http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/...-year-20140329

Bumper sales of government land last year

But with fewer sites available this year, experts do not expect a repeat

Published on Mar 29, 2014

By Cheryl Ong


THE Government sold more land last year despite cooling measures and soaring prices, but it will be a more muted performance this year as fewer sites are available.

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) sold 338.1ha of land in the 12 months to Dec 31, up 11.2 per cent from the 303.9ha sold in the same period a year earlier, according to figures obtained by The Straits Times.

This boosted Government coffers by about $17 billion, up from $15.5 billion in 2012.

Private sector sales underpinned last year's takings, with a contribution of $9.1 billion.

This exceeded the $7.9 billion from sales to the public sector.

However, deals from the private sector were still down from the $10.4 billion collected the previous year, as the number of sites put up for sale through the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme fell last year.

The $7.9 billion in revenue from the public sector was well up from the $5.1 billion collected the previous year.

The Government sells state land to the private sector for residential, commercial, industrial and other projects, while land is sold to public agencies to carry out developments such as building public housing estates and industrial estates, an SLA spokesman said.

SLA, which manages more than 14,000ha of state land and about 5,000 properties, is the national land registration authority for property transactions.

Ms Alice Tan, research head at Knight Frank, noted that the increase in public land sales could be due to the Housing Development Board's move to ramp up the supply of public housing.

More land could have also been sold to the JTC Corporation for developing new industrial areas in Tuas, she added.

Although developers lodged higher bids for sites last year, private sector sales still fell from 2012, pointed out Century 21 chief executive Ku Swee Yong.

"Private sector sales should have been up in 2013 over 2012, if we only focused on GLS sales," Mr Ku said.

"But it was not the case because private sector deals also include industrial land sold to multinational companies or those that are under the special permission of (government bodies like) the Economic Development Board and Ministry of Trade and Industry. These deals tend to be more lumpy and unpredictable."

A total of 16 residential parcels were sold to developers last year, raking in about $5.1 billion in sales, according to official data.

This was well down from the 36 sites sold in 2012, which brought in about $8.9 billion.

"The fall in the number of land sales could mean that the Government is aware of the high incoming supply, and is slowly tapering off land sales in order to prevent a major correction in property prices in the future," said Ms Christine Li, research head at property firm OrangeTee.

The largest residential GLS sale last year was for a 130,101 sq ft site at Commonwealth Avenue.

It attracted a top bid of $563 million from a joint venture between City Developments and Hong Leong Holdings, noted Ms Tan.

Mapletree struck the largest industrial deal, paying $120 million for a 1.18ha site at Tai Seng Street.

Frasers Centrepoint landed the biggest deals for commercial and mixed-use sites.

It paid $924 million for a 81,840 sq ft commercial plot at Cecil Street, and $1.4 billion for a 442,235 sq ft parcel at Yishun Central 1 that will be developed into an integrated project.

The robust numbers will not be repeated this year, say experts.

Dr Chua Yang Liang, research head at Jones Lang LaSalle, South-east Asia, said: "Given the reduction in the number of GLS sites this year, we reckon the total sales volume would be weaker, but interest will remain strong as developers continue to bank up on their supply."

Ms Tan estimates that sales to the private sector could fall by 15 per cent to 20 per cent, but sales to the public sector should remain healthy, with the Government's push towards optimising land use for industrial and institutional purposes.

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