Property Herald: A highly contested GLS site at Bukit Timah Road

Introduction

The Government Land Sale (GLS) tender for the 99-year leasehold residential site along Bukit Timah Road at Newton closed today. The subject site is located in the Core Central Region (CCR).

This report aims to discuss in detail the bids put forth for the subject site.

Source: URA

Description of site

The site, spanning 63,498 square feet with a gross plot ratio of 4.9, is zoned for residential use and is expected to yield approximately 340 housing units.

Number of bids from developers

The tender attracted 8 bids from property developers, which is within our earlier estimation.

Table 1: Tender bids for Bukit Timah Road GLS site

S/N	Bidders	Bid price ($m)	Bid price ($psf ppr)
1	Liao family (HH Investment)	$566.29	$1,819.98
2	Hoi Hup Realty and Sunway Developments	$504.38	$1,621.01
3	Wing Tai Holdings (Winclass Investment)	$483.99	$1,555.47
4	Capitaland Development and Mitsubishi Estate Co Investment (CL Emerald and MJR Investment)	$483.96	$1,555.38
5	China Overseas Land & Investment (COLI (Singapore))	$460.80	$1,480.95
6	Hong Realty and Hong Leong Holdings (Garden Estates and Intrepid Investments)	$460.51	$1,480.01
7	Allgreen Properties (Aster Residential)	$450.80	$1,448.81
8	Japura Development	$408.00	$1,311.26

Source: URA

Note: Bidder’s subsidiary names are in brackets

The tenders for three GLS residential sites in the CCR closed this year with winning bids ranging from $1,410 psf ppr to $1,432 psf ppr.

A significant factor in the tender for the Newton site that closes today is that seven of the bids are above the land rate of $1,440 psf ppr, which means that these developers plan to launch the condominium development on this site at prices north of $3,500 psf.

This shows that majority of the developers are confident of the robustness of property price growth in the CCR in the next two to three years.

Top bid submitted

The highest bid of $566.29 million was submitted by HH Investment Private Limited, which we believe is linked to Huang Hsiang Corporation, a construction property company from Taiwan. HH Investment was the developer of Balmoral Place, a freehold project with 28 apartments.

Its bid is 12.27% higher than the second highest bid. This 12.3% gap between the top two bids is the widest since the GLS tender for the Holland Link site closed on 29 July 2025, with a 22.2% difference between the top two bids. A double-digit percentage difference in the top two bids in a GLS tender is in the minority.

Furthermore, the land rate of the top bid at $1,819.98 psf ppr is the highest for a GLS residential site since the tender for the Cuscaden Reserve site closed in April 2018 at $2,377 psf.

Both of these factors shows that HH Investment Private Limited highly prizes this development site and could plan to develop a luxury condominium which could be their maiden project in Singapore.

The bids from the other developers in this GLS tender are also aggressive, ranging from $1,449 psf ppr to $1,621 psf ppr.

There are several factors that spurred these developers to compete fiercely for this site as detailed below.

Estimated launch price of this project

The average prices of CCR non-landed properties launched this year ranges from $2,950 psf to $3,360 psf as shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Launch prices of new launch CCR non-landed properties

Name of Project	Tenure	Total Units in project	Average price at launch ($psf)	Units sold at launch	% of units sold at launch
Aurea	99 yrs	188	$3,005	23	12.2%
The Robertson Opus	999 yrs	348	$3,360	143	41.1%
Upperhouse at Orchard Boulevard	99 yrs	301	$3,350	162	53.8%
River Green	99 yrs	524	$3,130	460	87.8%
Skye at Holland	99 yrs	666	$2,953	658	98.8%
Total of 5 CCR projects (ex-W Resid)	99 yrs	2,027		1,446	71.3%

Source: Mogul.sg Research

Based on the land rate of $1,819.98 psf ppr, the new condominium on the subject site could be launched in 2027 at $4,000 to $4,200 psf, which will set a new price benchmark in the Newton area.

Low-interest rate environment

The lower interest rate environment contributed to the bullish bids. As real estate development is a highly leverage business venture, the current lower borrowing costs enable developers to commit more financial resources to acquire and develop target sites.

The other reasons are the positive attributes of the site which is elaborated on our other article regarding the GLS site.