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The price works out to $785 per square foot per plot ratio, using a base line gross floor area (GFA) of 156,669 sq ft. This is the GFA of the existing development, which is slightly higher than the maximum allowed under the Master Plan 2003 plot ratio of 2.8.

 

The assumption is that Chip Eng Seng's new condo on the site will be able to retain the GFA of the current development which is about 30 years old.

 

The breakeven cost of a new condo project for Chip Eng Seng works out to about $1,100 psf, market watchers say. Chip Eng Seng could launch the project next year and should be able to find a ready pool of buyers among parents keen to enrol their sons in the adjacent Anglo-Chinese School (Junior).

 

It remains to be seen if Chip Eng Seng will take a partner for the project - which it said yesterday was its single largest land purchase to date.

Doing a joint venture would leave the group with more capital to invest in other upmarket residential sites. In 2004, the group bought Quelin Gardens in the Devonshire Road area, for which it later teamed up with Keppel Land, which contributed its neighbouring Parc Devon site. Chip Eng Seng has a 40 per cent stake in the project on the combined site called Ritz Residences. The 157-unit condo is 'launch-ready'.

 

Last year, Chip Eng Seng bought a Balmoral Road plot which it will redevelop into a 12-storey project with 35 apartments. This is expected to be launched in the second half of this year. Another project by the group, the 52-unit ShanghaiOne in the River Valley area, is about 75 per cent sold.

As for the Venus Mansion property, the 54,090 sq ft site can be redeveloped into a 20-storey condo with about 100 units, Chip Eng Seng said yesterday.

The owners of the existing 41 units in the 22-storey block will receive $3 million per unit, which represents a collective sale premium of more than 40 per cent, said Knight Frank, which brokered the sale through a private treaty deal.

 

Venus Mansion's en bloc sale will be subject to approval by the Strata Titles Board unless the minority who are objecting to the deal decide to join in.

No development charge (DC) is payable for Venus Mansion. Last month, Bukit Sembawang bought the nearby Vermont for $750 psf per plot ratio including DC. All eyes in the area are now on the tender for Hilltops Apartments, which closes on April 19.