http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real...s-at-sol-acres

MCL Land sells 247 units at Sol Acres

Average price is S$780 psf; most popular units are three-bedders, followed by four-bedders

By Kalpana Rashiwala

[email protected]@KalpanaBT

Aug 24, 2015


MCL Land, a subsidiary of Hongkong Land, sold 247 units at its Sol Acres executive condominium in Choa Chu Kang Grove as at 5 pm on Sunday.

Of these, 246 units were transacted on the first day of sales bookings on Saturday, by the time the developer closed its showflat at midnight.

MCL Land has offered 707 of Sol Acres' 1,327 units under the first phase of the marketing launch. The average price of the 707 units released is S$780 per square foot (psf).

The absolute number of units sold in the launch weekend makes Sol Acres the best-selling EC project so far this year.

It beat the 185 units sold by City Developments in the launch weekend last month for The Brownstone, which is being built next to the upcoming Canberra MRT station. The 638-unit project is priced at S$810 psf on average.

Koh Teck Chuan, chief executive of MCL Land, said: "I am quite happy with the sales for Sol Acres, considering the market as it is. Choa Chu Kang has pent-up demand for ECs and we have a huge site with a lot of amenities - including three clubhouses, three swimming pools and two tennis courts."

The project is near two LRT stations that connect to two MRT stations - Choa Chu Kang station on the North-South Line and the upcoming Bukit Panjang station on the Downtown Line.

R'ST Research director Ong Kah Seng described the initial weekend sales for Sol Acres as a "fairly good response" arising from the reasonable pricing of S$780 psf on average. "This is slightly lower than the $800 psf or more that EC developers have generally been sticking to."

At 1,327 units, Sol Acres is the biggest EC development to come on the market to date. It will also be the first to have one-bedroom units, MCL said.

Mr Koh said the most popular units have been three-bedders, followed by four-bedroom apartments, and two- and five-bedders.

Only two units of one-bedroom apartments have been sold. He noted that potential buyers who came in on the first day were mostly nuclear families, and that the one-bedroom units were likely to appeal to singles and to young couples with no plans to have children in the near future.

Absolute unit prices start at S$356,000 for a one-bedroom unit of 495 sq ft. Prices of two-bedders start at S$452,000 for a unit of 614 sq ft. Three-bedroom apartments are priced from S$667,000 for a 926 sq ft unit. Among four-bedroom apartments, the lowest price is S$866,000 for a 1,184 sq ft unit. A five-bedder costs at least S$1.028 million for a 1,378 sq ft.

Three bedders account for the bulk - 330 - of the 707 units released in the first phase of sale; there are 185 two-bedders, 100 one bedders, 71 four-bedders and 21 five-bedders.