Braddell View owners eyeing $2 billion en bloc sale
The 918-unit project is the last HUDC estate to be privatised. (Photo: HDB)
The residents of the biggest HUDC estate here plan to hold an extraordinary general meeting on 10 October to form a collective sale committee in a bid to sell the entire property for a minimum price of $2 billion, reported the Straits Times.
The 918-unit Braddell View has 63 years left on its 99-year lease, and it was the last to be privatised among Singapore’s 18 HUDC estates in March 2017.
If the development successfully finds a buyer, if would not only surpass the record $1.34 billion en bloc sale of the 618-unit Farrer Court in 2007, but also exceed Pine Grove’s $1.65 billion collective sale attempt.
SEE ALSO: Pine Grove to go en bloc again
Last week, the owners of the 660-unit Pine Grove appointed Huttons Real Estate Group to market the property and is now engaging attorneys to write the collective sale agreement after failing in their previous attempts in 2008 and 2011.
However, Edmund Tie and Company’s research head Dr Lee Nai Jia thinks that the owners of Braddell View could encounter difficulties in selling the site due to its large area of 1.12 million sq ft and competition from other sites.
“Braddell View is attractive given its central location and proximity to a number of MRT stations. But there are so many en bloc sites available. There’s Pine Grove and Normanton Park. It could depend on which one is faster in launching the sites for sale.
“The market can only absorb one or two big sites. Because the site is so big, developers will need to factor in expected costs if they cannot finish selling the completed units.”
This is because developers are required to dispose all units in a project within five years of purchasing the land. Otherwise, they need to pay Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) and this could limit the price they are willing to pay for the site.
In fact, projects built on large sites sold during the 2007 en bloc boom like d’Leedon and The Interlace still have unsold units, noted ZACD Group’s executive director Nicholas Mak, adding that these two developments were constructed on the former site of Farrer Court and Gillman Heights respectively.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
