| THIS condominium in one of Singapore's most sought-after districts has not even been launched and the units are not on sale yet.  | | The 11,000 sq ft unit at Marina Bay Residences is touted as S'pore largest penthouse. | But some property agents have already jumped the gun by soliciting for potential buyers who are impatient to get their hands on a unit at the Marina Bay Residences. As it turns out, they are not the appointed agents and may not even have a unit to sell. Ms Jennifer Tan was one of the property agents who placed an advertisement recently, targeting buyers. Her ad said: 'Register now for priority booking.' It did not mention the name of the condo, but referred to a 'Marina Bay' condo. When contacted by The New Paper, she confirmed that she was marketing Marina Bay Residences. The largest penthouse there - which will be the largest in all of Singapore - is estimated to cost a cool $20 million. It will be 11,000 sq ft, about the size of
10 five-room HDB flats. And other units are also likely to be sought after. Said Ms Tan: 'At the moment, we don't know how much the units are selling for. But if the clients are keen, we'll queue at the showflats, and once we know the price, we'll inform the clients. 'Usually, the clients will join us at the showflat immediately or if they're confident and trust us, we'll book the units for them first.' Ms Tan added that she tells potential buyers that she'll queue, or try to book for them if they're interested in a unit. So far, she has received a number of calls from interested parties, but she'll get the clients' go-ahead only after the price is released. Ms Tan said she doesn't earn any commission from her clients directly, but she'll act as a co-broker with the developer's agents if the deal is successful. She doesn't solicit clients for every project, only for those with the potential to do well, such as the recent successes like The Metropolitan and The Ford @ Holland. Her clients include investors, speculators and those who buy for their own use. Property firm ERA Singapore's assistant vice-president, Mr Eugene Lim, said that for such advertisements, the agents usually don't have any units to sell because the launch of the project is controlled by the developer. The agents may not even know the launch date, or the price. He said: 'What the agents are doing is that they're trying to attract buyers to call them. It's a way of attracting leads. 'They can't use the project name to advertise too, or the developers will jump.' CB Richard Ellis and DTZ Debenham Tie Leung are the appointed agents for the project. Some of their agents have asked buyers for a blank cheque in order to have a guaranteed place on the priority list or an invitation to the private preview, according to a report in
The Business Times. One of their agents was quoted as saying that invitation-only previews will be conducted for buyers looking at acquiring entire floors in mid-December, with those looking to pick up individual units getting to see the development only a day later. But Mr Kan Kum Wah, head of residential sales at the developer, BFC Development, expressed surprise that some agents have asked for blank cheques. NO PRIORITY LIST He said BFC 'does not condone this' and they have not decided if the project will have preview sales yet. He insisted that there is no 'priority list'. And there has been no pre-booking of sales either, said BFC. So interested buyers may very well have to join the queue when the condo is launched. Mr Kan said that the response to Marina Bay Residences has been overwhelming and he expects 60 to
70 per cent of the buyers to be Singaporeans. But while some projects have attracted interest, others have empty units that remain unsold for years. (See report above.) Marina Bay Residences is located at the Marina Bay Financial Centre, near the upcoming Marina Bay Sands integrated resort. It is developed by BFC Development, a consortium comprising HK tycoon Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings, Hongkong Land and Keppel Land, and will be launched this month. There are 428 units, almost all of them with balconies facing either the bay or the Malacca Strait. The super penthouse will stretch over three floors. Someone has already expressed interest in it, said BFC Development. The other penthouses in the project are smaller. Average prices are expected to be
at least $1,700 psf, according to
The Business Times. Property agent May Ling has a different take on placing such advertisements for buyers. She said: 'If the buyer intends to sell the unit, we have an understanding that I'll sell the unit for them. Meanwhile, I may not earn any commission from the current purchase.' But what if the buyer does not intend to sell and wants to live there? 'If it's for owner-occupation, then too bad,' she said. 'We understand. We don't have to be so calculative.' | 
