The 918-unit estate is holding an extraordinary general meeting on Oct 10 to form the collective sales committee (CSC). The 99-year-lease Braddell View development has 63 years left on its lease.
Market watchers note that it is still early days pending the appointment of a marketing agent and lawyers to draft the collective sales agreement. But a Straits Times report on Monday said owners hope to sell the sprawling 1.124 million sq ft development for at least S$2 billion - a price tag that will eclipse Pine Grove's S$1.65 billion en bloc attempt. The largest en bloc deal to date was in 2007, when the 618-unit Farrer Court was sold for S$1.34 billion to CapitaLand.
The en bloc fever has just started with eight sites sold for S$3.5 billion, including one industrial site, leading many watchers to believe that the en bloc up cycle is still at a nascent stage and the property market is in the early stage of recovery.
"Historically, spikes in en bloc sales have preceded property sector price recovery in the past cycles in 2007 and 2011," said Vikrant Pandey, a property analyst with UOB KayHian.
"We foresee the nascent recovery spreading to the mid-high end segment in the next wave, driven by replacement demand from en blocers and a pick-up in foreign homebuying interest from foreigners," he added. "We expect Singapore property prices to rise by 5-10 per cent next year after bottoming out this year (12-15 per cent correction from peak)."
Mr Pandey said he believes the en bloc fever could run until the end of next year, as a surge in en bloc sales could span between six and eight quarters.
Credit Suisse property analysts said in a note that they believe large listed developers such as City Developments and UOL Group are well placed to replenish land banks via en bloc sites, especially for former HUDC estates with large ticket sizes.
About 12,000 new private homes could potentially be generated from the 10 residential collective sales that have been transacted since last year and from another seven sites which have been launched, but the tenders for which have yet to close or be awarded, JLL estimated.
Source: SRX (19 Sep 2017)