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Thread: Former HUDC estate Rio Casa to be up for en bloc sale

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    Default Former HUDC estate Rio Casa to be up for en bloc sale

    Former HUDC estate Rio Casa to be up for en bloc sale

    Reserve price said to be about S$450m; it will cost another S$200m to top up the lease and intensify the plot ratio

    Saturday, March 25, 2017

    by Lee Meixian
    [email protected]
    @LeeMeixianBT

    Given the total 286 units at Rio Casa, residents are hoping to get about S$1.6 million per unit from the sale.


    AMID the recovering market sentiment, Rio Casa, a privatised HUDC estate at Hougang Avenue 7 (formerly called Hougang N3), has reached the requisite 80 per cent consent needed for a collective sale.

    The sales committee is targeting to launch the estate for sale by tender in April. The tender will likely be open for a month.

    When contacted, Ian Loh, head of investment and capital markets at Knight Frank, which is the marketing agent, said: "It is absolutely fantastic that we obtained 80 per cent consensus in less than three weeks."

    Although Mr Loh declined to disclose the reserve price, The Business Times understands from a source that it is about S$450 million. Given the total 286 units, residents are hoping to receive about S$1.6 million per unit.

    Mr Loh said it would cost the incoming developer about S$61 million to top up the lease from the remaining 73 years to 99 years, and another S$141 million to intensify the plot ratio to 2.8. This ultimately translates to a land price of about S$590 per square foot per plot ratio.

    But property consultants warn that the reserve price could be slightly too bullish as there are factors about the site that could make developers cautious in their bids.

    One of them is the land area of 396,231 square feet. With a plot ratio of 2.8, the site could potentially yield more than 1,000 homes - quite intimidating for any developer to move, JLL's Singapore research head Tay Huey Ying said.

    The option of bulk sales to clear unsold stock has also diminished with the recent introduction of the Additional Conveyance Duty, a new form of stamp duty for the transfer of equity interest in entities holding residential properties in Singapore.

    Developers will also continue to feel pressured by the five-year timeline they have to finish selling their units in order to qualify for additional buyer's stamp duty remission.

    This is despite developers' growing appetite for residential land, particularly with the steadily declining inventory of unsold units amid improving buyer sentiment, and limited sites available in the government land sales (GLS) programme, Ms Tay said.

    Nicholas Mak, executive director at SLP International, also thinks that residents may need to temper their expectations slightly. "From the developers' perspective, if they must pay the owners plus the government more than S$600 million, with that same amount of money, they can buy almost two land parcels from the GLS programme.

    "Developers are ready to get back into the enbloc market, but the moment the quantum gets a bit too big, like above S$400 million, the number of interested parties that can match the price dwindles."

    The site location, while not within walking distance of any MRT station, is very near Sungei Serangoon and has a river view. There is also not much new supply coming up in the vicinity except at Fernvale Road, about five kilometres away, where a Sing Holdings-Wee Hur partnership last year clinched a plot of land in a state tender to build private housing.

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    Nicholas Mak, executive director at SLP International, also thinks that residents may need to temper their expectations slightly. "From the developers' perspective, if they must pay the owners plus the government more than S$600 million, with that same amount of money, they can buy almost two land parcels from the GLS programme.

    Maybe tell it to the Chinese Developer.

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    Default Former HUDC estate Rio Casa collective sale: $451m sought

    Former HUDC estate Rio Casa collective sale: $451m sought

    Apr 11, 2017

    Price tag for former HUDC estate includes lease top-up premium

    Lee Xin En


    A former HUDC estate in Hougang Avenue 7 that has been privatised is now up for sale.

    Owners at Rio Casa, formerly called Hougang N3, are expecting offers above $450.8 million, which translates to a price of about $586 per sq ft per plot ratio.

    Unit owners would receive in excess of $1.5 million each through the sale of the estate, which has 73 years left on its lease, said Mr Ian Loh, head of investment and capital markets for Knight Frank, which is marketing the 286-unit site.

    While the reserve price is "confidential", the $450.8 million asking price excludes a top-up premium of about $57.5 million for a new 99-year lease, as well as a premium of $141.5 million for intensification of the 396,231 sq ft riverfront site.

    Mr Loh said the collective sale committee got the requisite 80 per cent consent needed for the sale in about three weeks, which he said was a "record time" in his career.

    The estate elected its sales committee last August.

    The site has more than 200m of riverfront and greenery views, and is in an area with schools such as Holy Innocents' Primary and High School and CHIJ Our Lady of the Nativity.

    Dr Lee Nai Jia, head of South-east Asia research at Edmund Tie and Company, said the asking price of $450.8 million is on the higher side but still within the "reasonable range" of his estimates.

    He felt that this is a sweet spot for sellers, as property sentiment is improving, with "a pick-up in activity, but prices have not followed suit".

    Sellers are not always keen to sell during a price boom, as it will be harder for them to buy another property, he added.

    Dr Lee added that there will be interest in the site, given that the Government Land Sales sites on offer will be hotly contested.

    "However, developers may be concerned about the take-up rate, as it is not near any MRT stations, and there is a nearby development, Kingsford WaterBay, which has unsold units," he added.

    Still, the riverfront attribute of Rio Casa will draw interest, he said, as not many developers have riverfront land bank, which can boost sales if they can come up with an interesting concept.

    The crux would be whether sellers will accept bids that might be potentially lower than the asking price, said Dr Lee.

    The tender for Rio Casa closes on May 23.

    Correction note: In our earlier story, we said the $450.8 million asking price includes a top-up premium of about $57.5 million for a new 99-year lease, as well as a premium of $141.5 million for intensification of the 396,231 sq ft riverfront site. This is incorrect. The $450.8 million excludes the premiums. We are sorry for the error.

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    Rio Casa up for en bloc sale

    Reserve price of S$450.8 million translates to more than S$1.5 million for each household

    Tuesday, April 11, 2017

    by Lee Meixian
    [email protected]
    @LeeMeixianBT


    RIO Casa, a former HUDC (Housing and Urban Development Company) estate, was on Monday put up for collective sale by its marketing agent, Knight Frank Singapore.

    The owners of the river-fronting estate along Hougang Avenue 7 are expecting offers of more than S$450.8 million for the property.

    This translates to a land rate of about S$586 per square foot per plot ratio, inclusive of a differential premium of about S$141.5 million for intensification of the site, as well as a lease top-up premium of about S$57.5 million for a fresh 99-year lease.

    If successful, each household will receive more than S$1.5 million each. The unit sizes at Rio Casa range from 151 square metres (sq m) to 166 sq m.

    Knight Frank expects to see interest from developers for redevelopment opportunities, given the site's more than 200 metres of riverfront and greenery views.

    The site is a privatised HUDC estate comprising seven residential blocks of 286 apartment and maisonette units. It has a site area of 36,811.1 sq m. Under the Master Plan 2014, the site is zoned for "residential" with a gross plot ratio of 2.8. This translates to a maximum permissible gross floor area of about 1.1 million square feet.

    The immediate vicinity is predominantly residential in nature, comprising landed housing, condominium and public housing estates. There are schools such as CHIJ Our Lady of The Nativity, Holy Innocents' Primary and High School, Montfort Junior and Serangoon Junior College nearby.

    The Business Times had earlier reported that property consultants thought the reserve price slightly too bullish as the site can potentially yield more than 1,000 homes - quite intimidating for any developer to sell. This would likely temper their bids, they say.

    The tender for Rio Casa will close on May 23, 2017, at 3pm.

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