A WOODLANDS industrial site put up for sale by the government drew healthy interest by the time the tender closed yesterday.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) received eight bids, with Wee Hur Development placing the highest bid of $22.9 million, or $34 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).
‘The healthy response to the tender could be a reflection of the expected turnaround for the manufacturing sector,’ said Li Hiaw Ho, executive director at CBRE Research.
‘After six consecutive months of negative figures, manufacturing output finally recorded positive figures in April and May 2009.’
At the same time, the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) indicated an expanding sector in May and June 2009 after contracting since September 2008, he added.
Wee Hur’s bid is 45 per cent higher than the application bid of $12.5 million, or $19 psf ppr. It is also higher than the winning bid of $30 psf ppr submitted by Soilbuild Group in July 2008 for an industrial site in the same area. Soilbuild Group made the second-highest bid of $21 million, or $31 psf ppr, for the latest site.
The site, offered from the government’s reserve list, is at the junction of Woodlands Industrial Park E5 and Woodlands Avenue 4. It has an area of 2.5 hectares and a gross plot ratio of 2.5. The lease period is 60 years.
Property firms have said in recent reports that demand for private industrial space continued to shrink in the second quarter of this year.
DTZ said on Monday that private industrial rents – in decline since Q4 2008 – registered steeper falls in Q2 2009 than in the two preceding quarters. The outlook for the industrial market remains weak until to 2011 due to demand-supply imbalances and weakness in the office sector, the firm said.
Source: Business Times, 8 July 2009
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