Tan Boon Liat Sold for $950m. What Could Its New Condo Cost?
I‘ve been going to Tan Boon Liat Building almost every week because my 10-year-old daughter has acting class there.
While she is in class, I sometimes wander around and peek into the furniture shops. I wasn’t there to buy a sofa every week (that would be a rather expensive class), but it was hard not to notice just how unusual the building was.
It is a freehold industrial block from the 1970s, sitting on an absurdly good piece of land. Holiday Inn is next door, more hotels sit across and along the river, and Havelock MRT now serves the area directly.
I kept wondering how such an old building was still standing in such a prime location.
The view I photographed from the top of Tan Boon Liat Building, with hotels and the city skyline in the distance.
Now Kingsford Havelock has agreed to buy it for $950 million. Which immediately raises the questions future condo buyers will care about: how many homes could be built, what might the launch PSF be, and how much does the land really cost?
None of those details has been announced. But we can make a reasonable early estimate from the planning parameters and surrounding launches.
The $950 million deal is not complete yet
The $950 million agreement is 5% below the revised $1 billion reserve price and 17.4% below the original $1.15 billion asking price.
It is still conditional. The sale needs the required owner mandate and approval from the Strata Titles Board, so this is not quite time to picture the demolition crew arriving outside my daughter’s acting class.
If completed, the transaction would be Singapore’s largest collective sale of 2026 and the largest since Pacific Mansion sold for $980 million in 2018.
URA has indicated that the Business 1 site could potentially be rezoned to Residential with Commercial at the 1st Storey. The proposed plot ratio rises from 3.1 to 4.9, with a possible total gross floor area of about 1,024,360 sq ft after including state land and bonus GFA.
The planning parameters could support twin towers of up to 48 storeys, up to 1,500 sqm of commercial space and a required long-stay serviced-apartment component.
The real land cost is much more than $950 million
At the previous $1 billion reserve price, the estimated land rate was $1,757 per sq ft per plot ratio. That included the estimated Land Betterment Charge for changing the land use and intensity, plus premiums for the additional state land and bonus GFA.
Reducing the purchase price by $50 million across 1,024,360 sq ft of potential GFA lowers that estimate by about $48.81 psf ppr.
| Land calculation | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Published land rate at $1 billion | $1,757 psf ppr |
| Reduction from the lower sale price | $48.81 psf ppr |
| Revised implied land rate | About $1,708 psf ppr |
PSF PPR is not the price buyers will pay for their apartment. It spreads the developer’s effective land cost over the project’s permitted GFA, before construction, financing, consultants, marketing and profit.
At roughly $1,708 psf ppr, the effective land commitment is close to $1.75 billion before Buyer’s Stamp Duty and construction. The eventual number could change when the authorities determine the actual Land Betterment Charge, state-land premiums and approved GFA.
The Business 1 zoning gives Kingsford a tax advantage
Tan Boon Liat may eventually become a residential development, but Kingsford is buying it while the site is still zoned Business 1. For an entire building with land, IRAS uses the Master Plan zoning on the acquisition date to determine whether the purchase is residential or non-residential.
Kingsford still pays the normal Buyer’s Stamp Duty, or BSD. Based on the current non-residential BSD rates, that works out to about $47.47 million on a $950 million purchase, assuming the price is not below market value.
The advantage is that the purchase should not attract residential developer ABSD. As covered in our earlier breakdown of a landed developer’s costs, a developer buying residential property normally has an additional permanent 5% ABSD cost on top of BSD.
On $950 million, that extra 5% would have been another $47.5 million. Because Tan Boon Liat is still non-residential when acquired, Kingsford is not expected to pay it.
That is a meaningful tax saving, although Kingsford will still have to pay the Land Betterment Charge and other premiums needed to redevelop the site.
About 900 condo units looks reasonable
The published potential GFA is approximately 95,166 sqm, but not all of it can become condos for sale.
Up to 1,500 sqm may be commercial space. Public reports put the required Serviced Apartments II allocation at 10,000 sqm or 15,000 sqm, and these long-stay apartments must remain under single ownership rather than being sold as individual strata units.
The site sits in Bukit Merah, outside the Central Area. Under URA’s dwelling-unit guidelines, the usual upper-bound formula divides the proposed residential GFA by an average 85 sqm per home and excludes bonus GFA.
After allowing for the commercial space, serviced apartments and bonus-GFA treatment, my early estimate is:
Approximately 850 to 950 saleable condo units, with around 900 as a reasonable working number.
There could separately be a few hundred long-stay serviced apartments, depending on their eventual size and design. They are rental accommodation, not additional condo units for sale.
Around $3,500 psf is a reasonable base case
There is no announced launch date, unit mix or pricing. Still, the surrounding projects give us a useful starting point.
| Nearby project | Approx. average price |
|---|---|
| Promenade Peak | $3,033 psf |
| Zyon Grand | $3,065 psf |
| River Green | $3,148 psf |
| River Modern | $3,281 psf |
These recent averages were reported from URA caveat data in July 2026. Tan Boon Liat’s future project would have a freehold advantage over those 99-year launches, but it also carries a high land cost, complicated redevelopment work and a large number of homes to sell.
Putting those factors together, a neutral base case is around $3,500 psf on average, or roughly $3,400 to $3,700 psf if a range is needed.
That is an estimate, not a prediction. The property market, construction costs and final development mix may look quite different by the time Kingsford is ready to launch.
What we still do not know
The collective sale must first become unconditional. Kingsford then needs the final rezoning, planning permission, state-land terms and approved development parameters.
Only then will we know:
- The final number of condo and serviced-apartment units
- The actual tower design and unit mix
- The confirmed Land Betterment Charge and total land cost
- The launch date and selling price
Property rules, tax treatment and planning parameters can change. Verify the eventual project details with URA, IRAS and the developer before relying on these estimates for a purchase.
The Hello Arigato Always matcha I picked up nearby in Tiong Bahru.
On one of my visits, I ended up nearby in Tiong Bahru with this matcha from Hello Arigato at 58 Seng Poh Road. That is another part of the location’s appeal: the neighbourhood’s cafes and independent shops are around the corner, while Havelock MRT is only a few minutes from Tan Boon Liat.
For now, about 900 freehold homes at around $3,500 psf is still my reasonable pencil sketch.
But the MRT and matcha are already there.
