Demand for new CityDev, UOL condos

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Published July 12, 2010

Demand for new CityDev, UOL condos

By KALPANA RASHIWALA


(SINGAPORE) UOL Group and City Developments Ltd (CDL) continued to sell units over the weekend at their new condos released last week.

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Good take-up: CDL has sold another 32 units at its 368 Thomson (above) up to 6 pm yesterday, taking total sales to 128 units

UOL and LaSalle Investment Management sold a further 46 units over the weekend (as of 7 pm yesterday) at The Terrene at Bukit Timah, in addition to the 50 that they had sold as of 10 pm last Friday.

Thus far, 130 of the condo's total 172 units have been put on the market. While the initial 85 units released by Friday were priced at about $1,250 per square foot on average, the further 45 apartments offered on Saturday and Sunday were at marginally higher prices. The five-storey, 999-year leasehold condo is in the Toh Tuck/Jalan Jurong Kechil vicinity.

'We're keeping the balance 42 units for our official launch later this week, which will be tied with the start of our ad campaign. What we're most pleased about is that our penthouses and big units are still selling well. More than half of the 30 penthouses in the project have been taken up,' UOL's chief operating officer Liam Wee Sin told BT yesterday evening.

'We've combined a bit of luxury with a rustic feel,' he added. Prices of penthouses in the condo range from $1.7 million to $2.9 million.

Singaporeans form the majority of buyers, buying mainly for owner occupation, according to Peter Ow, managing director (residential services) at Knight Frank, one of the project's two marketing agents.

'Demand is still there; it's only a matter of pricing. People who are walking out of the showflat without making a purchase are doing so because the price is beyond their budget,' he added.

CDL sold another 32 units at its 368 Thomson up to 6 pm yesterday, taking total sales to 128 units. Last Friday, the group said, it had sold 96 of the 120 units released initially in the 157-unit freehold condo, which will be 36 storeys high.

Yesterday, a CDL spokeswoman said that the group released the remaining 37 units progressively over the weekend at a marginal price increase of 2-3 per cent from the initial average selling price of $1,350 per square foot.

'The majority of the 32 units we sold over the weekend were one-plus-study units. We also sold three and four bedders,' she added.

Singaporeans made up 75 per cent of the 128 units sold at the District 11 condo.

The next project CDL plans to release is likely to be a 642-unit, joint venture condo in Pasir Ris located next to the fully-sold Livia. 'It is planned for release in phases in Q3 2010,' she added.