A Record $1,612 psf ppr: Sin Ming Land Plot Draws Seven Bids
A 46,106 sq ft site at Lorong Puntong near Bright Hill MRT drew seven bids, with Eco World's S$208.1 million top offer setting a new city-fringe land price record. Here's what it signals for buyers.
A small plot of land tucked beside Bright Hill MRT in the Thomson-Bishan area went up for tender last month. When bidding closed on 15 September, seven developers had thrown their hats in — and the winning offer set a new benchmark for the city fringe.
What actually happened
Malaysian developer Eco World Development put in the top bid of S$208.1 million. For the 46,106 sq ft, 99-year leasehold site at Lorong Puntong / Sin Ming Avenue, that works out to about S$1,612 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr). The plot is expected to yield roughly 140 private homes.
That price is a record for a 99-year Government Land Sales (GLS) site meant purely for private housing in the Rest of Central Region (RCR). It beat the previous high of S$1,515 psf ppr set at Berlayar Drive in August by about 6.4%.
The contest was not especially close. Eco World's bid came in roughly 11% above the second-highest offer, a joint bid by Intrepid Investments and TID Residential that worked out to about S$1,451 psf ppr. Others in the running included Sunway MCL, EL Development, JBE Capital, and a consortium made up of Santarli Realty, Heeton Holdings, the family behind Sunray Woodcraft Construction, and Kay Lim Realty. The lowest bid was about S$1,256 psf ppr.
Property consultants had expected anywhere from four to 12 bids, with the top offer landing somewhere between S$1,400 and S$1,600 psf ppr. The winning bid came in at the very top of that range.
Why such a tiny site drew so much attention
At just over 46,000 sq ft, this is not a big plot. But location made up for size:
- Bright Hill MRT station on the Thomson-East Coast Line is a short walk away, and it will become an interchange when the Cross Island Line opens around 2030.
- Ai Tong School sits directly opposite the plot, with Ang Mo Kio Primary, Catholic High and CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School all within 1 to 2 km.
- Green space surrounds the area — Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, Lower Peirce Reservoir Park, Windsor Nature Park and MacRitchie Reservoir are all close by, and the Singapore Island Country Club is nearby too.
What it could mean for prices nearby
The headline number matters because land cost is one of the biggest inputs into a new launch's selling price. Newmark's head of research for Singapore, Wong Shanting, estimated the future project could be priced from around S$3,000 psf onwards, noting land costs have climbed on the back of aggressive bidding at recent tenders.
She also flagged a risk worth watching: with a softer job market and the possibility of higher interest rates in the short to medium term, buyer appetite at benchmark prices could cool — leaving a gap between what the project needs to charge and what buyers are willing to pay.
ERA Singapore chief executive Marcus Chu made a similar point. The small project size means fewer units to sell, but the land rate still demands careful pricing — and the real test will be whether the unit sizes and total prices line up with what buyers in that neighbourhood can afford.
For a sense of the neighbourhood, two recent launches offer clues. Artisan 8, a freehold boutique project on Sin Ming Road, has sold 22 of its 34 units since launching in August 2025 at an average of about S$2,388 psf. Further afield, Chuan Park has moved 893 of its 916 units, including 83 this year at an average of about S$2,626 psf.
Competition is already coming
The new project will not have the area to itself. Thomson Reserve — a 1,268-unit development on the former Thomson View site next to Upper Thomson MRT — is in the pipeline, and market watchers reckon it could capture the pent-up demand in that part of Singapore first.
There is also the practical question of scale. Huttons Asia chief executive Mark Yip noted that the small site may not offer the economies of scale that bigger plots enjoy, whether on construction costs or on the full suite of condo facilities.
The bigger picture
Set this against the wider market and the contrast is striking. HDB resale prices have been easing, and new home sales slowed during the recent Ghost Month lull. Yet a compact city-fringe plot still pulled seven bidders and a record land rate.
That tells you developers remain confident about well-located homes in established, amenity-rich neighbourhoods — even in a market where buyers have become more cautious. The flip side for anyone eyeing the area is that today's record land cost tends to show up later as higher launch prices.