CapitaLand is understood to have bought No 8 Tong Watt Road off River Valley Road

CapitaLand is understood to have bought No 8 Tong Watt Road off River Valley Road in the Mohamed Sultan area, at an auction last week for $9 million, bridging a gap in the row of houses it owns on the street.

With the latest acquisition, CapitaLand owns about 77,000 sq ft land area (stretching from Nos 1 to 17 Tong Watt Road) and which can be developed into around 293,000 sq ft gross floor area. That would be enough for almost 200 apartments averaging 1,500 sq ft. The stretch is zoned for residential use with a 3.8 plot ratio (ratio of maximum potential gross floor area to land area).

CapitaLand had bought the earlier properties at Tong Watt Road through at least two batches since 1999. Based on earlier reports, only the facade of the properties needs to be preserved, and the rear of the shophouses could be redeveloped up to 10 storeys high.

No 8 Tong Watt Road, which CapitaLand purchased last week, had been put up for auction by Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRA) to recover property taxes owed to it.

The 999-year leasehold, three-storey terrace house has yet to be restored and is the River Valley Conservation area. It has a land area of 2,751 sq ft.

Bidding for the property at the Knight Frank auction on Friday began at $6 million. The bidding was confined to just two to three parties, who drove the price up to $9 million before CapitaLand won.

Meanwhile, another group of properties that had been put for sale by its owner at the same auction - a row of six restored conservation shophouses at South Bridge Road - was sold hours before the auction began. The buyer, believed to be a Singapore investment company, paid more than the $20 million-22 million indicated price.

The six freehold shophouses at Nos 252 to 262 (even numbers) South Bridge Road, near the junction with Temple Street have a total land area of nearly 8,500 sq ft and a floor area of around 16,600 sq ft. Other properties sold at the auction include two adjoining refurbished shophouses at Nos 762 and 764 North Bridge Road, with a total freehold land area of 2,890 sq ft. They fetched $3.2 million. A three-bedroom apartment at the freehold Holland Peak in District 10 fetched $1.54 million or $1,008 psf of strata area.

Knight Frank’s auction saw the sale of 21 Senoko Loop, a detached factory building, for $3.65 million. The building has a floor area of about 71,860 sq ft with a land area of 114,345 sq ft. The site has 24-year leasehold tenure with effect from Aug 16, 1992.

Source: The Business Times, 20 June 2007