Hotel Royal family offering Guillemard apt block for sale

Fragrance Group picks up freehold site at Changi Road for $33.56m

Melodies Limited, controlled by the Lee family of Hotel Royal, is selling a 20-storey freehold apartment block in Guillemard Road which it developed 11 years ago.

Cassia View, which received Temporary Occupation Permit in 1998, comprises a total of 72 units

The price is about $70 million, reflecting $783 per sq ft based on existing strata area of 89,362 sq ft.

Colliers International, which is marketing the property, Cassia View, through an expression-of-interest exercise, says that the buyer could either spruce up the 72 units and sell them individually or tear down the property and redevelop it.

Cassia View is understood to have utilised the maximum gross floor area (GFA) allowed for the site based on a 2.8 plot ratio under Master Plan 2008. The site is zoned for residential use.

Nevertheless, Colliers executive director (investment sales) Ho Eng Joo reckons the buyer could redevelop the property, given its age, as there may be scope for improving the layout to better suit current tastes.

Based on Cassia View’s GFA of 105,823 sq ft, the $70 million price reflects a land cost of $661 psf per plot ratio if the new owner chooses to redevelop it.

Some 28 of Cassia View’s existing 72 units are currently let on short-term leases of up to a year.

Dakota Residences, a 99-year leasehold condo nearby, is now selling for about $900 psf on average.

The expression-of-interest exercise for Cassia View closes on Sept 2.

Separately, Fragrance Group last week picked up a freehold site in Changi Road for $33.56 million.

The deal was brokered by DTZ. The land area is 28,545 sq ft.

Fragrance said that it plans to develop the site into a five-storey mixed development comprising commercial space and apartments.

It intends to start construction and sale of the project in the second half of financial year 2009.