View of a Government Land Sales site in Singapore. (Photo: Nikki De Guzman)
Seven of the top 10 developers with the biggest residential landbank and unsold units in launched projects are local developers, according to the Business Times’ compilation of developers.
This comes as Singapore developers came out strong in the collective sales market and private land deals, even as foreign developers crowded them out in government sales of residential sites, the report said.
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Based on JLL’s analysis, half of the eight private residential sites, excluding the mixed-use site in Bidadari, sold in Government Land Sales (GLS) so far this year went to Singapore developers.
Over in the collective sales market, Singapore developers snagged six of the seven deals with a residential component. They also secured most other land deals this year.
“It was a matter of time before the local developers upped their game plan,” said Ong Teck Hui, national director of research and consultancy at JLL.
Sim Lian Group, for instance, topped the list in terms of residential landbank in one swoop when it acquired Tampines Court, a former Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) estate that could yield over 2,000 homes.
Oxley Holdings made a swift comeback this year to its home market, with the purchase of six residential sites comprising three sites via en bloc deals and three under private treaties. Two of the en bloc deals were for large sites acquired with consortium partners.
With this, Savills Singapore research head Alan Cheong expects Singapore developers to continue to be aggressive in their land bidding.
“When land prices are rising, they may sacrifice margins if they are motivated to get the site but when the project is ultimately launched a year down the road, selling prices are likely to have increased, thereby pumping their margins up again.”
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
