Government ramps up private housing supply; offers three EC sites on Confirmed List
To ensure that there is adequate supply to satisfy real estate need and to preserve market balance, the state has actually maintained the supply of private household units by offering 8,505 units in the upcoming Confirmed List and Reserved List of the 1H2025 GLS Government Land Sales (GLS) program 1H2025.
10 plots will be offered under the Confirmed List, making up nine non commercial sites, three of which are executive condo (EC) plots. The tenth plot is a non commercial cum commercial area. The 10 sites can produce an estimated 5,030 housing units, including the 980 EC units.
It was an unmatched 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 property developer site, and plots in Media Circle (for long-stay serviced apartment use). The URA rejected the quotes provided because they were too low. These locations are now listed on the 1H2025 Reserve Listing.
In terms of residential units for sale, it’s in line with the 5,050 units used in the Confirmed List of 2H2024. Nevertheless, it’s just about 60% more than the average source on the Confirmed List in each GLS programme from 2021 to 2023.
Following the progressive ramp-up of personal real estate supply in the GLS programmes over the last 3 years, the supply of exclusive residential units offered up for sale has increased steadily from 16,100 units at the end of 2021 to around 21,000 units since end-November 2024.
Marina View Residences IOI Properties
Exclusive non commercial costs are anticipated to see even more moderate gains in 2024, with the collective price raise over the first 3 quarters of the year at about 1.6%.
The site of the former Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society on Dorsett Road, off Rangoon Road, that can yield about 430 units, will also be launched for sale in 1H2025. A residential and commercial site at Hougang Central, which can produce a new mixed-use development with 835 residential units and over 400,000 sq ft of commercial space, is marketed. It will likely be incorporated with the Hougang MRT Stop on the Northeast Line.
Along with locations in two new real estate precincts, most of the sites are nearby MRT stations, which can entice property developers and property buyers as well, notes Gafoor. “In our sight, one of the most attractive ones are the mixed-use site in Hougang Central (835 units) that will certainly be attached to the Hougang MRT station, the Telok Blangah Road plot (740 units) and Dunearn Road (370 units) site in brand-new housing districts, and within mins’ stroll to the MRT stop, along with the Lakeside Drive site (575 units) that is right alongside the Lakeside MRT terminal, Jurong Lake Gardens and the Jurong East commercial center.”
The last time three EC plots were released for sale in a sole GLS program remained in 2H2014 when EC sites in Sembawang Road/Canberra Link, Anchorvale Crescent, and Woodlands Avenue 12 were launched for tender. In 1H2014, 4 EC sites (2 in Yishun, one each in Sembawang and Choa Chu Kang) were introduced for sale through the GLS.
The 3,475 household units on the Reserve List 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 par with the 8,140 units in 2H2024.
Seven brand-new plots are going to be introduced in the 1H2025 GLS programme. They consist of a plot at Lakeside Drive nearby the Jurong Lake Gardens in Jurong Lake District, Dunearn Road in the brand-new real estate precinct in Bukit Timah Turf City, and Telok Blangah Road on the previous Keppel Golf Course area.
Also on the Confirmed List is the residential 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 provided even more versatility this time around; it stated that serviced apartment/long-stay serviced house usage would not be mandated for the spot but can be enabled based on authorization from technical companies, notes PropNex.
The Reserve Listing consists of four private housing sites, one business site, 3 White spots and one hotel site, that can probably yield an extra 3,475 private residential units and 199,900 sqm (2.15 million sq ft) gross floor area (GFA) of business space.
In view of the stiff challenge for EC sites among property developers and rising EC land costs, the state has actually increase the supply of EC sites, with 3 plots potentially yielding 980 units in the Confirmed Checklist of 1H2025. This is a change from previous GLS programmes since 2018, with just one EC spot offered in each of the semiannual land sales programmes, notes PropNex.
The increase in the EC land supply in 1H2025 might “go some way to soothe the competition among developers in land tenders and help to moderate EC land cost and prices accordingly”, states Ismail Gafoor, CEO of PropNex.
The ramp-up of supply from the GLS programmes has actually contributed to the stabilisation of the private household market, as mirrored by the moderation in property rate momentum. Based on the URA private property price index, rate development has actually regulated to 6.8% in 2023 from 10.6% in 2021 and 8.6% in 2022.
