If everything goes according to plan, Mandarin Gardens condominium is all set to become Singapore’s largest collective sale ever. The 99-year leasehold development in Siglap sitting on sites close to or over one million sq ft, has set a S$2.48 billion price tag in a fresh attempt at a collective sale.
According to Channel NewsAsia which claims to have seen the documents, C and H Realty has been appointed as marketing agent to handle the en bloc sales process. An Extraordinary General Meeting is also set to be called within two weeks to approve the sale conditions.
Analysts believe that if the reserve price of the en bloc sale for Mandarin Gardens is met, it would raise the benchmark for en bloc collective sales islandwide. Even if the reserve price for Mandarin Gardens may be the highest land price ever in terms of absolute quantum, it correlates to the large piece of land, which could build about 3 million sq ft when multiplied by plot ratio.
Developers interested in bidding for collective sales of Mandarin Gardens have to be mindful of other cost factors like development charge and Additional Buyers’ Stamp Duty, which may push up the actual costs for them even higher. With the upgrading premium, the actual bill for the developer could be pushed to be in the region of $3 – $4 billion.
The record for the biggest successful en bloc sale to date is held by Farrer Court. It went for $1.3388 billion when a consortium bought the 838,488 sq ft estate and redeveloped it into the D’Leedon condo.
ZACD Group executive director Nicholas Mak commenting on the collective sales of Mandarin Gardens earlier said that it is a “tough sell”.
“I have never seen a sale of anything so big, like this (Mandarin Gardens), in the East Coast. It’s so big that even the big boys may want to go in as a joint venture to basically share the risk.”
The attempt to sell Mandarin Gardens en bloc failed 10 years ago when the sales committee pushing for the collective sales of the condominium was accused of trying to control the management council running the estate and voting down proposals to upgrade estate facilities.