Thursday, June 29, 2006
[RealEdge] BT : Sentosa Cove land sales top $1b
| Published June 29, 2006  | |
| Sentosa Cove land sales top $1b Master developer in the money to tune of over $500m, moves to release sites in southern precinct
By KALPANA RASHIWALA
(SINGAPORE) The master developer of the upscale waterfront housing district emerging on Sentosa Cove has sold over $1 billion worth of sites for development in the district's Northern Precinct or North Cove since late 2003. Because of the strong demand the developer, Sentosa Cove Pte Ltd (SCPL), is now moving on to sell land in its Southern Precinct or South Cove. Rough estimates by BT show that SCPL is clearly in the money with its land sales on Sentosa Cove - to the tune of more than half a billion dollars for North Cove. SCPL's general manager Margaret Goh said, without commenting on the profit estimate: 'It's not just about money. What we're doing here is creating a unique lifestyle of prime waterfront living in an exclusive enclave which is yet so close to the CBD. This is probably unmatched in Asia.' 'The strong demand for land parcels for development on Sentosa Cove has led us to expedite our launch plans for South Cove, and we now envisage that the various developments on Sentosa Cove will be substantially completed by 2010, two years ahead of schedule. 'In fact, the timeline for realising the entire Master Plan for Sentosa Island, including the integrated resort, has also been brought forward from 2012 to 2010.' South Cove is generally regarded as more prime as it faces the Southern Islands, compared with North Cove, part of which overlooks the Tanjong Pagar and Pulau Brani container terminals. To date, SCPL has sold land parcels that can be developed into 88 per cent of the total 1,528 homes planned for North Cove. It plans to finish selling the remaining land in North Cove by the end of Q3 this year. These sites involve:
The Lakefront Collection bungalow plots, because they face a pond, will not have berths for boats unlike the waterway facing bungalow lots sold earlier. Nonetheless, developers and owners can extend structures over the pond, which could be used for pavilions, gardens, jacuzzis or infinity pools. Sentosa Cove is being developed on 118 ha of mostly reclaimed land on the eastern edge of Sentosa Island. SCPL, through its parent Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC), bought the land from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) for a reported sum of close to $800 million, in two stages. It paid for 83 ha of land on 103-year lease in North Cove in 2003 and at the same time inked an option to buy the remaining land - South Cove - within three years in exchange for paying an option fee. SLA confirmed yesterday that SDC exercised the option on April 12 this year for South Cove (about 35.35 ha) with a new 103-year lease from that date, but it declined to confirm the size of the land premium and option fee. Besides the land premium paid to SLA, SCPL has also spent about $250 million in infrastructure works and subdividing the land into smaller parcels for sale, primarily on 99-year leases, according to earlier reports. Sentosa Cove will eventually have 2,500 homes, about 60 per cent of which will be in North Cove. The other 40 per cent or 972 homes on South Cove will comprise 156 bungalows and 816 condo units. SCPL will kick off land sales for South Cove with the auction of 12 bungalow parcels on Aug 25. It will be conducted jointly by Christie's Great Estates and Colliers International. This will be Christie's Great Estates' first auction in Singapore. And like North Cove, which featured three man-made islands with bungalow plots set, South Cove will feature two such islands, named Sandy and Pearl, with a total of 39 bungalow plots. These islands may be sold en bloc through an expressions of interest exercise, or the bungalow lots on the islands could be sold individually by private treaty or auction. The rest of the bungalows plots on South Cove are likely to be sold individually. South Cove will also have four condo plots totalling 816 units. 'We hope to finish selling all the sites on South Cove in three years,' Ms Goh said. |
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