Sold: 436 units of Jurong West condo at launch

It is an unusual occurrence in today's lacklustre private residential market but a condominium launch over the weekend drew a red-hot response from buyers with close to 90 per cent of units sold.

Lake Grande, a 710-unit condo along Jurong West Street that is being developed by MCL Land, released 500 units for sale last Saturday.

About 87 per cent of these units - 436 in total - were sold at an average price of $1,368 per square foot.

Koh Teck Chuan, chief executive of MCL Land, said 83 per cent of the transactions were for the one- and two-bedroom units.

Seventeen out of every 20 buyers are Singaporeans.

Lake Grande, a 17-storey project with units in one- to five-bedroom configurations, is a few minutes walk from the Lakeside MRT station and overlooks Jurong Lake.

While the private residential market is showing signs of hitting a trough - with prices in the second quarter seeing the slowest pace of decline since values started falling at the end of 2013 - the strong demand for Lake Grande units cannot be taken as a sign of improving buyer sentiments, market watchers cautioned.

Rather, the red-hot reception is likely to have been stoked by the Government's plan to develop the Jurong Lake District as a second central business district and home to the High Speed Rail (HSR) terminus connecting Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.

The HSR development recently took a big step forward, with Singapore and Malaysia signing a memorandum of understanding last week that paved the way for more detailed planning and eventual construction of the ambitious rail link.

"The main contributing factor for Lake Grande's strong sales is all the hype over the Jurong Lake District Master Plan and High Speed Rail coming onstream in 2026," Savills Singapore research head Alan Cheong said.

"But policymakers and market watchers alike must discern the wheat from the chaff.

"While Lake Grande and Treasure Crest executive condo (launched the previous week) did well, I don't believe we can make a blanket conclusion about sales rebounding in leaps and bounds.

"One or two swallows does not a summer make and demand is still project-specific," he added.

whwong@sph.com.sg

wrennie@sph.com.sg

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