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This works out to about $951 per square foot of potential gross floor area for the 67,308 sq ft freehold site. No development charge is payable.

SC Global, controlled by Simon Cheong, can redevelop the site - at the highest point of the Cairnhill area - into a 20-storey condo with about 150 units averaging 2,000 sq ft.

 

Analysts estimate the breakeven cost could be about $1,400 psf which should leave Mr Cheong with a nice profit margin given that the highest price fetched for a unit at the nearby Cairnhill Crest condo is $2,002 psf. SC Global has been successful in positioning itself as a luxury developer able to command premium prices.

 

The Hilltops Apartments deal is subject to approval by the Strata Titles Board as unanimous approval from owners has yet to be secured.

 

The owners of the 99 apartments will receive $2.8 million per unit while the owners of the three penthouses will pocket $5.6 million each. Recent transactions of apartments in the development have been at $1.5-1.6 million.

SC Global will use internal funds and bank borrowings to pay for the acquisition, which follows the group's $266 million purchase of Paterson Tower last month.

 

DTZ Debenham Tie Leung handled the tender for Hilltops Apartments which closed on Wednesday and is said to have attracted one other bid that complied with tender conditions. Industry sources suggest the other bidder could have been Wing Tai, but its bid was short of owners' expectations.

DTZ had also offered an adjacent parcel with Hilltops - 16 terrace houses surrounding part of the Hilltops site. The reserve price for the 49,856 sq ft plot is said to be about $100 million - which in terms of psf per plot ratio land cost, is about 15 per cent lower than the $948 psf ppr reserve price for Hilltops.

However, SC Global has decided against buying the 16 terrace houses. Market watchers say this may leave their owners in the lurch as it would be difficult to develop the 49,856 sq ft site on its own.

 

For the Hilltops site, written permission has been granted to redevelop it into a 20-storey residential project with a 4.59 plot ratio (ratio of potential GFA to land area).

 

The price is the highest fetched in the area during the current wave of collective sales. This week, BT reported that Hoi Hup is paying $795 psf ppr inclusive of development charge for the Cairnhill Gardens site. And last week, Chip Eng Seng paid $785 psf ppr for Venus Mansion in Peck Hay Road. Last month, Bukit Sembawang bought The Vermont for $750 psf ppr. In July last year, Wing Tai bagged Phoenix Mansion for $716 psf ppr.

 

The $951 psf ppr price that SC Global is paying for Hilltops is also within the range of other major sites in the Cairnhill area sold in the past and which have been redeveloped. These include the sites on which The Edge on Cairnhill, Light at Cairnhill and Cairnhill Crest now stand.

 

SC Global's collective sale purchases of Hilltops Apartments and Paterson Tower bring its recent acquisitions to over $550 million and provide it with a landbank of over 550,000 sq ft gross floor area of prime residential space in the Orchard belt.

 

'With these acquisitions, the group is well positioned to benefit from the strong sentiment in the high-end segment of the property market and continued interest in Singapore by international investors,' the company said.