Ivory Heights Enbloc Bid fails

Mega site Ivory Heights fails to get 80% approval, collective sale off

Ivory Heights, a 654-unit privatised Housing and Urban Development Company estate in Jurong East, has failed to get the requisite 80 per cent approval to launch a public tender by yesterday's deadline.

Analysts pointed to factors such as the July 6 cooling measures as well as the postponement by two years of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project.

Collective sale committee chair Vincent Ng cited resistance from some residents even after the initial reserve price of $1.34 billion had been raised twice, to $1.68 billion.

Each owner would have got $2.5 million to $2.8 million, up from $2 million to $2.3 million.

"We were at 74 per cent for the last few months. More than 480 units had signed. We just needed another 40-plus units. But the people who refused to sign kept asking for more, and market conditions have changed," said Mr Ng, 69.

"We have to leave it to the residents whether they want to restart. Our committee has done our part, and since we were unable to achieve 80 per cent, it will be dissolved."

Built on 825,502 sq ft of land and with 68 years left on its lease, Ivory Heights offers views of Jurong Lake, Chinese Garden and Japanese Garden.

According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority Master Plan 2014, the site is zoned for residential use with a gross plot ratio of 1.6.

Analysts were not surprised by the steep asking price, given its large land area and location near Jurong East and Chinese Garden MRT stations and the proposed HSR terminus.

"But... you can't ask for a high price when the unique selling point - the HSR project - is absent for the moment," said Mr Alan Cheong, senior director of research and consultancy at Savills Singapore.

A bigger issue is higher land acquisition costs and potential penalties for developers following the latest cooling measures, Mr Cheong said.

A developer would have to pay a non-remissible additional buyer's stamp duty of 5 per cent and a remissible 25 per cent if it can complete and sell the entire project within five years of buying the site.

Ivory Heights' failed attempt could be a harbinger of what's to come for other mega sites, analysts said.

Next up is Pine Grove. Its deadline to get the 80 per cent mandate expires on Oct 28. To date, 78 per cent of owners have consented to a reserve price of $1.72 billion.

Huttons Asia's head of investment sales Terence Lian, who is marketing Pine Grove, said: "The 2 per cent who are holding out should come to terms with current market conditions and not harp on getting a higher reserve price, so as not to end up like Ivory Heights, which lapsed prematurely."

The New Paper  - 01 Oct 2018