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Published May 26, 2011

Sim Lian leads in unsold units from GLS residential sites

Developers likely to grow their land banks in H2 as govt rolls out more GLS sites

By UMA SHANKARI


SIM Lian Group has the highest number of unsold residential units in its land bank - some 2,781 homes - built up from government land sales (GLS) sites bought in 2010 and 2011, a new report shows.

According to the new report from Knight Frank, Sim Lian has in its portfolio 1,441 private homes, 660 executive condo (EC) units as well as 680 HDB flats that will be offered for sale under the design, build and sell scheme (DBSS).

City Developments was placed second. The developer has 211 private homes and 1,060 EC units left from GLS sites it bought from 2010 onwards.

Five other developers each have more than 800 unsold units from GLS sites acquired in the last 17 months: United Engineers, Hong Leong Group, Far East Organization, MCL Land and Chip Eng Seng.

Developers are likely to grow their land banks in the second half of this year as the government is expected to roll out another bumper supply of residential sites under its twice-yearly GLS programme, Knight Frank said.

'We expect a significant new supply of private housing for the H2 2011 GLS programme to meet demand,' said Knight Frank's head of consultancy and research Png Poh Soon. In particular, more new EC sites could be released following the strong take-up seen for recent EC launches such as Esparina Residences, Prive and The Canopy, he said.

'Developers with a sizeable number of mass market homes in their land banks are likely to be more selective. Some may choose to offload their existing land banks before acquiring new sites, creating a window of opportunity for others,' Mr Png said.

Developers with substantial land banks should be able to clear their stock if demand for mass market homes continues to hold up in the absence of new cooling measures, he added.

Savills Singapore similarly noted that demand for mass market homes can be expected to remain robust in the coming months. 'With more mass market launches coming on stream, the fresh infusion of housing would bring more attractively priced units onto the market,' Savills said in a new report.

But analysts noted that policy changes could soften demand for private properties as well as ECs and DBSS flats.

To determine the housing stock held by each developer, Knight Frank reviewed all the winning bids for GLS sites launched in 2010 and year-to-date in 2011, then discounted those units that have already been sold in launched projects.