KINGSFORD Huray Development, owned by Chinese-citizen-turned-Singaporean Cui Zhengfeng, has been awarded the Normanton Park collective sale site at S$830.1 million.

This works out to S$969 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) inclusive of two payments that Kingsford will have to make to the state - a lease upgrading premium and a differential premium.

The land rate is the highest achieved for a 99-year leasehold collective sale site this year.

Kingsford's breakeven cost is estimated at around S$1,600 psf and assuming a profit margin of 10 per cent, the average selling price of units in the new development on the site would be around S$1,785 psf.

Knight Frank marketed the collective sale of Normanton Park through a tender that closed on Thursday. Its head of investment and capital markets, Ian Loh, said last night that "we received several submissions", but declined to elaborate.

According to JLL, inclusive of Normanton Park, a total of 16 collective sale transactions have been inked so far this year totalling S$5.843 billion across all property segments - up from three transactions amounting to just over S$1 billion last year. In the peak year of 2007, 88 deals were done at S$11.516 billion.

Said Mr Loh of Knight Frank: "The gross development value for this project is estimated at S$2.23 billion. The new high-rise development could potentially house more than 1,200 residential units of 100 square metres, and new homeowners can potentially enjoy lush greenery views and unblocked views to the city."

The price achieved is higher than the reserve price of S$800 million set in the collective sale agreement. Owners will stand to receive a gross sale price of about S$1.68 million to S$1.86 million per unit upon a successful sale, subject to several conditions being met, including an order of sale by the Strata Titles Board or High Court.

So far, owners controlling 87.3 per cent of the share value and 87.34 per cent of strata area in the development have signed the collective sale agreement.

A privatised housing estate originally built in 1977 for military personnel and their families, Normanton Park comprises 13 residential blocks of 488 apartments ranging from 1,270 sq ft to 1,550 sq ft.

Under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's Master Plan 2014, the site is zoned for "residential" use with a gross plot ratio of 2.1.

Knight Frank said on Thursday night that the lease upgrading premium to top up the site's lease to 99 years is estimated at S$231.1 million; the differential premium will be about S$283.4 million to redevelop the site to 2.1 plot ratio based on the maximum permissible gross floor area of about 1.39 million sq ft.

Normanton Park is close to educational institutions including Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), Fairfield Methodist primary and secondary schools, the National University of Singapore, Singapore Polytechnic and Insead.

Sukhvinder S Chopra, chairman of Normanton Park's sale committee, said the "committee received several submissions and worked very closely with the marketing agent and lawyers".

"We deliberated on all the submissions carefully and the decision to award Kingsford was unanimous. The sale committee was formed on July 29, and it took us a mere 10 weeks to conclude the sale. We could not have done it without the support of the majority of owners."

Last week, Kingsford was beaten into second place by a GuocoLand-Guoco Group tie-up at a state tender for a commercial site along Beach Road. The winning bid of S1.622 billion or S$1,706 psf ppr was 3.2 per cent higher than Kingsford Huray's bid of nearly S$1.572 billion.

Kingsford's developments in Singapore include the Kingsford Waterbayriverfront condo in Upper Serangoon View and the Kingsford Hillview Peak project.