(Bloomberg) -- Singapore’s initiative to tackle high rents has suffered another setback, with a single bid for a serviced apartment site being rebuffed.
The S$120 million ($93 million) offer for a site in Media Circle — near a business park cluster in the country’s west — was “assessed to be too low,” the Urban Redevelopment Authority said in a statement Thursday.
Authorities have already rejected two major land bids this year, including one for a prime land parcel and another for a new business district in the west.
The sole interest for the 5,764 square-meter (62,000 square feet) site came from a consortium led by Frasers Property Ltd., a Singapore-based real estate firm controlled by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi.
A spokesperson for Frasers said that its bid was based on the nature of the site including its 60-year lease. “We remain interested in investing in this new asset class and will continue to explore future opportunities as they arise,” the spokesperson said.
The location, which was earmarked for the construction of serviced apartments requiring a minimum three-month stay, up from the current seven-day requirement. The pilot was an attempt by authorities to meet demand for rental housing that caused private rents to surge to a record during the pandemic.
But rents have been falling in recent quarters, while developers are becoming more cautious on such land auctions as home sales crater. A separate site allowing for the construction of these serviced apartments failed to attract any developer interest in June.
(Updates with Frasers comment in fifth paragraph)
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