| The price of luxury apartments in Singapore has hit new heights with the launch of St Regis Residences by City Developments.
The developer has just sold a unit for more than $3,000 per square foot.
Not since the launch of The Sail@Marina Bay in October 2004, has there been such an air of anticipation.
The St Regis Residences project just launched has 173 units - the smallest being the one-bedroom type at 1,500 square feet to the 7 penthouses at between 5,000 to 7,200 square feet each.
City Developments hopes to achieve an average selling price of $2,800 per square foot but not everyone with the money can clinch a unit.
Buyers so far include its former customers, VVIPs and, in the words of Kwek Leng Beng, Chairman of City Developments, "those who kept pestering them".
Pestering seems to have worked somewhat: 38 out of 50 units have already been sold by appointment only.
And one of these units have been sold at more than $3,000 per square foot, a record in Singapore.
Interestingly, the renewed focus on the high-end started about two years ago.
Mr Kwek said: "The Sails trophy made me put on my thinking cap. Who owns so many high-end properties? City Developments and the Hong Leong Group. And that's where we go for this niche. Because in the past, we like to cater the medium income. Once in a while, we have a high-end development but looking at the real estate properties that we have, over 40 years experience, we should be able to cater the high end."
Analysts Channel NewsAsia spoke to say they are positive on City Developments' strategy.
Charles Neo, Director of Research, UBS, said: "In our big cap property stocks in the near term, we have City Developments as a relative outperformance, because it does not have any premium attached to it, and it is very much exposed to the residential sector in Singapore. We are quite positive on Singapore residential particularly in the high-end in the medium to long term. In the short term, we expect high end property prices to rise 10-20 percent."
Analysts have City Developments' revalued net asset value at about $9 per share. - CNA/ch
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