Evia Real Estate Led Consortium Submits Top Bid 980 Psf Ppr First Mixed Use Site Chencharu Close
The first Government Land Sales (GLS) site in Chencharu Town has closed with three bids on Sept 11. The successful bidder, Evia Real Estate, in partnership with Gamuda Land and Ho Lee Group, submitted the highest bid of $1.012 billion, equivalent to $980 psf per plot ratio (ppr). This is followed by a joint venture between Frasers Property, Mitsubishi Estate, and Lum Chang Building Contractors with a bid of $845 million ($818 psf ppr). In third place is Sim Lian Group, offering a bid of $692.4 million ($670 psf ppr).
According to Wong Siew Ying, the head of research and content at PropNex, the top bid is 19.8% higher compared to the second-highest bid of $818 psf ppr, and 46.2% higher than the third bid at $670 psf ppr. She mentions that this price gap could be due to varying assessments of the potential of the plot among developers, as it is a new housing area with few private condos in the vicinity. “The number of bids is within our expectations, as this is a large plot with a maximum gross floor area of over 1 million sq ft, which requires a significant investment,” she adds.
The average selling price for the project is estimated to be above $2,300 psf, based on a top bid land rate of $980 psf ppr, according to PropNex. Although it is lower than recent land bids in the Outside Central Region (OCR), this is reflective of the site’s specific requirements, including the construction of a hawker centre and bus interchange, compared to other attractive GLS sites, says Marcus Chu, CEO of ERA Singapore.
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Huttons Asia’s CEO Mark Yip notes that Evia Real Estate and Gamuda Land were also joint venture partners in two previous projects – the 578-unit Gem Residences in Toa Payoh, launched in 2016, and the 548-unit executive condo, Ola in Sengkang, launched in 2020. The Chencharu Close site is their first mixed-use project, with Ho Lee Group as their new partner.
Located in the new Chencharu Town, a 70ha HDB housing estate within Yishun Town, the GLS site sits on an area of close to 317,000 sq ft. It has a plot ratio of 3.26 and can be developed into a mixed-use development with about 875 private residential units and 135,627 sq ft of commercial space. Out of the commercial space, 37,674 sq ft is designated as a hawker centre, and another 58,125 sq ft is allocated for an integrated bus interchange. The development is situated just a five-minute walk from the Khatib MRT Station on the North-South Line.
Mohan Sandrasegeran, the head of research and data analytics at SRI, points out that before this site, the last mixed-use development in the area was the one at Yishun Avenue 4, which was awarded in 2015. It has since been developed into Wisteria Mall and The Wisteria residential units. He adds that the Chencharu Close GLS site has a distinctive advantage, being closer to Khatib MRT station, compared to the previous site.
CBRE’s Song mentions that the top bid price of $980 psf ppr of the Chencharu Close GLS site is 10.7% higher than the most recent comparable mixed-use site at Tampines Avenue 11. In comparison, the more recent mixed-use comparables include Tampines Street 94, which received six bids and was awarded for $1,004 psf ppr in September 2024, and has a smaller site area and does not require integration with a bus interchange and hawker centre.