Allthepies
17-12-13, 10:20
i bet there will be a 2nd site release in Woodland Regional Centre for 1H2014...
Fraser is going to go aggressive on this one
Commercial land and connected underground to train stations. Woodlands huat
Another J-gateway:p
Those lands vacant many years liao, time to expand.
2 more mix dev coming, thats good news to the North.
princess_morbucks
17-12-13, 15:38
http://sbr.com.sg/commercial-property/news/ura-unveils-woodlands-commercial-site-sale?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
58,492 sqm must be alloted for office use.
According to a release, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) launched a land parcel in Woodlands Regional Centre for sale by public tender today. This is the first sale site in the Woodlands Regional Centre since the detailed plans were announced as part of the Draft Master Plan 2013 on 20 Nov 2013.
The land parcel at Woodlands Square is strategically located in the heart of Woodlands Central. It is within walking distance from the Woodlands MRT Station which will serve as an interchange between the North-South Line and future Thomson Line.
Existing developments in this district include the Woodlands Civic Centre and Causeway Point where amenities such as retail, food and beverage and entertainment uses are easily accessible.
In line with the plan for Woodlands Regional Centre to be developed as a major employment centre in the north of Singapore, the proposed development on the sale site will have at least 90% or 58,492 sqm of total GFA dedicated for office use. The remaining GFA can be set aside for complementary uses such as childcare centre, retail and food and beverage uses.
An extensive pedestrian network has also been planned to connect the sale site seamlessly to Causeway Point, the Woodlands Civic Centre, the existing MRT station and bus interchange, and the future Thomson Line MRT station in the vicinity.
90% of the GFA has got to be allocated for office and 500sqm for child care center. So this site will have very minimal retail component, which is a pity.
SINGAPORE] The first predominantly office project in the Woodlands Regional Centre is set to sprout on a 99-year leasehold site next to Causeway Point.
At least 90 per cent or 629,602 sq ft of the 699,557 sq ft maximum gross floor area (GFA) for the site must be for offices. A further minimum 5,382 sq ft must be set aside for childcare centre use. The rest of the GFA can be for additional office or other complementary commercial uses such as retail, food and beverage and/or entertainment. Residential use is not allowed.
For the office component, strata subdivision is allowed which should increase the site's attraction to potential bidders keen on selling strata office units. All the non-office uses (including the childcare centre) have to be held under a single strata lot and owned by a single entity. The tender will close on April 8.
Property consultants generally expect five to eight bids for the site, with bidders drawn by the "first-mover advantage" the site offers in the area. However, they differed widely on their expectations of the winning bid for the site - from $500 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) to $1,100 psf ppr.
Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), which launched the tender for the site yesterday, said that the minimum 90 per cent office component is in line with the plan for Woodlands Regional Centre to be developed as a major employment centre in Singapore's northern area. An extensive pedestrian network has been planned to connect the sale site seamlessly to Causeway Point, the Woodlands Civic Centre, the existing Woodlands MRT Station and bus interchange, and the future Thomson Line MRT station in the vicinity.
The sale site, along Woodlands Square, comprises two larger land parcels of 85,729 sq ft (Plot 1) and 114,144 sq ft (Plot 2) and three smaller plots. One is for airspace to provide an elevated pedestrian link-bridge between the two bigger plots, while the other two are underground plots. Of these, one will provide an underground vehicular connection and carpark between Plots 1 and 2, while the other will provide an underground pedestrian link between Plot 1 and Causeway Point.
URA's spokeswoman said that the planning intention for the sale site is for a "quality and relatively more affordable office development which can meet the needs of SMEs and businesses that may not require prime office spaces in the city centre, but which would still benefit from proximity to a transport node". There are more than 500,000 residents in Woodlands and the neighbouring Yishun and Sembawang towns.
Knight Frank's head of investment and capital markets, Ian Loh, said: "When you're trying to encourage a regional centre to take off, rents have to be kept affordable. However, when you allow strata subdivision, rents tend to be higher as investors who have paid relatively high prices for their units will have a higher rent expectation to achieve a target yield."
He estimated the sale site's land price at possibly $700-780 psf ppr, translating to a breakeven cost of around $1,400-1,500 psf and potential selling price of $1,600-1,800 psf for the strata office units.
DTZ head of Singapore research Lee Lay Keng notes that although the Woodlands Square site's GFA is quite similar to that of the Venture Avenue site in Jurong Gateway sold to Sim Lian earlier this year at nearly $1,009 psf ppr, "the development of Woodlands as a regional commercial centre is still in its infancy and it is now still (better) known as an industrial location, rather than an office location". "Therefore, we expect a lower number of bids - about five to eight - compared with nine for the Venture Avenue site, and a top bid of about $800-1,000 psf ppr for the Woodlands site," said Ms Lee.
She reckoned that end users keen on buying strata units in the Woodlands Square project could include firms with operations in Malaysia, as Woodlands will be linked to Johor via MRT in future.
Elaine Chow, head of research at Chesterton Singapore, observed: "Currently, green field sites are aplenty in this northern town, but the pace of development is set to accelerate within the next five to 10 years."
The transport network in Woodlands Regional Centre will be boosted significantly and will have five MRT stations eventually.
Ms Chow expects the winning bid for the Woodlands Square sale site to range from $500 to $600 psf ppr, with the completed strata office units potentially selling at an average price of $1,300-1,500 psf.
CBRE Research associate director Desmond Sim expects the top bid to be around $1,100 psf ppr.
"Given that Woodlands Regional Centre will be the closest link to our northern neighbours via the Causeway and the future cross-border rail link, a commercial node will be well received by firms that may benefit from the cross-border proximity. In line with (Singapore's) concept of decentralisation, future commercial occupiers can also tap on the growing residential workforce close by, as well as the pool of qualifying workers across the Causeway," he added.
so much office space there? hmmm.
so much office space there? hmmm.
There are none at the moment, so they will need to do a little bit of catch up if they are going to turn woodland into a regional center. For residences around woodland, I am sure they would prefer to have another big malls to complement causeway mall instead of 90% office development.
And if this is going to be a strata office block, then there wont be any chance of any government ministry moving into woodlands.
Another thing to note is that, being close to JB can be a double edge sword in terms of residential property potential
There are none at the moment, so they will need to do a little bit of catch up if they are going to turn woodland into a regional center. For residences around woodland, I am sure they would prefer to have another big malls to complement causeway mall instead of 90% office development.
And if this is going to be a strata office block, then there wont be any chance of any government ministry moving into woodlands.
Another thing to note is that, being close to JB can be a double edge sword in terms of residential property potential
I think the Govt plan is to have the office components first, then followed by the mixed developments (residential + commercial) for the remaining plots, as the Govt can then get higher prices for these plots. Being near MRT with high population, there's no reason why these office components wont be fully occupied.
Being close to JB will alleviate businesses' needs for cheap labour in the Woodlands North Coast Innovation Belt. It also wont jam up SG, hence this idea of building regional centres in Jurong & Woodlands.
It should also be noted that not all foreigners can stay in JB & work in SG, being non-Malaysians. Esp the main groups of PRCs, Pinoys, Indians. These group will boost the potential for residential properties in Woodlands, when the commercial/office segments are fully developed.
What the Govt wants, the Govt gets (except in terms of citizen votes). So I don't doubt that the Woodlands and Jurong Regional Centres will be success stories, and being near to 1st & 2nd link (possibly RTS & HSR) is a key part of that success story.
I think the Govt plan is to have the office components first, then followed by the mixed developments (residential + commercial) for the remaining plots, as the Govt can then get higher prices for these plots. Being near MRT with high population, there's no reason why these office components wont be fully occupied.
Being close to JB will alleviate businesses' needs for cheap labour in the Woodlands North Coast Innovation Belt. It also wont jam up SG, hence this idea of building regional centres in Jurong & Woodlands.
It should also be noted that not all foreigners can stay in JB & work in SG, being non-Malaysians. Esp the main groups of PRCs, Pinoys, Indians. These group will boost the potential for residential properties in Woodlands, when the commercial/office segments are fully developed.
What the Govt wants, the Govt gets (except in terms of citizen votes). So I don't doubt that the Woodlands and Jurong Regional Centres will be success stories, and being near to 1st & 2nd link (possibly RTS & HSR) is a key part of that success story.
Personally I think the lack of retail component, such as white site, could be perhaps due to woodland proximity to Johor.
I would imagine that if someone living in woodland can have direct MRT connection to JB mall, I am sure they will go there for shopping instead of woodland because its much cheaper across the causeway.
I think the Govt plan is to have the office components first, then followed by the mixed developments (residential + commercial) for the remaining plots, as the Govt can then get higher prices for these plots. Being near MRT with high population, there's no reason why these office components wont be fully occupied.
Being close to JB will alleviate businesses' needs for cheap labour in the Woodlands North Coast Innovation Belt. It also wont jam up SG, hence this idea of building regional centres in Jurong & Woodlands.
It should also be noted that not all foreigners can stay in JB & work in SG, being non-Malaysians. Esp the main groups of PRCs, Pinoys, Indians. These group will boost the potential for residential properties in Woodlands, when the commercial/office segments are fully developed.
What the Govt wants, the Govt gets (except in terms of citizen votes). So I don't doubt that the Woodlands and Jurong Regional Centres will be success stories, and being near to 1st & 2nd link (possibly RTS & HSR) is a key part of that success story.
I share the same sentiment. The offices and banks at the regional centres close to the 1st and 2nd links will also reduce the likelihood of companies jumping over to JB to set up HQs.
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