The Yishun site which is slated as a  99-year leasehold residential site received a whopping bid of S$213.5m or S$350 psf ppr from MCL Land. MCL Land successfully outbidded 4 others with bids ranging from $95 and upwards. MCL Land which bid the highest was surprisingly 68% higher than the next highest offer.

It is an aggressive bid with breakeven well above current price levels in that district. The Yishun bid was also 14% higher than the one for the west coast site, which has surprised many market watchers. Although many believe that the selling prices are difficult to achive, yet we think that the aggressive bidding is indicative of the developers’ growing confidence in the mass market segment due its favourable demand supply dynamics. We expect the demand to outpace supply in the mass market segment well into 2009.