Seven Developers Bid for a Small Sin Ming Site. The Winner Paid 11% More Than Anyone Else.

16 September 2026Blog District 20 RCR

The Lorong Puntong site, outlined in orange beside Ai Tong School and Bright Hill MRT

The site, outlined in orange, sits between Lorong Puntong and Sin Ming Avenue, with Ai Tong School next door and Bright Hill station a short walk away. Map: URA Space.

On 15 September the tender closed for a government land sale site at Lorong Puntong, off Sin Ming Avenue, next to Ai Tong School and a few minutes from Bright Hill MRT. Seven developers bid for it. Eco World Development, a Malaysian company listed in Kuala Lumpur, won it at $208,099,000 — $1,612 per square foot per plot ratio.

It is a small site. It will hold about 140 homes. And the price is the highest ever paid for a residential government land sale plot in the Rest of Central Region.

The gap is the story

	Tenderer	Bid	psf per plot ratio
1	Eco World Development (S) Pte. Ltd.	$208,099,000	$1,612
2	Intrepid Investments Pte. Ltd. and TID Residential Pte. Ltd.	$187,330,000	$1,451
3	SMCL Oasis Pte. Ltd.	$185,380,000	$1,436
4	EL Development Pte Ltd	$182,100,000	$1,411
5	JBE Capital Pte. Ltd.	$173,292,200	$1,342
6	SNC3 Realty Pte. Ltd., HS Invesco Pte. Ltd. and Kay Lim Realty Pte. Ltd.	$168,888,000	$1,308
7	Peak Valley Private Limited	$162,150,000	$1,256

All seven bids. Source: URA, tender results for the land parcel at Lorong Puntong / Sin Ming Avenue, 15 September 2026.

Six of the seven landed between $1,256 and $1,451. The winning bid sits 11.1% above the second, and it was the only one to pass $1,600.

Those six are not small firms with small views. Second place was Hong Leong’s Intrepid with TID. Third was Sunway MCL. Seventh was Kheng Leong. A field like that agreeing within $200 of each other, and one bidder standing $160 above all of them, tells you something about how differently Eco World reads this location.

Nicholas Mak, chief research officer at Mogul.sg, called it a record land rate for a residential government land sale site in the Rest of Central Region. It came within 0.3% of the $1,616.77 psf ppr paid for an Orchard Boulevard site in February 2024 — and Orchard Boulevard is prime Core Central Region land.

What it could cost to buy there

I will not put a price on a project that has not been designed. What I can give you is what the people who do this for a living have said, and then what is actually happening in Sin Ming today.

Nicholas Mak put the eventual launch price at $3,000 to $3,100 psf, and compared it with Dunearn House in Bukit Timah, which averaged $3,140 psf when it launched in July 2026.

Wong Shanting of Newmark made the general point: land costs in recent tenders have risen enough that developers may feel compelled to bid aggressively, and that feeds through into new home prices.

Marcus Chu of ERA Singapore expects the buyers to include HDB upgraders and landed homeowners in the surrounding estates looking for a new private option.

And Justin Quek of Realion noted how rare a new launch is here: the last one was Artisan 8 in August 2025, and before that Jadescape in 2018.

What Sin Ming is actually selling for

This is the part I can check rather than quote, because we track Artisan 8 every day.

Artisan 8 is on Sin Ming Road, in the same estate, a 34-home development. It is freehold. Sixteen homes are still available. Here is the list as it stands today:

Type	Left	Size (sqft)	From	psf
1 Bedroom	4	495 – 506	$1,275,000	$2,520 – $2,653
2 Bedroom	2	732 – 786	$1,860,000	$2,401 – $2,541
3 Bedroom	1	1,023	$2,490,000	$2,434
4 Bedroom	2	1,313 – 1,755	$3,156,000	$2,310 – $2,404
4 Bedroom + Study	2	1,711 – 1,808	$4,032,000	$2,249 – $2,357
5 Bedroom	1	1,884	$4,458,000	$2,366

Artisan 8’s developer price list, from our daily tracking, 16 September 2026.

And what buyers there have actually paid: 22 homes have changed hands at an average of $2,388 psf, from $2,104 to $2,658. Twelve of them went on launch day in August 2025 at an average of $2,354. The ten since have averaged $2,428.

Now set that beside the projection. $3,000 to $3,100 psf for a 99-year project, against $2,388 actually paid for freehold homes in the same estate. That is roughly a quarter to a third more per square foot, for a shorter lease.

It can still happen. New launches routinely price above the resale around them, and a 2030 completion is a different proposition from a small development finishing next year. But that is the size of the step the land price implies, and it is worth seeing plainly before anyone tells you the new project is fairly priced.

Two things make the comparison imperfect, and you should hold both: Artisan 8 is a boutique 34-home building, and it is freehold, which normally commands a premium rather than a discount. On lease alone, the new site should be asking less.

Why they wanted it

The site is 46,106 square feet with a plot ratio of 2.8, allowing 129,102 square feet of floor area and a building up to 120 metres. Roughly 140 homes on a 99-year lease. At the winning bid that is about $1,486,000 of land cost for every home built, before the developer spends a dollar on construction.

What it buys is a pocket of Singapore that almost never sees a new launch. Ai Tong School is next door. Bright Hill station on the Thomson-East Coast Line is a short walk, which puts Orchard within about fifteen minutes. The neighbours are Faber Garden, Flame Tree Park and The Gardens at Bishan — established, low-rise, and full of owners who have been there a long time.

That last part matters more than the transport. A location with no new supply for years accumulates people who want to move but have nowhere local to move to.

One piece of timing worth knowing

Thomson Reserve previews on 17 October — 1,268 homes by CapitaLand, Singapore Land and UOL on Bright Hill Drive, the same MRT station as this site.

Its prices were set before this tender result existed. Whatever the Lorong Puntong project eventually asks, the Thomson Reserve price list arrives in the next few weeks, priced against land bought earlier. If you are watching this corridor, that is the nearer decision.

What I would take from it

If you already own in Sin Ming or Bishan, a developer has just paid a Rest of Central Region record for a small plot next to a primary school in your estate, and six others were willing to pay above $1,250. That is a view about your neighbourhood’s future, backed with money, by people with better data than either of us.

If you are thinking of buying nearby, note what the new land price does not change: the homes on the market today were priced against cheaper land. That is a fact about them, whatever the new project ends up asking.

If you are waiting for the new project itself, understand what you would be buying — a 99-year lease, a launch some years away, about 140 homes, and a price that has to justify a record land cost. That can be a good purchase. It is not automatically one, and no one can give you the price today because it does not exist.

Two honest caveats. A tender result is a bid, and the site still has to be awarded. And a record land price is a far more reliable predictor of a high launch price than of a high resale price later.

Where to look now

Everything available in District 20, updated daily
Artisan 8 — the last new launch in Sin Ming, freehold, sixteen homes left
Thomson Reserve — 1,268 homes at the same MRT station, previewing 17 October
The whole Rest of Central Region, the segment this record belongs to

Common questions

Who won the Lorong Puntong / Sin Ming Avenue site, and for how much?

Eco World Development (S) Pte. Ltd., with a bid of $208,099,000 — $1,612 per square foot per plot ratio. It was the highest of seven bids and 11.1% above the second-placed bid of $187,330,000 from Intrepid Investments and TID Residential.

Why is $1,612 psf ppr significant?

It is the highest land rate paid for a residential government land sale site in the Rest of Central Region, according to Nicholas Mak of Mogul.sg. It is within 0.3% of the $1,616.77 psf ppr paid for an Orchard Boulevard site in February 2024, which is Core Central Region land.

How many homes will be built there, and when?

The 46,106 square foot site has a plot ratio of 2.8 and can hold about 140 homes on a 99-year lease, up to 120 metres tall. No launch date has been announced, and a site awarded now would typically launch a year or more later.

What might the new project cost per square foot?

The developer has published no price. Nicholas Mak of Mogul.sg estimates $3,000 to $3,100 psf. For comparison, Artisan 8 on Sin Ming Road — freehold, launched August 2025 — has had 22 homes change hands at an average of $2,388 psf, and its remaining homes are listed between $2,249 and $2,653 psf.

What is the nearest new launch to this site right now?

Thomson Reserve on Bright Hill Drive, 1,268 homes by CapitaLand, Singapore Land and UOL, previewing on 17 October 2026 from the same MRT station. Artisan 8 on Sin Ming Road, a 34-home freehold development, still has sixteen homes available.

Who can I speak to about buying in District 20?

Robert Peng, on +65 9751 5995 or robert@propertystory.sg. Licensed real estate salesperson with PropNex Realty Pte Ltd, CEA registration R006562I.

Tender figures and site particulars from URA’s own tender result and land parcel annexes, 15 September 2026. Analyst comments as reported by Stacked Homes and 99.co, 15 September 2026; those quotations are theirs. Artisan 8 prices and transactions are from our own daily tracking.