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Marina Bay in Singapore needs no introduction to Malaysians. Mention its integrated resort Marina Bay Sands and most would picture its glitzy hotel, casino, dazzling musicals, shopping mall and nightlife.
It is this familiarity that Thomas Tan, director of residential marketing at Raffles Quay Asset Management (RQAM), hopes to leverage to pitch the project the company is managing — the Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC) — to prospective local buyers.
Tan, who was in Kuala Lumpur recently, describes MBFC as a unique waterfront development with no regional comparison, save for Shanghai’s waterfront in China and Canary Wharf in England.
Apart from enjoying unobstructed views of the waterfront, MBFC’s second residential component Marina Bay Suites also represents a rare opportunity for residents to live within a central business district (CBD) in Singapore, he tells City & Country.
MBFC is located in Marina Boulevard within the 360ha Marina Bay waterfront area, which was reclaimed from the sea in the 1970s. It comprises three office towers, two residential towers and a retail mall, and covers 8.77 acres. Upon completion in 2013, MBFC will have almost three million sq ft of Grade A office space, 649 residential units and 176,000 sq ft of retail space.
It is split into two phases with Phase 1 comprising office Towers 1 and 2 that are 33 and 50 storeys high respectively, the 55-storey Marina Bay Residences consisting of 428 condos and penthouses and part of Marina Bay Link Mall with 93,500 sq ft of net lettable area (NLA).
Phase 2 comprises the 46-storey Tower 3, the 66-storey Marina Bay Suites with 221 apartments and penthouses and the remaining portion of the mall with an NLA of 82,500 sq ft.
Envisioned as a self-contained area where residents can work, live and play, MBFC’s amenities include the Marina Bay Link Mall — an underground structure that links the Ground Plaza and the three office towers. It is partially completed with 93,500 of the 176,000 sq ft open for business.
Above the mall is The Lawn@Marina Bay, a 130,000 sq ft park that was inspired by Bryant Park in New York. Intended as a green space for residents of the development, the park will also be used to host a variety of events, such as sports activities and cultural performances.
At the moment, two MRT stations — Raffles Place and Marina Bay — are located close to MBFC. The Downtown MRT station is slated to come up in 2012 and run through Marina Bay besides joining the area to the CBD further uptown. Work on the Marina Coastal Expressway is also ongoing and is expected to be completed in 2013.
With a development cost of S$4 billion, MBFC is being developed by a consortium of three leading Asian developers — Hong Kong real estate players Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd and Hongkong Land Ltd as well as Keppel Land Ltd, which is the property arm of Singapore multinational corporation Keppel Group.
RQAM “introduced” the project, especially its Marina Bay Suites, to Malaysian buyers over the weekend and noted that the number of enquiries was heartening. MBFC probably appeals to investors who anticipate further upside for luxury residences in Singapore, given the segment’s slower recovery compared with the rest of the market, and continued economic growth in the island state, says Tan.
The “introduction” was a mere formality because, according to his estimates, about 14% of the 139 units sold following two previews in November 2009 and April 2010 were taken up by Malaysians, both Singapore permanent residents and non-residents.
The suites on offer are located mostly from the 47th floor of the 66-storey tower and are priced from S$2,200 to S$3,328 psf, which works out to S$3.5 million for the smallest unit.
“About 90 units were sold at the preview in November 2009. That was even before the show suite was ready,” remarks Tan.
The key differences between the Suites and the Residences are size and density. The former has 221 units with built-ups of 1,600 to 2,700 sq ft and three to four rooms while the latter comprises 428 units with built-ups of 710 to 2,368 sq ft and one to four rooms.
Marina Bay Residences, the penthouses of which are 4,435 to 11,000 sq ft in size, is fully taken up and was completed last year.
Marina Bay Suites also has three penthouses — one single level and two duplexes with built-ups of 4,700 to 8,100 sq ft.
“We have identified demand for good-sized apartments by both owner-occupiers and investors to service the needs of the working population in MBFC and nearby,” says Tan.
He notes that there is a catchment of just under 9,000 professionals at the fully leased Towers 1 and 2 offices with a total NLA of 1.65 million sq ft. Some of them are expatriates attached to the multinational corporations renting space there, such as Standard Chartered Bank and Nomura; financial services group Prudential; and mining, oil and gas giant BHP Billiton.
There is no data on the actual number of expatriate workers and their families, but Tan reckons that it is sizeable enough to form an attractive investment proposition.
“Usually, the foreigners stationed here are also senior enough to have attractive housing allowances to take care of their needs,” he adds.
This population of professionals and their families looking for convenient and comfortable long-term lodgings is apart from the upgraders in the island republic who wish to partake of the glamorous and incomparable experience — by Singapore standards — of waterfront living, says Tan.
As Marina Bay Suites is only due for completion in 2013, there is no rental market yet. However, Tan estimates that the rental yield of Marina Bay Residences is a modest 3%.
“The homes in Marina Bay should be seen as a long-term investment. Investors are also looking at the capital appreciation of the units,” he explains.
Judging by the subsale prices, there is growth potential.
According to caveats lodged with Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, a 1,625 sq ft Marina Bay Suites unit sold for S$4.06 million or $2,500 psf this April, up 18.7% from S$3.42 million or S$2,104 psf for a similar-sized unit in December 2009, although the floor on which these units are located is unknown.
A larger unit of 2,680 sq ft fetched S$2,929 psf in February, up 26.4% from S$2,316 psf in December 2009.
The rise in property prices in Singapore prompted the government to introduce a slew of measures to cool the market. In January, it imposed a loan-to-value cap of 60% on property buyers with outstanding mortgages and raised the stamp duty of sellers to a whopping 16% for properties sold within the first year of purchase, from 3% previously. Properties that are sold in the second year will incur a stamp duty of 12%. This drops to 8% in the third year and 4% in the fourth year.
This article appeared in City & Country, the property pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 865, July 4-July 10, 2011
