Far East Shopping Centre Poised For En Bloc Sale
SINGAPORE – Marketing agent CBRE revealed that the Far East Shopping Centre will be put up for collective sale on Tuesday (July 25) with a guide price of S$928 million, reported The Edge on Monday afternoon (July 24, SGT).
Located at 545 Orchard Road, the mixed-use commercial property consists of a five-storey retail podium, a 10-storey office building with 80 strata-titled office units, and two strata-titled basement parking levels.
The development was built in 1974 and cost S$20 million to construct. It was developed by the Far East Organization, which still owns more than 30 percent of the complex by share value.
Far East Shopping Centre stands on a commercially-zoned site measuring 36,014 sq ft with leasehold tenure of 999 years with effect from 1871. It has a 55m frontage along Angullia Park and 75m frontage at Orchard Road.
As the commercial property is almost 50 years old, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said it’s one of the six properties between Cuscaden Road and Orchard Boulevard the government wants to be redeveloped into “a new exciting destination”.
The other 5 properties are HPL House, Voco Orchard Singapore, Forum the Shopping Mall, Wheelock Place, and Liat Towers. Notably, Hotel Properties Ltd submitted a redevelopment proposal to redevelop the first three assets under the Strategic Development Incentive (SDI) Scheme.
Launched in April 2021, the scheme will offer a 20 percent bonus gross floor area (GFA) to select properties that are redeveloped jointly with at least one of their neighbouring buildings to create “a new destination”. Apart from the bonus GFA, the new owners will enjoy flexibility in building height and land usage.
In addition to an allowable maximum height of 30 storeys under the 2019 masterplan, Far East Shopping Centre’s site has a verified existing plot ratio of 6.72 and GFA of around 242,145 sq ft. But if it qualifies for the SDI scheme, the plot ratio and GFA will rise to 8.06 and 290,574 sq ft, respectively.
But because the commercial property only attained the requite 80 percent approval from the unit owners for the en bloc sale on 24 June 2023, it needs to be sold before the end of 2023. This is because “all relevant property owners” of 545 Orchard Road and the adjacent properties must submit the joint Outline Application for a joint redevelopment proposal by 31 December 2023 to qualify for the SDI Scheme. The earlier the better to give the new owner enough time to submit the Outline Planning Permission.
Based on the GFA of 290,574 sq ft under the SDI Scheme, Far East Shopping Centre’s indicative price of S$928 million translates to S$3,421 psf per plot ratio.
