Commentary on URA tender closing at Dunearn Road

By Tricia Song (宋明蔚), Head of Research, Southeast Asia, CBRE

Developers may have received a boost of confidence from the Draft Master Plan 2025 released yesterday as the Dunearn Road site drew better-than-expected bid prices and the most number of bids for a private GLS site since 2021.

Dunearn Road site

The Dunearn Road site received a whopping 9 bids, the greatest number of bids for a private or non-EC GLS residential site since Oct 2021’s 10 bids for two smallish sites at one-north and reminiscent of July 2021’s 9 bids for the maiden site at Lentor (Lentor Modern). The top bid price of $491.45 mil or $1,410psf ppr, submitted by a consortium of CSC Land, Sekisui House and Frasers Property, is also just 4% above the second highest bidder, CDL. The top five bid prices are tightly banded within a 10% difference, showing consensus on the attractiveness of the site. 

We believe the Draft Master Plan 2025 released yesterday (25 June 2025) may have boosted sentiment for this Bukit Timah Turf City maiden site sale. The plans for Bukit Timah Turf City look promising, with 15,000-20,000 public and private homes, lush greenery, good transport connectivity; and 22 heritage buildings are being proposed for conservation, including the two grandstands, which will be rejuvenated as community nodes. 

The winner of the site could enjoy first-mover advantage in this inclusive precinct which is set to be rejuvenated over the next 5-10 years.  This site is also within 1km to Methodist Girls’ School, within 2km from multiple popular schools, and within 400m walking distance to the nearest Sixth Avenue MRT station.


Source: Draft Master Plan 2025, URA 

Nonetheless, the top land price is still lower than land prices back in Dec 2017, when the Fourth Avenue Residences site diagonally across the road attracted 7 bids, and a top bid of S$1,540psf ppr. The lower land prices generally reflected higher construction costs, lower efficiency from GFA harmonisation and higher potential ABSD on both developers and buyers since then.  

Average non-landed private homes in the locale within 1km of the site are mostly freehold,  including Floridian, Maplewoods, The Cascadia, The Nexus, The Sixth Avenue Residences, The Tessarina and Royal Green which trade at median prices of $2,136psf for the oldest (completed in 1997) to $2,862psf for Royal Green (completed in 2021). The newest and 99-year leasehold comparable will be Fourth Avenue Residences which was completed in 2022, and has seen 18 resale transactions in 2024- May 2025 at a median price of S$2,520psf.

Project Name	Units sold in 2024-YTD 2025	Median price in 2024 to YTD2025	Tenure	Completion year
FLORIDIAN	14	2,325	Freehold	2012
MAPLE WOODS	9	2,136	Freehold	1997
THE CASCADIA	26	2,205	Freehold	2010
THE NEXUS	13	2,231	Freehold	2006
THE SIXTH AVENUE RESIDENCES	8	2,175	Freehold	2009
THE TESSARINA	20	2,267	Freehold	2003
FOURTH AVENUE RESIDENCES	18	2,520	99 yrs from 07/03/2018	2022
ROYALGREEN	6	2,862	Freehold	2021