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Published September 25, 2007

Residential property launches gathering speed again

Ho Bee previews Turquoise, Wheelock properties to launch Scotts Square

By KALPANA RASHIWALA

DEVELOPERS are slowly stepping up residential property launches again, with Ho Bee Investments previewing its Turquoise condo at Sentosa Cove and Wheelock Properties (Singapore) holding the official launch of Scotts Square later this week.

Turquoise, which will have 91 apartments, will be priced at $2,500 psf on average. Ho Bee has been conducting viewings at its showflat lately for its business associates and is expected to begin sales at a preview starting on Thursday.

The 99-year leasehold project comprises three- and four-bedroom units, and penthouses.

Ho Bee will develop the six-and-a-half storey project on Sentosa Cove's Waterfront Collection site, which is flanked by Tanjong Golf Course and waterways.

It bought the site in a tender that closed in November last year, for $919 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr).

This will be the first condominium launch in Sentosa Cove's Southern Residential Precinct.

Ho Bee also won another condominium site (jointly with Malaysia's IOI Group) in March this year. The duo paid $1,361 psf ppr for the plot, dubbed The Seaview Collection, and they are expected to develop it into an eight-storey condo with about 150 units.

Ho Bee is also said to have begun marketing The Orange Grove, a 72-unit freehold condo, in Indonesia.

The average price of the 12-storey project is understood to be around $3,000 psf.

It is diagonally across the road from another condo that Ho Bee began selling around January this year - the 60-unit Orange Grove Residences. Four units are left in the five-storey freehold condo. The current price is about $2,500 psf on average.

Over in the Scotts Road area, Wheelock Properties has sold about half of its 338-unit Scotts Square at an average price of $3,983 psf since July. And although it is holding an official launch for the freehold project on Friday, the group's executive director, Tan Bee Kim, says the plan is not to sell off all the remaining units just yet.

The developer is in the midst of deciding just how many units it will sell for now, as well as the pricing. Market watchers expect the average price to inch up to slightly above $4,000 psf.

Over in the Dunearn Road location, MCL Land has sold off all but the showflat of its 163-unit cluster terrace housing development, Hillcrest Villas, in two weeks. The average price achieved for the 99-year leasehold development was around $870 psf of strata area.