AsiaOne: Government maintains strong supply of land to meet demands

Government maintains strong supply of land to meet demands

MND reveals land sales plans for private residential, commercial and hotel developments for first half of 2011. -AsiaOne

Thu, Nov 25, 2010
AsiaOne

SINGAPORE - The Ministry of National Development (MND) announced in a press release that it will maintain a strong supply of private housing and release more commercial sites to meet demands.

The Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme for the first half of 2011 will comprise 19 Confirmed List sites and 25 Reserve List sites. The 44 sites will consist of 28 residential sites, 5 commercial sites, 2 commercial & residential sites, 1 White site and 8 hotel sites. These sites can potentially yield about 14,300 private residential units, 318,000 sqm GFA of commercial space and 3,700 hotel rooms.

MND will place 17 sites on the Confirmed List of the 1H2011 GLS Programme. These sites can yield about 8,100 residential units in total.

This is comparable to the supply from the Confirmed List in the 2H2010 GLS Programme, which was the highest supply since the Confirmed List/Reserve List system was introduced in 2H2001.

The 17 Confirmed List sites comprise 16 residential sites (including 3 Executive Condominium (EC) sites) and 1 commercial & residential site.

The Reserve List in 1H2011 will have 13 sites, which can together yield about 6,200 residential units.

The 1H2011 GLS Programme will therefore have a total of 30 sites for residential development, including 4 EC sites and 2 commercial & residential sites, which can generate about 14,300 private residential units.

This is higher than the 13,900 private residential units made available in second half 2010 GLS Programme.

Most of the 30 sites, including the 4 EC sites, are located in the Outside Central Region or in locations in the Rest of Central Region where more affordable private housing is expected to be built. This will help to increase the supply of such housing.

More Commercial Sites to Meet Demand for Office Space

To ensure a steady supply of office space to support the growth of the financial and business services sector, MND will release 2 commercial sites at Robinson Road / Cecil Street and Paya Lebar Road / Eunos Road 8 on the Confirmed List of the 1H2011 GLS Programme.

Both sites will be sold with the requirement of a minimum office quantum.

The Robinson Road site will cater to the demand for office space in the Central Business District (CBD). It is located in proximity to the Tanjong Pagar area, which is establishing itself as an attractive business node within the CBD, with many new office and hotel developments.

The site at Paya Lebar Road was originally scheduled to be placed on the Reserve List in Dec 2010, under the 2H2010 GLS Programme. It will be transferred to the Confirmed List for sale in Jan 2011 to help facilitate the early development of Paya Lebar Central into an attractive commercial hub to complement the CBD. The future development can cater to businesses that do not need to be located within the CBD.

In addition, a commercial site at Sims Avenue / Tanjong Katong Road will be added to the Reserve List to provide for growth of Paya Lebar Central into a sizeable and sustainable commercial node.

Hotel Sites

Two new hotel sites at Race Course Road / Perumal Road and Kallang Riverside (Parcel B) will be added to the Reserve List of the 1H2011 GLS Programme. As a number of sites had been sold from the 2H2010 Reserve List, these new sites will ensure that a wide variety of hotel sites is maintained in the 1H2011 Reserve List for developers to choose from.

The site at Race Course Road is located in proximity to the historic district of Little India, which is popular with tourists. The hotel site at Kallang Riverside is the second hotel site to be released for sale in this new growth area which will be transformed into a new waterfront lifestyle precinct by the edge of the city. With the commencement of construction of the Sports Hub, which is scheduled for completion in 2014, it is timely to release an additional hotel site in the area to facilitate the early development of Kallang Riverside.

Other Government Supply to be Made Available in the First Half of 2011Supply in the Pipeline Expected to be Completed in Next Few Years

Apart from the GLS Programme, the Government also makes available other supply of land and properties through its various agencies. MND works closely with other agencies to coordinate this supply of space with the supply from the GLS Programme.

The projects which the various Government agencies plan to initiate outside the GLS Programme in the first half of 2011 can yield about 39,000 sqm GFA of commercial space. These projects are to meet strategic economic or development objectives. The planned commercial space supply from these projects includes:

Leasing of vacant state properties for commercial, including office, uses (about 14,300 sqm GFA), and

Localised retail facilities at Sentosa, parks, MRT stations and community centres.

The announcement of the planned supply to be made available by the Government outside of the GLS Programme will provide a more complete picture of the overall Government supply of space for 1H2011.

Maintaining a Strong Supply of Private Housing to Meet Demand

Apart from the potential supply from the GLS Programme and other Government sources in first half of 2011, there is also additional supply from projects in the pipeline which have been initiated earlier, both from Government and private land sources.

For the private housing sector, as at the third quarter 2010, there were 64,358 private residential units in the pipeline, comprising supply from projects that were already under construction and those that had been granted planning approval but were not under construction yet. Of these, a total of 36,796 new private residential units are expected to be completed between the fourth quarter 2010 and 2013. Of the 64,358 units, 20,965 units will be in Core Central Region, 18,220 units in Rest of Central Region and 25,173 units in Outside Central Region.

There are another 7,700 units from sites sold or to be sold under the 2H2010 GLS Programme that have not been included in the 64,358 private residential units in the pipeline as submissions for planning approval have not been made for these sale sites yet. Together with the 8,100 private units that can be potentially generated from the Confirmed List of the 1H2011 GLS Programme, the potential supply of private housing units that can be completed in the next few years will be about 80,200 units.

In addition, of the 64,358 private residential units in the pipeline as at the third quarter 2010, 33,771 units were still unsold. These comprised 3,248 units that had been launched for sale by developers and 11,382 units which had the pre-requisite conditions for sale and could be launched for sale immediately. The pre-requisite conditions for sale have not been obtained for the remaining 19,141 units with planning approval.

For the office sector, as at the third quarter 2010, there was a total supply of about 887,000 sqm GFA of office space from various Government and private land sources in the pipeline. Of these, about 762,000 sqm GFA of office space is expected to be completed between the fourth quarter 2010 and 2013. Apart from office space, there is a pipeline supply of about 368,000 sqm GFA of Business Park (BP) space, of which 278,600 sqm GFA is expected to be completed between the fourth quarter 2010 and 2013. Space in BPs can meet the needs of some companies, such as the backroom operations and data centres of financial institutions and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

For the shop and hotel sectors, as at third quarter 2010, there was a total supply of about 382,000 sqm GFA of shop space and 11,133 hotel rooms in the pipeline, most of which are expected to be completed between the fourth quarter 2010 and 2013.

A summary of the estimated pipeline supply of private residential units, office space, shop space and hotel rooms as at the third quarter 2010 can be found in Appendix 3. The estimated pipeline supply is based on expected project completion dates provided to URA by developers on a quarterly basis. These completion dates will be updated when URA releases the Real Estate Statistics for the fourth quarter of 2010 in end Jan 2011.

The Government will continue to monitor the property market closely and is prepared to inject even more supply of private housing should demand continue to be strong.