Land supply for private homes kept steady

DEC 14, 2017

Government takes cautious stance, partly due to large volume of land freed up by collective sales


It's a case of steady as she goes for land releases in 2018 with the supply of State land for private homes to be kept at much the same levels as this year, it was announced yesterday.

The conservative stance is partly due to the large volume of redevelopment land freed up by the rash of collective sales this year.

Cushman & Wakefield research head Christine Li said the Government is "adhering to its cautious approach on the supply front".

"It has sounded repeated warnings on the over-supply risk in the property market arising from a demand-supply imbalance due to the buoyant collective sales this year."

The sites on the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme for the first half of next year will be able to yield about 8,045 private units, including executive condominiums, and 63,960 sq m gross floor area (GFA) of commercial space.

This compares with the 8,125 private residential units and 83,590 sq m GFA of commercial space on the programme for this half of 2017.

Both sets of numbers include confirmed and reserve list sites.

There are six private residential sites, including an EC one, on the confirmed list, the Ministry of National Development (MND) said.

These can yield 2,775 homes, including 450 EC units, and 4,450 sq m GFA of commercial space.

They include a parcel in Dairy Farm Road that can generate about 500 units and 4,000 sq m of commercial space, and a plot in Jalan Jurong Kechil that can yield about 280 homes. The sole EC site on the confirmed list is in Canberra Link in the Sembawang area.

The reserve list will offer eight residential sites, including two for ECs, and one commercial plot. These can yield 5,270 private homes - 1,255 EC units among them - and 59,510 sq m GFA of commercial space. The commercial site at Woodlands Square is for a mixed-use development comprising mainly office space.

There are also sites in Sims Drive, Peck Seah Street near Tanjong Pagar MRT station and Clementi Avenue 1. The two EC sites are in Tampines Avenue 10 and Anchorvale Crescent.

The MND said: "On the one hand, there is strong demand for sites by real estate developers, and a pick-up in transaction volumes.

"On the other hand, there is a large potential supply of around 20,000 units from awarded en bloc sale and GLS sites that have not yet been granted planning approval, on top of the around 18,000 unsold units that already have planning approval."

There are more than 30,000 existing private units that remain vacant.

For EC sites, the project completion period is five years, up from four years now, in line with that of private housing sites sold by the Government.

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