The last 30 units of CityVista

BT: Last 30 CityVista Residences units sold for about $147m
By KALPANA RASHIWALA

A joint venture involving Chip Eng Seng has sold the last 30 units at CityVista Residences for about $147 million, BT understands. The 20-storey freehold project of 70 units at Peck Hay Road in the Cairnhill area received Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) recently.

The buyer is said to be a property fund managed by Alpha Investment Partners. Alpha is a unit of Keppel Land.

The transaction involves 28 apartments (three and four-bedders) and two penthouses. The price for the apartments is thought to be about $1,850 per square foot (psf). The psf price for the two penthouses is said to be much lower as they come with substantial roof terrace areas, making up about half of their saleable area.

Each duplex penthouse, which has five bedrooms and a private pool, has an area exceeding 9,000 square feet.

Last month, four units in the project were sold at $1,900-1,980 psf, according to developers' monthly sales data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. The Chip Eng Seng-Lehman venture began selling the project in June 2007, with 21 units sold at prices ranging from $2,397 psf to $2,828 psf.

Market watchers suggest that with the project receiving TOP, it made sense for the partners to give a bulk discount and offload the remaining units so that they can clear this portfolio, repay bank loans and move on to other things.

Chip Eng Seng has been successful at state land tenders of late. This year alone, it has clinched 99-year-leasehold executive condominium development sites in Pasir Ris and Punggol in partnership with NTUC Choice Homes. On its own, too, Chip Eng Seng was awarded a 99-year private condo site in Simei.

Savills is understood to have been involved in the deal for the last 30 units at CityVista Residences.

Meanwhile, billionaire Peter Lim is said to have been the buyer of 20 units sold last month at Sui Generis, a freehold condo at Balmoral Crescent which received TOP a few months ago.

The former 'remisier king' paid around $95 million or $1,935 psf in the secondary market deal.