Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore (URA) has recently announced the first residential site with a variable lease option of 30, 45 or 60 years for sale. The 1.02 ha site in Jalan Jurong Kecil can also be developed for retirement housing. This is a pilot scheme as this is the first time URA is offering variable lease to provide developers with more development options.

One point to note is that all the options are much shorter than the standard 99 year lease term given by URA. It is interesting to note that 30 and 45 year leases are even shorter than Hong Kong’s standard 50 year leases. The Hong Kong government is famous for making lots of money from land sales due to the short turnaround of land leases. There are always land leases expiring where the government will take back and offer for tender again. Is the Singapore government trying ...