The most recent GLS initiative aims to entice developers to return to state tenders

The most recent GLS initiative aims to entice developers to return to state tenders

After inconsistent performance over the previous 15 months, a range of plum plots of manageable sizes increases the likelihood that sites will be awarded.

June 18, 2025

CONDOsingapore.com

In the second half of this year, the government will continue to supply a steady supply of land for the construction of private housing, despite the unpredictability of the global political and economic landscape.

The Ministry of National Development (MND) announced last Friday, June 13, that it will release land for approximately 4,725 private housing units in H2 2025 through the confirmed list, which is 6% less than the 5,030 units in H1 2025.

These numbers include executive condominium (EC) units, which are a hybrid of public and private housing. Ten years after the completion of an EC project, all resale restrictions and initial buyer eligibility are removed.

More significant than the numbers is the fact that developers are being presented with a desirable array of plum sites, which is expected to encourage more of them to enter government land sales (GLS) tenders than they have in the previous 15 months.

After all, the planned supply of private housing can only be realised and meet the demand for homes when these sites are sold to developers. This includes the desire for aspirational upgrades from residents of apartments owned by the Housing and Development Board.

Two channels are used to offer land to real estate developers under the GLS programme.

Regardless of demand, sites on the verified list are put up for sale on time.

On the other hand, only after a developer successfully applies or when there is enough market interest are sites on the reserve list put up for sale.

According to market observers, developers are unlikely to trigger for sale sites on the reserve list because of how appealing the package of sites MND has assembled for the next half confirmed list is.

The ten residential locations on the H2 confirmed list are all brand-new, including two EC plots. They provide developers with a multitude of options.

There are locations in both city-fringe areas (Tanjong Rhu Road, next to Singapore Swimming Club, and a plot in Kallang Avenue facing the waterway) and prime districts (Dunearn Road, and next to Newton MRT station).

Additionally, there are strategically placed plots in the suburbs, including one near Woodlands South MRT station, another in front of Tanah Merah MRT station, and another close to Lentor MRT station.

Additionally, MND will offer an EC site in Miltonia Close that faces a golf course and the Lower Seletar Reservoir, as well as a private housing site close to Dairy Farm Nature Park. Homebuyers who want to live in a more natural setting might be drawn to the new projects on these two locations.

Smaller, easier-to-manage

The majority of the sites on the most recent verified list are bite-sized, which makes the overall investment easier to handle, in addition to having a variety of visually appealing sites. Megasites that can produce 700–1,000 housing units, as demonstrated in GLS tenders in recent years, do not exist.

Between 335 and 450 units can be produced by five of the ten plots on the H2 confirmed list.

Dover Road is the parcel that has the capacity to produce the greatest number of homes (625 units). Its proximity to the one-north MRT station and a number of educational facilities, including the Insead and Singapore Institute of Technology @ Dover campuses, Fairfield Methodist School (Primary), and Anglo-Chinese Junior College, are its main selling points.

In order to attract more developers to state tenders, well-located sites and reasonable sizes are combined. The competition will increase the probability that the state will award the plots to the top bidders.

In recent years, developer participation in state land tenders has been inconsistent.

Over the last 15 months, tenders for 21 sites under MND's GLS Programme have closed, excluding EC sites. Ten of these sites received one bid or two.

Two of these ten sites—the Media Circle site, where the entire residential component is to consist of long-stay serviced apartments, and the Jurong Lake District (JLD) master developer site—were not awarded because the bids were deemed to be too low.

Additionally, two locations—out of the 21 total—did not receive any bids: Media Circle (Parcel B) and Upper Thomson Road (Parcel A), which featured a required long-stay serviced apartment component.

Under the H1 2025 confirmed list, the Upper Thomson Road (Parcel A) tender will be reopened this month. Long-term serviced apartment use will not be required this time, but it may be permitted with permission.

The JLD master developer site, Media Circle, and Media Circle (Parcel B) are the other three plots that are on the reserve list.

Comments from the industry on the JLD master developer site

A footnote about the JLD master developer site on the reserve list would have caught the attention of anyone looking through the latest GLS Program's details. Zoned white, the 6.5-hectare site was previously put out to bid under the H1 2023 confirmed list, but it was not chosen.

For Phase 1 of the master developer site, the minimum office quantum required has been reduced from 70,000 square metres (sq m) gross floor area (GFA) to 40,000 sq m. According to a representative for the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the minimum office space for the entire property has also been lowered, from 146,000 square metres GFA to 100,000 square metres.

Following URA's announcement in September of last year that it would not be awarding the site's tender, the changes were made in the end of 2024 after extensive engagement with industry stakeholders.

The master developer site was put up for sale in June 2023 as part of a dual-envelope concept-and-price tender that was intended to launch the next stage of development in JLD. A group of five developers, including CapitaLand Development, City Developments, Frasers Property, Mitsubishi Estate, and Mitsui Fudosan (Asia), submitted two bids with distinct site concept proposals before the tender closed in March 2024. No other bidders were present.

Six months later, URA stated that the shortlisted concept's tendered price of S$640 per square foot per plot ratio was deemed to be too low. After that, the location was added to the reserve list.

JLD is the "largest mixed-use business district outside the city centre," according to URA's vision. However, industry participants are wary of the extent of office demand near the Jurong East MRT station. Large corporations typically choose to locate their Singapore offices in desirable Central Business District (CBD) areas like Marina Bay and Raffles Place. The prestigious address, talent retention, C-suite preference, and the fact that employee commute times from all over the island to the central business district are generally more equitable are some of the important factors mentioned.

The minimum office quantum requirement has been lowered, but the maximum GFA for the entire master developer site—365,000 sq m—has not changed.

Nonetheless, the site's overall maximum residential GFA has been raised to 186,000 sq m, of which a maximum of 166,000 sq m may be used for private apartments or condos. Both of these numbers represent an increase of 20,000 square metres over the initial figures at the site's launch.

A potential master developer's cash flow should benefit from having the freedom to build a larger number of private apartments or condo units that can be presold, according to analysts.

The minimum office quantum requirement was lowered, according to a URA spokesperson, in order to "give developers more flexibility in determining the mix of uses and to better pace the roll-out of office space for the master developer site."

Authorities have been paying attention to developers' participation rates in GLS tenders for private housing sites as well, observing how they prioritise desirable sites while overlooking mediocre ones. Additionally, developers have expressed that they would prefer sites that could produce fewer than 500 dwelling units.

In the current uncertain environment, URA's engagement of developers and other stakeholders to gain a better understanding of market dynamics is undoubtedly a positive step.