URA rejects GuocoLand JV’s bid for Marina Gardens Crescent site

Singapore's first canceled land sale tender since November 2011.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has rejected the lone $770.5m bid from a joint venture led by GuocoLand for the Marina Gardens Crescent site, citing it was “too low.”

URA on Thursday announced that it did not award the bid submitted by GuocoLand, Hong Leong Holdings’ Intrepid Investments unit, and TID Residential, and instead placed the 235,371 sq ft white site under the Reserve List of its first-half land sale programme to allow players to apply with a price deemed acceptable by the state.

Such a move marked the first time URA rejected a land sale tender in over 12 years or since the sole bid by UOL Group and Singapore Land for a Paya Lebar site in November 2011, although this was widely expected. 

Wong Siew Ying, Head of Research and Content at PropNex, said the bid of $984 per square foot per plot ratio was 30% lower than the $1,402 psf ppr or $1.03b price awarded a Kingsford-led JV for the adjacent Marina Gardens Lane plot in July 2023.

Wong does not see the tender cancelation as affecting the overall development of the Marina South precinct. However, she said it is unlikely for the Marina Gardens Crescent site to be launched back on the market soon.

READ MORE: GuocoLand-led JV clinches $486.8m Lentor Gardens site

Leonard Tay, Head of Research at Knight Frank Singapore, said: “it will be interesting to see if the government will award next time round.”

“If several developers assess the sales potential of homes as being weakened due to the doubling of the foreign ABSD, might this not then constitute the new market benchmark for the location?” he added.

For the Media Circle site, the URA awarded the $395m tender submitted by CNQC Realty (Clementi) and Forsea Residence for the site in One North.