MARINA Bay Suites, the second and last residential block at the Marina Bay Financial Centre, will be launched early next year

MARINA Bay Suites, the second and last residential block at the Marina Bay Financial Centre, will be launched early next year, as prices in the area continue to climb.

The developers - Cheung Kong (Holdings)/Hutchison Whampoa, Hong Kong Land and Keppel Land - are expecting strong interest in the condo, as well as high prices.

Market estimates expect smaller units to fetch at least $4 million to $5 million.

Sales for Marina Bay Suites have yet to start, although the condo was marketed recently at a Shanghai property exhibition.

Clients from China and Hong Kong made up almost 20 per cent of those who bought units at the first Marina Bay Financial Centre condo.

Marina Bay Suites will be marketed in Dubai next week, and then in Hong Kong.

It will have 223 three- to four-bedroom apartments ranging in area from 1,500 sq ft to 2,500 sq ft - all with private lift lobbies.

There will be a single-level penthouse on the 65th floor, and two duplex penthouses on the 63rd.

‘Marina Bay Suites will be a fitting, even more upscale, sister development to the 428-unit Marina Bay Residences, which sold out in just three days in December last year,’ said the condo’s head of residential marketing, Mr Kan Kum Wah.

There is talk that the 65-storey Marina Bay Suites could be priced at an average of $3,000 per sq ft (psf).

Mr Kan said it was too early to decide on pricing, although the developers will take ‘close reference’ to sub-sale prices of Marina Bay Residences.

The highest sub-sale price recorded for Marina Bay Residences was $3,600 psf in June. This compared with the average apartment price of around $1,850 psf at last December’s launch, when penthouses sold for up to $3,450 psf.

Recent Marina Bay Residences deals in August ranged from $2,061 psf to $3,080 psf for the 732 sq ft to 1,981 sq ft apartments.

A unit at the popular The Sail@Marina Bay nearby went for as high as $3,301 psf in August.

In the same month, other deals for apartments as small as 667 sq ft were recorded at $1,300 psf to $2,999 psf.

Phase one of The Sail - the first condo in Marina Bay - was launched at below $1,000 psf in late 2004.

Source : Straits Times - 10 Oct 2007