Beauty World Plaza asks $165m again, unchanged since 2018 as private prices rose over 40%

Beauty World Plaza, an eight-storey mix of shops and flats in Bukit Timah beside Beauty World MRT station, is up for collective sale at $165m, or $2,231 per sq ft of gross floor area, real estate advisory firm ETC said on 13 October 2026 1. The 999-year leasehold site goes to public tender, closing at 3pm on 19 November 1. The same $165m was the reserve price in the November 2018 and June 2019 attempts, The Business Times reported in 2019 8, while URA's private home price index has since risen by more than 40% 7. Official prices nearby show what a bidder would have to believe to pay it 2.

What changed

ETC, the sole marketing agent, announced the sale by public tender on 13 October 2026, The Business Times reported 1. The asking price is $165m, which ETC put at $2,231 per sq ft of gross floor area 1.

The building stands on a site of 24,817 sq ft 1. Shops fill the lowest three storeys, with flats on the floors above and an open-air terrace on level four 1. Under URA's Master Plan 2025 the 999-year leasehold site carries a commercial and residential zoning with a gross plot ratio of 3.0 1.

ETC said preliminary approval has been granted for serviced apartments in the residential part of the development, which could hold about 108 keys based on a minimum unit size of 35 sqm 1. It said a buyer could also consider asset enhancement of the existing building rather than redevelopment, and pointed to nearby educational institutions as a draw for serviced apartment, co-living and other accommodation concepts 1. These are the marketing agent's descriptions; the planning approval itself has not been published.

Two quick checks on the agent's figures. The asking price divided by $2,231 gives about 73,958 sq ft of gross floor area 1. The site area multiplied by the plot ratio of 3.0 gives 74,451 sq ft 1. The two are close, so the quoted land rate is broadly what the plot ratio allows, although ETC did not say which floor area it used.

The same price as 2018

This is not the owners' first try. In June 2019 the owners launched another collective sale tender at a reserve price of $165m, unchanged from their previous attempt in November 2018, The Business Times reported 8. The marketing agent then, Knight Frank, said the authorities had given in-principle approval to redevelop the residential part into serviced apartments 8.

URA's price index for non-landed private homes stood at 146.8 in the fourth quarter of 2018 and 148.1 in the second quarter of 2019 7. By the second quarter of 2026 it was 210.6 7. That is a rise of 43.5% since the first attempt and 42.2% since the second, against an asking price that has not moved 7.

The index tracks home prices, not land or commercial space, so it does not prove the asking price is now cheap. It does show that the owners have held their price while the residential market around them moved a long way.

Who is affected, and who is not

The owners of Beauty World Plaza's shops and flats are the first readers of this news. An asking price is not an offer, and the tender result will decide whether the sale goes ahead 1. In a collective sale, owners sign a collective sale agreement 5, and how proceeds would be split between shop and flat owners here has not been published.

Owners of other older strata blocks near Beauty World also have a stake, because a sale price here would be one more reference point for land in the area. Buyers of homes nearby are less affected in the short run. Any new project on the site would come to market only after a sale, approvals and construction.

The residential part could also become serviced apartments rather than homes for sale, ETC said 1, which would add no homes for buyers at all.

What the numbers show

A land rate means little on its own. It matters against what homes nearby sell for, and against what developers have paid for comparable land. Sightlines queried URA's private residential transactions for condominiums and apartments within 1.5 km of Beauty World Plaza, and for all of postal district 21, for contracts dated October 2025 to September 2026 2.

A new sale is a unit bought from the developer; a sub sale is a unit resold before the project's completion; a resale is a unit resold after it. Quantum is the total price paid; psf is that price divided by the strata area URA records, in square feet.

Within 1.5 km, URA's records hold 304 resales in that window, at a median of $1.895m in quantum and $1,909 psf, and 10 sub sales at a median of $1,980 psf, or $1.385m 2. They hold no new sales 2. URA gives no coordinates for some projects, and a radius search cannot place those sales, so the radius figures cover only the sales URA has located 2. For new sales the district is the better yardstick. Across district 21 there were 351 new sales, at a median of $2.535m and $2,473 psf 2. The Sen made up 180 of them, at a median of $2,340 psf, Nava Grove 77 at $2,647 psf and Pinetree Hill 58 at $2,596 psf 2.

One official land benchmark with a similar zoning is the Government Land Sales site at Dunearn Road, zoned residential with commercial at the first storey 34. It is a government land parcel on a 99-year lease rather than an existing strata building, so it is a reference point, not a match. Its tender closed on 28 April 2026 with six bids, and the top bid was $532,999,999, or $17,490.32 per sqm of floor area, about $1,625 psf ppr on a 99-year lease 3. URA said the tender closing was not an announcement of award 3.

Sources: ETC via The Business Times; URA 3; URA Data Service 2; Sightlines analysis.

Three ratios follow. The asking price per sq ft is about 90% of the district's median new-sale psf 12. The Dunearn Road top bid was about 66% of it 23. And the asking price is about 37% above the Dunearn Road bid 13. Land is priced per sq ft of gross floor area and homes per sq ft of strata area, which are not the same measure, so these ratios are a first-line read only.

Part of that gap has a reason. Beauty World Plaza is held on a 999-year lease, while the Dunearn Road site is a 99-year lease 13. The report gave no figure for any land betterment charge or other cost a new scheme might carry 1. A buyer who keeps the building and enhances it, as ETC suggested, would not be building new homes at all, so the comparison with new-sale prices would not apply.

What the ratios do show is how little room the figures leave on a first read. A residential developer paying the asking price would pay, per sq ft of floor area, close to what new units in the district sell for per sq ft, before construction, financing and margin 12. That does not make the price wrong. It means a bidder would need a use other than homes for sale, or a view that district prices will rise, to make the sums work.

How prices around Beauty World have moved since 2022

The same URA query, run for each contract year, shows the resale median psf near Beauty World Plaza rising every year 2.

Source: URA Data Service, condominiums and apartments within 1.5 km of Beauty World Plaza 2; Sightlines analysis.

The resale median rose from $1,455 psf in 2022 to $1,932 psf in the first nine months of 2026, about 32.8% 2. The median quantum moved less, from $1.70m to $1.90m 2.

New sales tell a different story. URA's located records show 214 new sales within 1.5 km in 2022, from Forett at Bukit Timah, Verdale, Mayfair Modern and Mayfair Gardens, and 15 in 2023 2. They show none from 2024 to September 2026 2. Because URA gives no coordinates for some projects, the radius may miss new sales nearby, which is why the district figure above is used for new homes 2.

The trend supports the case for redevelopment, with one caveat. Resale prices that have risen by about a third in four years suggest steady demand for homes in the area 2. But they are prices for existing homes, not the prices a new project on the site would fetch. That gap is what a buyer at tender would be pricing.

Serviced apartments, and what 108 keys means

ETC gave about 108 keys, based on a minimum unit size of 35 sqm 1. If that minimum is read as floor area per key, which the report did not specify, 108 keys imply at least 3,780 sqm, or about 40,688 sq ft, for the serviced apartment part 1. That is roughly 55% of the 73,958 sq ft implied by the asking price 1. The rest would be the commercial floors and common space, which the agent did not break down.

Spread across those 108 keys, the whole asking price comes to about $1.53m a key 1. That figure includes the shops and is a gross land cost before any building works, so it is a starting point for a buyer's sums rather than a valuation. ETC framed the site around accommodation concepts catering to academia, citing its nearness to educational institutions 1. A buyer on that route would be valuing rental income rather than sale prices, which the URA sale records above do not measure.

The collective sale rules, and the changes proposed

Collective sales by majority consent need 80% consent for developments 10 to 39 years old, and 90% for those under 10 years old 56. The Ministry of Law introduced a Bill in August 2026 to add two lower tiers: 70% for developments aged 40 to 59 years and 65% for those aged 60 years and older 5. The Minister for Law moved its Second Reading on 8 September 2026 6.

The same Bill raises the support needed to start an attempt to 35% of owners by share value or number of units, from 20% or 25%, and cuts the time to collect signatures from 12 months to six 5. It lengthens the restriction period after a failed attempt from two years to three 5. Most of the changes apply only to exercises that had not collected their first signature by the commencement date, which will be announced later 5.

Beauty World Plaza is already at tender 1. The proposed rules, once in force, matter more for the next older strata block in the area to try. About 20,000 non-landed private homes in close to 250 developments are now 40 years old or more, the minister said 6.

What to watch next

• The public tender closes at 3pm on 19 November 2026 1. The number of bids, if released, will show how many buyers took ETC's redevelopment and asset enhancement cases seriously.
• The Ministry of Law will announce the commencement date of the collective sale amendments when ready 5.
• Resale prices within 1.5 km, at $1,909 psf, or $1.895m in quantum, by the median over the past year, are the figure to watch for whether the area's price trend keeps supporting land bids at this level 2.

The transferable lesson works for any strata block that comes up for sale. Divide the asking price, plus any land charge, by the floor area a buyer can build, and set the answer against the median new-sale psf nearby. The closer that ratio is to parity, the more the sale depends on a buyer with a different use in mind, or on prices that the official record does not yet show.

This is general information, not financial advice. Check the current rules with IRAS, HDB, CPF Board or your bank before you commit.