The Jurong Lake District (JLD) tender is the largest tender ever called to date. At 6.5 ha, it dwarfs the previous master development tender, Marina Bay Financial Centre.
Comparison of Comparable Tenders
| Year | Land Size (sq m) | Gross Floor Area (sq m) | Tender Price | |
| Jurong Lake District | 2023 | 64,778.9 | 365,000 | |
| Marina Bay Financial Centre | 2005 | 35,515.2 | 438,000 | $1.91 billion $405 psf ppr |
Source: URA, Huttons Research
The JLD tender is similar to the Marina Bay Financial Centre tender where the master developer is given options to fully develop the site within a few years. Usually, such large-scale tenders are called when the Government wants to achieve planning and development objectives for an area. The advantage for the master developer is that it has the autonomy to determine the supply based on market conditions. Given the scale of this tender, there may not be another tender in JLD for some years which gives the master developer the ability to dictate prices.
One of the land parcels will be an integrated transport hub linked to the Jurong Region Line and Jurong East bus interchange. Based on past sales, such projects are very popular with buyers and command a premium in terms of prices and rentals.
Huttons estimate the land cost to be between $1,000 and $1,500 psf ppr which works out to $3.93 to $5.89 billion. Construction costs can easily add another 50%. The total estimated development costs could be $5.89 to $8.84 billion. Only well-established and capitalized developers will be able to participate.
Besides the development costs, the uncertain economic outlook and office demand potentially influenced by hybrid work will cast dark clouds over the demand for office space.
However, the prospect of being able to rethink the future of work on a large greenfield site in the second CBD of Singapore will no doubt excite renowned local and international architects who will partner with developers. With the option of spreading the development up to 8 years and phased ABSD for residential use, the development risks to developers are lowered.
There are probably not more than 3 developers locally who can undertake such scale and complexity of development. The success of this tender and the future developments will put Singapore on the radar of international companies who want to set up operations here.