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| | | | | | | SINGAPORE : Home buyers may soon have another choice location to consider.
According to property consultants, the Caldecott Hill plot which MediaCorp will be vacating in five years could be redeveloped into a residential estate.
They said this could well consist of both landed and non-landed properties.
Going by one scenario, as many as 1,200 apartments could be built on the site.
Perched at the highest point of the Caldecott estate, off Thomson Road, the plot currently occupied by MediaCorp is a sprawling 70,000 square metres.
As the land lease was topped up after MediaCorp was corporatised in the mid 1990s, the plot has a remaining tenure of 87 years.
Because of the sheer plot size, property consultants said the redevelopment could happen in phases.
Said Nicholas Mak, director of research at Knight Frank: "It's likely to be made available through government land sales and I don't think they can sell it in one go. I think it could be carved out and released over a period of a few years. But I think once it goes through a GLS (Government Land Sales) programme, the tenure will be reduced to 99-years.
"It's mostly freehold land in the surrounding areas, and redeveloping that site on elevated ground. It's quite a nice site and it's 99-years (but that) could in a way reduce its value."
Some consultants said a large residential development could also dilute the exclusivity of the area.
Still, any potential redevelopment is not expected to happen anytime soon.
Currently zoned for civic and community use, the earliest the site can be re-zoned as residential is in 2008, when the masterplan is due for a revision.
And MediaCorp is expecting to vacate the premises only by 2011.
When redeveloped, market watchers said the Caldecott plot will play a major part in shaping the property landscape.
"If we take a scenario where almost the entire plot is to be turned into non-landed development, then we could have as many as 1,000 to 1,200 apartments being developed on that site," said Mak.
The current site has a plot ratio of 1.4 times.
- CNA /ls
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