Built in the late 1980s, Florence Regency comprises 336 units. (Photo: JLL)

JLL, the marketing agent of privatised HUDC estate Florence Regency, will continue to look for a buyer willing to purchase the Hougang estate for at least $629 million – which is the property’s valuation, reported the Business Times.

This comes after bidders in the public tender of the 336-unit development declined to raise their bids.

Bids for Florence Regency had exceeded the $600 million reserve price. However, none of them met the valuation amount provided by independent valuer Colliers International.

JLL had asked the developers who participated in the tender to reconsider their terms and conditions or raise their bids, but the developers declined to do so.

With this, the agent will continue to find a buyer who is willing to acquire the estate at or above its valuation price over a 10-week private treaty period. Should no buyer be found by 5 December, then the owners will be forced to consider another tender exercise in January 2018.

With a gross plot ratio of 2.8 under the 2014 Master Plan, the 389,236 sq ft site, which has a balance lease term of around 71 years, could support a total gross floor area of over 1.1 million sq ft, or about 1,100 to 1,300 housing units.

Keshia Faculin