Investors confident of S'pore's long-term potential

Investors confident of S'pore's long-term potential

Top commercial property deals

ASIA SQUARE TOWER 1

Value: $3.38 billion

Sale of the 43-storey retail and office building in June by global investment firm BlackRock to Qatar Investment Authority's sovereign wealth fund set the record of being the largest single-asset and office transaction in the Asia-Pacific region, said consultancy JLL.

"This indicates foreign investors' confidence in the Singapore office market and anticipates long-term positive growth. We will see more foreign investors from all around the world chasing large assets here in 2017," said Ms Petra Blazkova, senior director of analytics at research firm Real Capital Analytics.

CENTRAL BOULEVARD WHITE SITE

Value: $2.57 billion

Malaysian plantation and real estate tycoon Lee Shin Cheng blew away the competition for the Marina Bay site last month with a super bullish top bid that set a record for a mixed-use site in the Government Land Sales programme.

His bid was 16.4 per cent above the second-highest bid by Mapletree, and reflects confidence that currently lacklustre office rents will recover to their 2015 peak by 2021, when the project is expected to be completed.

MAPLETREE BUSINESS CITY (PHASE ONE)

Value: $1.78 billion

In the biggest industrial property deal of the year, Mapletree Commercial Trust bought an office tower and three business park blocks at the Pasir Panjang integrated office and business park complex in July.

Despite the blockbuster price, analysts judged it a good buy because of the expected healthy yield and the location, which is popular with multinational corporations and government agencies.

MAJORITY STAKE IN CAPITAGREEN (above)

Value: $960 million

CapitaLand Commercial Trust Management acquired the remaining 60 per cent stake in the office tower CapitaGreen that it did not already own for $383 million in August.

The value of the stake in the 40-storey building on the site of the former Market Street Car Park was $960 million, based on an agreed market value of $1.6 billion.

The trust manager said that the deal will improve the portfolio for long-term growth.

STRAITS TRADING BUILDING

Value: $560 million

Indonesian tycoon Tahir is buying the 28-storey Straits Trading Building in the Central Business District from Sun Venture Group.

Mr Tahir is the founder of Indonesia's Mayapada Group. He also bought a 12-storey office block at 110 Robinson Road for $45.1 million. His $560 million purchase works out to a price of about $3,250 per sq ft - a new record for the psf price in the area.

Read also: Investors confident of S'pore's long-term potential

The three most expensive GCBs bought this year

Looking back: Property in flux


This article was first published on Dec 22, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.