Property Herald: Lakeside Drive GLS tender closed with strong bids

Summary

Despite the market uncertainty arising from the unpredictability of the US tariff regime, the popularity of homes near MRT stations remains unchanged among homebuyers in Singapore. This resilient demand give real estate developers the confidence to submit bullish bids and attracted a healthy level of participation from developers. It is essentially a vote of confidence among developers.

The Lakeside Drive Government Land Sale site is zoned for residential use with commercial space on the first storey. The commercial space in this development is likely to include a supermarket. This is because the nearest supermarket to the Lakeside MRT Station is about 720 metres away. Although there is a significant population around the subject site, there is currently no supermarket nearby.

This tender attracted six bids from property developers. City Developments submitted the top bid of $608 million, which translate to a land rate of $1,132.08 psf ppr. The difference between the highest and lowest bid is 24.5%. This is the narrowest difference between the highest and lowest bid in a residential GLS tenders that drew six bids in the past five years, indicating that most bidders have a reasonable valuation for this site.

The new development on this site could be launched between late 2026 and 3Q 2027 at

about $2,600 to $2,700 psf.

Introduction

The tender for the Government Land Sale (GLS) residential site located at Lakeside Drive closed today, attracting six bids with a top bid of $608 million. This land parcel is located next to the Lakeside MRT Station.

Brief Description of the Site

With a site area of roughly 145,152 sq ft and a Gross Plot Ratio (GPR) of 3.7 times, the

Lakeside Drive GLS site is able to yield about 575 condominium units and commercial space

of about 1,000 sqm.

Future development on this site

The Lakeside Drive site is zoned for residential use with commercial space on the first storey.

The development will include an estimated commercial space of 10,700 sq ft. The commercial space would likely be use for shops and food & beverage outlets, offering retail amenities that would increase the appeal of the residential properties to potential homebuyers.

The commercial space in this development is likely to include a supermarket. This is because

the nearest supermarket to the subject site is about 720 metres away.

Although there is a significant population around the subject site and Lakeside MRT Station, there is currently no supermarket nearby. Within a 500-metre radius from the site, there are seven completed condominium projects, a landed housing estate with about 100 houses and about 36 blocks of HDB flats. The population in this neighbourhood will provide a significant catchment of shoppers for the retail space in the subject development.

Why this site is attractive

Firstly, the area around the subject site is a fairly well-developed housing estate with a good mix of HDB flats, private condominiums and landed homes. The residents in this housing estate would be the source of the demand for the housing units of the future development to be built on the site.

Secondly, the development site is located next to one of the entrances to Lakeside MRT Station, which is part of the popular East-West Line.

Furthermore, from this location, drivers can also easily access the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) via Boon Lay Way, adjacent to the site. In addition, several major shopping malls, including Jurong Point, JEM, and Westgate, are just a few MRT stations away, meeting residents’ retail needs.

Lastly, there are a number of schools around the subject site, with Fuhua Secondary School being one of the top secondary schools in Singapore. Rulang and Shuqun Primary School are both located just across a traffic junction within 1km of the subject site, meaning that future residents with children are able to enrol them into these two schools easier.

Table 1: Schools near Lakeside Drive GLS site

Name	Distance from subject site (m)
Rulang Primary School	410
Shuqun Primary School	480
Yuhua Secondary School	510
Fuhua Secondary School	850
Yuan Ching Secondary School	180

Source: MOGUL.sg Research, URA Space

Analysing the bids

This tender attracted six bids from developers, which is expected due to the development potential of the site. This is a sharp contrast to the previous GLS tender for the residential site at Media Circle (Parcel B), which did not attract any bid from developers in late April 2025.

For the current land tender for the Lakeside Drive site, City Developments submitted the top bid of $608 million, which translate to a land rate of $1,132.08 psf ppr (per square foot per plot ratio).

The top bid is 10.4% higher than the second highest bid for the Lakeside Drive site. The 10.4% margin is wider than the average margin of 7.8% between the top and second highest bids in the ten most recently closed GLS residential land tenders, excluding Executive EC land tenders.

The lowest bid of $488,195,000 was submitted by Sim Lian Group. The difference between the highest and lowest bid is 24.5%. This is the narrowest difference between the highest and lowest bid in a residential GLS tenders that drew six bids in the past five years, indicating that most bidders have a reasonable valuation for this site.

The healthy participation by real estate developers in this land tender that closed today shows that developers would still prefer to acquire development sites near MRT station, despite the present economic uncertainty. In addition, there are four other GLS sites currently open for tender with another three more sites to be launched this month.

The proximity to a MRT station and the potential pent-up demand for properties within this area in Jurong West led to the healthy tender bias.

Estimated launch price of the new project

Based on the land rate of the top bid, the expected development costs, the current development process and the prices of new condominiums, the new development on this site could be launched between late 2026 and mid-2027 at about $2,600 to $2,700 psf.

Table 2: Median price of comparable new residential properties

Note: All projects are 99-year leasehold properties | Source: MOGUL.sg Research, Realis