An artist’s rendition of the 777-unit The Orie residential condominium project in Top Payoh in … [+]
City Developments Ltd. (CDL)—controlled by billionaire Kwek Leng Beng—and its joint venture partners Thai tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi and Japan’s Sekisui House will start selling their prime residential condominium project in central Singapore this month amid signs housing demand in the city-state is recovering.
Prices for the 777-unit project, dubbed The Orie, in the Toa Payoh residential enclave, about 11 kilometers north of the Raffles Place central business district, start at S$1.28 million ($940,000) for a one-bedroom unit measuring about 517 square feet (48 square meters) to S$3.48 million for a five-bedroom unit with a total built up space of 1,453 square feet. Previews will start tomorrow and the developers are set to book sales on January 18.
“Nestled in the vibrant and highly sought-after Toa Payoh estate, homebuyers will benefit from its central location and excellent connectivity,” Sherman Kwek, group CEO of City Developments, said in a statement. “Together with our two esteemed partners who are leading developers in their own rights, we have collectively pushed to realise our vision for bold architectural and landscape design complemented with thoughtful and sustainable features.”
The 99-year leasehold condominium will be built on two 40-story towers across a 169,458 square feet site, which the partners bought in a government land auction in November 2023 for S$968 million. This is the first private residential project to be launched in Toa Payoh since 2016.
The project is being marketed as housing demand in Singapore rebounded in the last quarter of 2024, with preliminary government data released today showing private residential prices rose 2.3% in the fourth quarter after slipping 0.7% in the previous three months. While sales were largely muted for most of the year, cheaper borrowing costs sparked a year-end buying frenzy that boosted developers’ unit sales in November to the highest sold in a single month in over a decade.
Among the top selling projects during the fourth quarter of 2024 was CDL’s 348-unit Norwood Grand condominium, which sold 84% of the units over the launch weekend in late October.
Kwek Leng Beng is the executive chairman of City Developments and Singapore’s Hong Leong Group, which was founded by his father in 1941. His billionaire cousin Quek Leng Chan runs a separate group in Malaysia, Hong Leong Co. (Malaysia), which has interests in finance, food and property. With a net worth of $11.5 billion that he shares with his family, Kwek was ranked No. 4 on the list of Singapore’s 50 Richest that was published in September.
