Katong Shopping Centre Relaunches En Bloc Sale in 2023

Katong Shopping Centre has launched a fourth effort at collective sale, with an indicative price of S$638 million, according to a press release issued by Edmund Tie on Monday (July 10).

It was originally listed for collective sale at the same price in April. The reserve price was initially set at S$630 million for the first two instances, in 2016 and 2017, both handled by Cushman & Wakefield.

Swee Shou Fern, Edmund Tie’s head of investment advisory, said that although there was “keen interest from developers” in the prior exercise, the tender coincided with the government’s announcement of new property market cooling measures on April 26.

This “resulted in developers pausing to assess the market’s reaction to the most recent round of cooling measures,” she said.

“The market has seen a strong buyer response to recent residential projects in mixed-use developments since then”.

“Katong Shopping Centre offers investors and developers a rarely available large redevelopment site with the coveted freehold tenure for a mixed-use development; what’s more, it’s in the popular and well-established East Coast vicinity with many appealing features,” Ms. Swee said.

According to her, the new development can accommodate 156 residential units with an average unit size of 100 sq m (or around 1,076 sq ft). The retail component may have a gross floor area of up to 112,000 square feet.

“Strong buyer response to recent new project launches, including Canninghill Piers, Piccadilly Grand, Midtown Modern, Lentor Modern, Pasir Ris 8, and The Reserve Residences, demonstrates the popularity of such mixed-use developments, albeit with 99-year leasehold tenure,” Ms. Swee noted.

“Therefore, Katong Shopping Centre, with its strong site attributes, such as its freehold tenure, location in a well-established district, proximity to several reputable education institutions, and city center, among others, offers developers the coveted opportunity to create a landmark mixed-use development that caters to today’s modern lifestyle,” she explained.

Edmund Tie also said that the commercial center has a large catchment area with about 6,000 private dwelling units within a 500-meter radius.

This catchment area will grow even further with the construction of numerous major developments in the vicinity, including Tembusu Grand, The Continuum, and Grand Dunman.

It also mentioned the planned Marine Parade MRT station on the Thomson-East Coast Line, which will open next year and is just 500 meters away from the en bloc site.

Interested developers should submit their bids by 3 p.m. on August 14.

Katong Shopping Centre a freehold redevelopment site in District 15, is situated on an 86,924 sq ft corner land parcel overlooking both Mountbatten Road and Haig Road.

The development currently consists of a seven-storey podium building and a five-storey annex tower, with 425 strata retail and office spaces and privately controlled parking.

The development’s overall gross area is roughly 280,000 square feet, resulting in a gross plot ratio of 3.223.

Katong Shopping Centre is designated for commercial and residential use under Master Plan 2019, with a gross plot ratio of 3.0.

The property may be transformed into a landmark integrated complex at its current plot ratio of 3.223, with the residential component converted into serviced apartments if authorities approve.

Based on its current gross floor area, the estimated price of S$638 million works out to S$2,277 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr).