January 4, 2008
By Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop
SINGAPORE When the master developer of Sentosa Cove, an exclusive oceanfront residential community here, started selling land to individual builders in 2003, the first plot went for 350 Singapore dollars per square foot. In July, during the most recent land auction for a condominium site, the price was 1,799 dollars a square foot.
"Back in 2003, it was an untested market and the sale came right after SARS," recalled Nicholas Chua, the business development and marketing manager at Ho Bee Investment, which paid the equivalent of $203 a square foot at the time. "The confidence level in the property market wasn't that great." Now, Ho Bee owns six development sites there.
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