Surging Singapore land bids are unsustainable, warns president of developer's association

(Oct 4): Surging bids for Singapore land aren’t sustainable in a market constrained by demographics and the government’s cooling measures, according to the head of a developers’ association.

“It is not sustainable to continue at this rate,” Augustine Tan, president of the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore, said in a speech on Wednesday. “With property measures in place, slow growth in Singapore’s population and manpower curbs, we do not see a runaway demand in sales transaction volume and property prices in the next few years.”

His comments strike a note of caution as land auctions and redevelopment deals set records, and after home prices rose for the first time in four years in the three months through September, snapping a record run of declines. City Developments, Singapore’s second-largest listed developer, and a partner on Wednesday won a $907 million bid for a residential redevelopment project, a record price for a freehold deal of that type.

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