City Plaza gets no bids at $970m: its land would cost 97% of new-home prices

City Plaza's $970m collective sale tender closed on 13 October 2026 without a formal bid, and the owners of the Geylang complex have moved into a 10-week private treaty period 1. Marketing agent Huttons Asia said expressions of interest were received and talks with interested parties are continuing 1. Official prices around Paya Lebar show why the sums are tight. With the indicative land betterment charge for a residential-led scheme, the land alone would cost about $2,657 per sq ft of floor area, close to the median new home sold nearby 23.

The facts

City Plaza is a freehold mixed development in Geylang, close to Paya Lebar MRT station 2. It stands on a site of about 13,146 sqm and was built in the 1970s by City Developments 2. It holds 450 units: 66 apartments and 384 strata retail units, and is known for its wholesale clothing shops 2.

The owners put it up for collective sale with a guide price of $970m in August 2026, their third attempt, The Business Times reported 2. The site is zoned commercial with a gross plot ratio of 3.0 under URA's Master Plan 2025 2. Huttons said the complex can be redeveloped into a residential-led mixed development with commercial uses on the first storey, subject to planning and statutory approvals. It said outline planning advice was obtained from URA on 9 July 2026 2. An outline application tests a proposed land use, plot ratio or building height, and the advice is valid for six months 2.

The land betterment charge (LBC) depends on what a buyer builds. Huttons put its indicative estimate at about $15m for a full commercial redevelopment and about $158m for a residential scheme with commercial use on the first storey 2. It said the figures would ultimately depend on the buyer's scheme, the LBC rates and the authorities' assessment 2. The Business Times reported that no additional buyer's stamp duty (ABSD) is payable on buying the property under its current commercial zoning 2.

Most of these details come from the vendor's agent as reported by The Business Times, so the redevelopment scheme and the LBC figures are the agent's, not the authority's.

Three attempts, one price, a rising market

The owners' price has not moved since 2021, while the market around it has. The first attempt, in 2018, set a reserve price of $1.05b and won 53% support from owners 2. The second, in 2021, cut the reserve to $970m and won 79.3%, just short of the 80% needed to launch a sale 2. The third, at the same $970m, was launched for sale by tender 2.

URA's price index for non-landed private homes tells the other half of the story 4. It ranged from 141.6 to 146.8 across the four quarters of 2018 and from 157.1 to 168.4 across 2021 4. In the second quarter of 2026 it stood at 210.6 4.

Sources: The Business Times; URA private residential property price index, data.gov.sg 4.

Set side by side, the owners now ask about 7.6% less than in 2018, while the index is between 43.5% and 48.7% higher than it was in that year 24. Against 2021, the price is unchanged while the index is 25.1% to 34.1% higher 4.

That reads like a price that has become cheaper. It is not proof of that. The index tracks home prices, not land, and it says nothing about demolition, the LBC, building costs or financing, which all sit between a land price and a home price. What the comparison does show is that owners have moved a long way towards the market since 2018, and the market still did not lodge a bid.

How it is priced against its neighbours

A developer reads a guide price as a land rate: the price divided by the floor area it can build. Using the site area of 13,146 sqm and the plot ratio of 3.0, the maximum floor area works out to 39,438 sqm, or about 424,507 sq ft 2. At $970m, that is about $2,285 psf ppr before any LBC 2. Adding Huttons' indicative $158m LBC for a residential-led scheme lifts it to about $2,657 psf ppr 2. Both figures assume the full plot ratio can be built, which only an approved scheme would confirm.

To see what that land rate has to support, Sightlines queried URA's private residential transactions for condominiums and apartments within 1.5 km of City Plaza, for contracts dated October 2025 to September 2026 3. 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.

There were 228 new sales in that window, at a median of $3.46m in quantum and $2,739 psf 3. There were 619 resales, at a median of $1.55m and $1,790 psf 3. There were four sub sales, too few for figures 3. URA gives no coordinates for some projects, and a radius search cannot place those sales, so the figures cover the sales URA has located 3. One freehold launch, The Continuum, made up 207 of the 228 new sales, at a median of $2,771 psf, so the new-sale figure is largely one project's price 3. Among resales, Parc Esta, on a lease that began in 2018, had 108 at a median of $2,316 psf, and Sims Urban Oasis, on a lease from 2014, had 66 at a median of $1,904 psf 3.

One official land benchmark is a recent Government Land Sales award. URA awarded the 99-year residential site at Kallang Close in April 2026 for $610.75m, or $15,231.43 per sqm of floor area 5. That is about $1,415 psf ppr 5.

Sources: The Business Times; URA 5; URA Data Service 3; Sightlines analysis.

The ratio that matters is land against the selling price of the finished home. At Kallang Close's land rate, land was about 52% of the median new-sale psf near City Plaza 35. City Plaza's land rate before LBC is about 83% of it, and with the residential LBC estimate about 97% 23. Put simply, at the guide price a residential developer would be paying close to today's new-home selling price for the land alone, before a single wall is built.

There are fair reasons a buyer might pay more than Kallang Close. City Plaza is freehold, while Kallang Close was sold on a 99-year lease 5. It is close to an MRT station, as noted above. And a full commercial scheme carries a much smaller indicative LBC of $15m, which puts the land at about $2,320 psf ppr 2. Commercial floor space, though, is priced and financed differently from homes, so that figure cannot be set against home prices 2. Each of these narrows the gap. None closes it on today's figures.

What home prices nearby have done since 2022

The land maths rests on what homes near City Plaza sell for, so the trend matters as much as the latest figure. Sightlines ran the same URA query for each contract year from 2022 3.

Source: URA Data Service, condominiums and apartments within 1.5 km of City Plaza 3; Sightlines analysis.

The resale median rose from $1,479 psf in 2022 to $1,783 psf in the first nine months of 2026, about 20.6% 3. In quantum, the median resale went from $1.18m to $1.57m over the same years 3. The new-sale median jumped in 2023, when The Continuum began selling, and has held between $2,719 and $2,849 psf since 3. The Continuum made up 304 of 340 new sales in 2023 and 145 of 154 in 2026 to September 3.

Two readings follow. Resale prices nearby rose for three years running before easing slightly in 2026 to September, which gives some support to the case that a new project here could sell at or above today's new-sale median. But new-sale prices have been flat for almost three years, and they rest largely on one freehold project, so the evidence that a developer could charge much more than about $2,770 psf is thin 3. The median new unit sold in 2026 to September cost $3.65m in quantum 3. A land rate close to that level leaves the developer relying on prices that the official record does not yet show.

Who it may suit, and who not

For the owners of the 450 units 2, the price is now a matter for negotiation in the private treaty period rather than a tender 1. Owners of the retail units and of the apartments hold different assets, so a single headline price says little about any one owner's share. That depends on the apportionment method the collective sale agreement sets out, which has not been published.

For owners of older strata properties elsewhere, City Plaza is a useful test case. The site came to market with outline planning advice from URA, no ABSD on purchase under its commercial zoning and a location close to Paya Lebar MRT station 2. It still drew no formal bid at its guide price 1. The transferable lesson is the land-to-home-price ratio. If an estate's guide price, plus LBC, divided by its maximum floor area comes close to what new homes nearby sell for per square foot, a developer has little room left for building costs and margin. A sale may then take longer or need a lower price.

For buyers of homes around Paya Lebar, the outcome matters less than it seems. Whether City Plaza sells or not, buyers today pay the prices nearby. By the median, that is $2,739 psf, or $3.46m in quantum, for a new unit and $1,790 psf, or $1.55m, for a resale 3. A future project on the site would add supply only years from now.

This piece does not say whether the guide price is fair, or whether owners should accept a lower offer. The evidence shows only what a developer would have to believe about future selling prices to pay it.

What the new en bloc law changes for older estates

The consent thresholds for collective sales by majority consent were first introduced in 1999 6. The Ministry of Law introduced the Land Titles (Strata) (Amendment) Bill 2026 for First Reading in August 2026 6. The Minister for Law moved its Second Reading on 8 September 2026 7. The Bill sets consent thresholds by the age of a development 6:

Source: Ministry of Law 6.

The Bill also raises the support needed to start an attempt to 35% of owners by share value or number of units, from 20% or 25% 6. It cuts the time to collect signatures from 12 months to six, and lengthens the restriction period after a failed attempt from two years to three 6. It also opens majority-consent collective sales to non-strata-titled private residential developments where flat owners hold long leases but do not own the land 6. It raises the cap on court-ordered increases in sale proceeds for objecting owners from 0.25% to 0.5% of each unit's proceeds, or $2,000 a unit, whichever is higher 7.

About 20,000 non-landed private homes in close to 250 developments are now 40 years old or more, the minister said 7. A complex built in the 1970s, as City Plaza was, would be 47 to 56 years old in 2026, which falls in the new 40 to 59 band 26. But most of the amendments apply to exercises that had not collected their first signature by the commencement date, which will be announced later 6. Where the first signature was obtained earlier, the existing framework continues to apply 6. Committees still collecting signatures at that date may restart under the new rules, with seven months to reach the new threshold 6. City Plaza's owners have already gone to tender, so this attempt runs under the existing rules 26.

For other ageing estates, a lower consent threshold makes it easier to launch a sale. It does not change what developers will pay, which is the hurdle this tender ran into.

What happens next

• The 10-week private treaty period from 13 October runs to about 22 December 2026 1. Talks with the parties that lodged expressions of interest are continuing, Huttons said.
• The outline planning advice obtained on 9 July 2026 is valid for six months, to about 9 January 2027, so a buyer agreeing terms in the private treaty period would still be within it 2.
• The Ministry of Law will announce the commencement date of the collective sale amendments when ready 6.

The figure to watch is the agreed price, if any. A deal near the guide price would suggest buyers see more upside in Paya Lebar home prices than the latest official transactions show. A deal well below it would confirm that the land-to-home-price ratio, not owner consent, is what now holds older sites back.

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