Not a single property sold yesterday at a highly touted auction

Not a single property sold yesterday at a highly touted auction for owner-sales of apartments in the hot spots of Marina Bay/CBD and Sentosa Cove.

Twenty-one properties were offered. And in most cases the opening prices sought by the auctioneers were not even met. In a few cases there were some bids, but these were below the owners’ reserve prices.

However, CKS Property Consultants, which conducted the auction, is unfazed by the result and confident of selling the properties post-auction through private treaty deals.

CKS spokeswoman Valerie Ho attributed the poor response at yesterday’s auction to bidder shyness. ‘Bidders were predominantly local and they may still not be used to the idea of buying a home at an auction,’ she said. ‘And this is the first attempt to have an auction featuring solely properties put up for sale by owners.

‘There has been a lot of interest after the auction. We expect a lot of negotiations and transactions over the weekend for this batch of properties. We also have a few potential buyers from Indonesia who are coming to our office next week for discussions.’

Ms Ho reckons the asking prices set by owners are reasonable.

A long-time market watcher who attended yesterday’s auction generally agreed, pointing for instance to the $1.3 million or $1,050 psf opening price sought for a 40th floor two-bedroom unit with a study/loft at Icon at Tanjong Pagar, and the $2.5 million ($1,408 psf) opening asking price for a three-bedroom, 12th floor unit at The Oceanfront @ Sentosa Cove. ‘The thing to remember is that these are all sub-sale properties and usually their asking prices are lower than what is being charged by developers for newer project launches in the location,’ the market watcher said.

‘But the problem right now is that there are so many sub-sale units in these so called hot-spot locations that, frankly, you can easily pick one up from the classifieds. No need to come to an auction looking for such units - unless the pricing or facing is very attractive.’

Also, from a potential buyer’s perspective there is a disincentive in buying in the sub-sale market as developers will not extend deferred payment schemes they may have given to initial buyers to sub-sale buyers, the market watcher added.

Properties on offer yesterday included the entire 57th floor, comprising seven apartments, at The Sail @ Marina Bay Tower 2.

The auctioneer’s opening asking price was $10 million but there were no takers.

Three units at One Shenton were also offered.

Source: The Business Times, 13 April 2007