Property development and investment company Ho Bee Investment is looking to pick new residential sites in Singapore within six to nine months’ time, according to The Business Times.
“Right now, there is a lot of uncertainty; nobody can fathom what will happen in Europe or the US. Hopefully, things will become clearer in six to nine months and by then, land prices will be more stabilised…more realistic, more reasonable and we can pick up some good residential sites in Singapore,” said Chua Thian Poh, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ho Bee Group.
The last time the company purchased a residential land parcel in Singapore was in early 2008, when it acquired the Pinnacle Collection site on Sentosa Cove, in partnership with Malaysia’s IOI Properties.
Meanwhile, Chua noted that the company became less enthusiastic about looking for private housing sites in Singapore after the property market started to recover in 2009, after the global financial crisis.
Back then, the company had “quite a bit on our plate and we did not want to get more land when we had not fully sold our Singapore residential projects on existing sites,” he said.
“We didn’t get residential sites but for investment property we got a commercial site in Buona Vista where we are developing The Metropolis at a good entry price and this will also bring value to the company.”
Directly connected to the Buona Vista MRT station on the Circle Line, The Metropolis is a Grade A office project that will comprise two office towers (21 and 23 storeys high) and retail space.
It will have a total net lettable area (NLA) of about 1.08 million sq ft (including 22,000 sq ft of retail space) and is set for completion in the second half of 2013.
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