The government tender for a 46,106 sq ft housing site at Lorong Puntong and Sin Ming Avenue closed on 15 September with seven bids, and the top one came in above what consultants had expected. Eco World Development (S), the Singapore arm of the Malaysian developer, offered $208.1 million, or $1,611.89 per square foot per plot ratio, The Business Times reported. The 99-year site can hold about 140 homes, a short walk from Bright Hill MRT station and directly opposite Ai Tong School.
It is a record for a 99-year pure residential government land sale site in the city fringe, 6.4% above the $1,515 psf ppr paid for Berlayar Drive in August. The top bid was about 11% above the second, $1,451 psf ppr from a tie-up between Hong Leong Holdings' Intrepid Investments and TID Residential, and 28% above the lowest of the seven.
What the land price implies
A developer pricing land is pricing backwards from what it expects buyers to pay, so a land rate can be read forwards as a floor under the launch price. Roov's site model adds the stamp duties on the land, construction, professional fees, financing and marketing to the $1,612 psf ppr, and lands at a breakeven of about $2,712 psf. At the 20% developer margin the model assumes, the likely launch is about $3,235 psf: roughly $2.26 million for a 700 sq ft two-bedder and $3.56 million for a 1,100 sq ft three-bedder. At a thinner 15% margin it is about $3,100 psf, and at 25% about $3,370.
Newmark's research head told The Business Times that pricing could start from $3,000 psf, the low end of that range. Our guide to land bids and launch prices explains the arithmetic, and Roov's GLS tracker runs it for every site on the programme, with assumptions you can change.
One caution before setting that figure against anything nearby. Since 1 June 2023, the area a developer sells you no longer includes the air-conditioner ledge, so a newly planned project's psf reads higher than an older one's at the same price. Our floor-area harmonisation guide shows how to compare the two fairly.
What buyers are paying nearby
Roov's URA records match the comparisons the consultants drew. Artisan 8, a freehold boutique project on Sin Ming Road, has sold 22 units since its August 2025 launch at an average $2,388 psf. Chuan Park, the 916-unit 99-year condo on Lorong Chuan, has sold 893 units since November 2024, 83 of them this year at an average $2,626 psf. AMO Residence in Ang Mo Kio, the district's last big launch, sold at a median $2,111 psf from 2022 and has since changed hands 40 times before completion at a median $2,515.
A launch near $3,200 psf would sit well above all three. That gap is what the developer is betting on: the address, the school across the road, and a station about to become more useful. Bright Hill, on the Thomson-East Coast Line, becomes an interchange with the Cross Island Line when that line opens, expected in 2030.
The competition arrives first
This will not be the first launch in the neighbourhood. Thomson Reserve, the 1,268-unit development on the former Thomson View site next to Upper Thomson MRT, is slated for the fourth quarter. Its land cost $1,178 psf ppr when that collective sale was struck in November 2024; the Sin Ming site cost about 37% more. We set out what Thomson Reserve will have to compete with, and the same resale benchmarks apply here.
Size cuts both ways. About 140 homes is a small project: fewer buyers to find, but, as consultants noted, less room for the economies of scale and the full set of facilities a large condo spreads across a thousand owners.
If you live nearby
Ai Tong School is directly opposite the site, and it is not among the twelve schools in MOE's new two-track Phase 2C, so its home-distance priority carries on under the 2027 rules. We explained what the 2027 changes do to the school premium, and our school proximity guide covers how the distance is measured. The location tool shows the schools, MRT stations and buses around any address.
If you own an HDB flat in Bishan or Thomson and are weighing an upgrade into one of these launches, settle the order first. The upgrade planner sets selling first against buying first, and what you can borrow and the stamp duty are the two numbers to know before any showflat. A new launch is paid in stages as it is built; the progressive payment tool shows what each stage asks of your cash and CPF.
The honest caveat
A land price is a fact. The launch price is an estimate: the project has not been designed, and URA has yet to award the site. This year's other record bids show the pattern, from New Upper Changi Road in Bedok at $1,537 psf ppr to Berlayar Drive at $1,515. The price a developer pays sets a floor; the market decides how far above it the launch can go.