Bulk transactions involving high-end apartments are edging up again, with some property funds which invested in Singaporean upmarket residential sector benefiting from a price recovery in the segment to exit their investments.
A German fund managed by Morgan Stanley in the Draycott Park area is said to have sold 23 units it owned in the Draycott Eight condominium for more than $157 million or approximately $2,300 psf of strata area.
The German core fund had a small loss on its purchase price of $2,600 psf in late 2007. The $2,300 psf sale indicates a discount of about 10 percent to 15 percent to what the apartments could have fetched if sold individually, said market watchers. However, the divestment reflects the ongoing plan of the fund to monetise assets worldwide.
In the Balmoral Road area, Singapore-based investment fund Real Estate Capital Asia Partners (Recap) is understood to have sold 20 apartment units at the Sui Generis freehold condominium for about $95 million or $1,935 psf.
Recap earlier sold a 2,594-sq-ft unit on the ground floor for $4.9 million or $1,889 psf.
The sales represent a good profit for Recap, which acquired 21 units in the project for $65 million ($1,260 psf) in August 2009 from Kajima and United Engineers, the developers of the project.
Another bulk purchase involves Arch Capital, which recently acquired all 34 units in Royal Oak @ Anderson for approximately $200 million or $2,337 psf.
Some investors who acquired apartments in bulk are also looking to sell the units on an individual basis to get higher prices than if they were to divest collectively.
The ARA Asia Dragon Fund, which acquired 53 units at the Grange Infinite condo in 2008, has started to sell the units at about $3,200 psf, on individual unit basis. The average purchase price of the fund was in the $2,600 psf to $2,700 psf range, as earlier reported.