Government ramps up private housing supply; offers three EC sites on Confirmed List
It was an unprecedented year for GLS tenders. For the first time, URA did not award the tender for three plots – Marina Gardens Crescent, the Jurong Lake District master developer location, and plots in Media Circle (for long-stay serviced apartment use). The URA rejected the bids supplied because they were too reasonable. These spots are currently listed on the 1H2025 Reserve List.
The ramp-up of supply from the GLS programs has contributed to the stabilisation of the private property market, as shown by the constraint in property cost drive. Based on the URA private property price index, rate expansion has regulated to 6.8% in 2023 from 10.6% in 2021 and 8.6% in 2022.
The Reserve Listing consists of 4 private residential sites, one business site, three White locations and one hotel site, that can possibly yield an extra 3,475 private residential units and 199,900 sqm (2.15 million sq ft) gross floor area (GFA) of business space.
The site of the previous Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society on Dorsett Road, off Rangoon Road, which can yield about 430 units, will in addition be released for sale in 1H2025. A residential and commercial site at Hougang Central, which can produce a new mixed-use development with 835 housing units and over 400,000 sq ft of commercial area, is marketed. It will likely be integrated with the Hougang MRT Station on the Northeast Line.
The 3,475 non commercial units on the Reserve Listing of 1H2025 are greater than the 3,090 units in 2H2024. Consisting Of the Reserve List, the general exclusive real estate supply of 8,505 units in 1H2025 is on a level with the 8,140 units in 2H2024.
Following the progressive ramp-up of exclusive housing supply in the GLS programmes over the last three years, the stock of private residential units available for sale has increased steadily from 16,100 units at the end of 2021 to around 21,000 units as of end-November 2024.
In view of the rigid challenge for EC sites amongst developers and going up EC land rates, the state has actually ramped up the supply of EC sites, with 3 plots potentially generating 980 units in the Confirmed Checklist of 1H2025. This is a shift from previous GLS programs ever since 2018, with only one EC area offered in each of the half-yearly land sales programmes, notes PropNex.
Additionally on the Confirmed Checklist is the non commercial plot in Upper Thomson Road (Parcel A), which viewed no proposals when its tender shut in June 2024. Previously, the plot was to offer a mix of residential units and long-stay serviced apartments. Of note, the URA has actually supplied even more flexibility this time; it claimed that serviced apartment/long-stay serviced apartment use would not be mandated for the site however can be permitted subject to authorization from technical agencies, notes PropNex.
To ensure that there suffices supply to fulfill real estate need and to maintain market stability, the state has actually maintained the supply of exclusive residential units by providing 8,505 units in the upcoming Confirmed List and Reserved List of the 1H2025 GLS Government Land Sales (GLS) programme 1H2025.
In terms of household units for sale, it’s in line with the 5,050 units provided in the Confirmed List of 2H2024. Nonetheless, it’s almost 60% more than the regular source on the Confirmed List in each GLS program from 2021 to 2023.
Along with sites in 2 brand-new housing precincts, most of the sites are near MRT terminals, that could appeal to builders and buyers likewise, notes Gafoor. “In our sight, one of the most attractive ones are the mixed-use site in Hougang Central (835 units) that will be attached to the Hougang MRT terminal, the Telok Blangah Road plot (740 units) and Dunearn Road (370 units) site in brand-new real estate districts, and within minutes’ walking to the MRT terminal, along with the Lakeside Drive site (575 units) which is right alongside the Lakeside MRT station, Jurong Lake Gardens and the Jurong East commercial center.”
Seven brand-new plots are going to be introduced in the 1H2025 GLS program. They consist of a plot at Lakeside Drive near the Jurong Lake Gardens in Jurong Lake District, Dunearn Road in the brand-new housing development in Bukit Timah Turf City, and Telok Blangah Road on the former Keppel Golf Course area.
Ten plots will be offered under the Confirmed List, making up 9 non commercial sites, 3 of which are executive condominium (EC) plots. The tenth plot is a non commercial cum commercial site. The 10 sites can generate an estimated 5,030 household units, including the 980 EC units.
The last time 3 EC plots were launched for sale in an one GLS program remained in 2H2014 when EC spots in Sembawang Road/Canberra Link, Anchorvale Crescent, and Woodlands Avenue 12 were introduced for tender. In 1H2014, four EC sites (two in Yishun, one each in Sembawang and Choa Chu Kang) were released available for sale using the GLS.
Private household rates are anticipated to see even more modest growths in 2024, with the collective rate increase over the first 3 quarters of the year at around 1.6%.
The rise in the EC land source in 1H2025 can “go some way to ease the competition among property developers in land tenders and assist to moderate EC land cost and prices as necessary”, says Ismail Gafoor, CEO of PropNex.
