camila October 28, 2021

SINGAPORE – A joint venture between UOL Group and Singapore Land Group (SingLand) has won the tender for Watten Estate Condominium in Bukit Timah with a $550.8 million bid.

If successfully completed, it would be Singapore’s biggest residential collective sale by quantum to date this year.

The property’s $550.8 million price tag is about 10 per cent higher than the minimum price of $500 million announced by the property’s marketing agent JLL in September.

The Shelford Road property is located in the prime residential enclave at Watten Rise, which is within 1km of two popular primary schools: Nanyang Primary School and Raffles Girls’ Primary School.

It is also about 650m away from Tan Kah Kee MRT station. In its vicinity are Coronation Shopping Plaza, King’s Arcade Shopping Centre, Crown Centre, Serene Centre, Cluny Court and Adam Road Food Centre.

UOL Group’s chief investment and asset officer Jesline Goh said the group plans to develop a luxury condominium project on the site “with about 200 larger format units on elevated ground”.

Built around 1983, Watten Estate Condominium now houses 104 units of townhouses and apartments.

The property can be redeveloped into 286 units based on the mandatory minimum average size of 100 sq m, said JLL.

Spanning 220,241 sq ft, the freehold elevated site is zoned residential with a gross plot ratio of 1.4 and an allowable height of up to 5 storeys.

The winning bid was submitted by an 80:20 joint venture between United Venture Investments (UVI), a wholly owned subsidiary of UOL Group, and Singland Residential Development (SRD).

UVI will pay 80 per cent of the purchase price or $440.6 million and SRD will fund the remainder, the companies announced in Singapore Exchange filings on Thursday (Oct 28).

UOL and SingLand said the purchase will enable both groups to replenish their residential land banks.

“The acquisition is a timely replenishment for UOL Group as most of our projects are substantially sold,” said UOL Group’s Ms Goh.

SingLand said the joint venture will enable it to mitigate risks and take on more projects to diversify its portfolio and tap on the expertise and network of its joint venture partner.