High Point tries a sixth en bloc at the same $580 million

The owners of High Point, a 59-unit freehold condominium at 30 Mount Elizabeth, have put the estate back on the market for a sixth collective sale attempt, at the same $580 million guide price that found no buyer in June. The public tender closes at 3pm on 12 October 2026.

Marketing agent ETC, part of Realion Group, launched the tender on 3 September. The guide price works out to about $2,645 psf per plot ratio after the 7% bonus floor area, and ETC points out that no land betterment charge is payable to redevelop the site up to its baseline plot ratio of 4.45, which removes one moving part from a developer’s sums. The plot covers 47,607 sq ft, is zoned residential under URA’s Master Plan 2025, and carries a height control of up to 36 storeys. The existing building, completed in 1973, has 57 apartments and two penthouses.

Since June the price has not moved. The pitch has

Readers of our July article will remember how the fifth attempt ended: the tender closed on 9 June with no award, and the private treaty window that followed produced nothing either. That story is here. The owners have now come back with an identical guide price.

What ETC has changed is the argument. Swee Shou Fern, its head of investment advisory, framed the site as a land-scarcity story, saying its scale and positioning set it apart from anything else available in the Orchard area. To back that up, ETC’s release leans on the top end of the condo market rather than on land deals. It cites 13 homes sold above $10 million in the second quarter of 2026, a unit at 21 Anderson that fetched $5,013 psf in April, and a 274 sqm unit at Skywaters Residences that sold for $17.34 million, or $5,880 psf, in July.

The land comparison is thinner, because there is only one. The last freehold site for a super-luxury condominium to change hands in the area was 21 Anderson in September 2021, at $213 million or $2,490 psf per plot ratio. Sixteen of that project’s 19 units have since sold at an average of $4,931 psf, with a high of $5,347 psf. High Point’s guide asks about 6% more per plot ratio than that land price, five years on and after the April 2023 round of stamp duty increases.

Four price tags, six attempts, no completed sale. The September guide matches April’s exactly. Sources: ETC (2026 guide prices); reported tender history. Chart: HomeAsset.

Six attempts, one accepted bid, no deal

High Point first tried to sell collectively in 2019. The closest it came was December 2021, when Hong Kong-listed Shun Tak Holdings bid $556.7 million, about $2,626 psf per plot ratio, then walked away within a month and forfeited its $1 million deposit. The retreat came about two weeks after the December 2021 cooling measures raised additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD, the extra tax on second and foreign purchases) and tightened the total debt servicing ratio. A 2022 relaunch at a $550 million guide closed without a sale. April’s $580 million tender was the fifth attempt. This is the sixth.

The $580 million guide asks about 6% more per plot ratio than the last freehold super-luxury site that actually sold. Sources: ETC release, 3 September 2026; reported 2021 bid. Chart: HomeAsset.

Why do developers keep passing? The quantum is the problem more than the location. At $580 million for the land alone, before construction and financing, a developer has to sell a finished project at prices near the top of ETC’s own comparables, between roughly $4,900 and $5,900 psf, to a pool of buyers that ABSD at 60% for foreigners has kept small. A developer also has to complete and sell out within five years to claim the ABSD remission on the land, so a slow-selling luxury project carries a real penalty. Developers have preferred smaller sites or sites with clearer pricing benchmarks, and two rounds at $580 million have not changed that.

Holding the price for a sixth attempt tells you the owners have not softened. Whether developers have is what the 12 October close will show.

What this means for you

• Owners in older prime freehold condos: a willing majority and a trophy address have not been enough for High Point across six attempts. Value your unit on what it rents and resells for today. An en bloc payout is a possibility, not a plan.
• Buyers looking at ageing District 9 stock: units in estates with stalled en bloc stories can trade below what their land value implies. Buy them to live in or hold, and treat any collective sale as a bonus.
• Anyone tracking Orchard prices: a sale at or near $580 million would set a fresh freehold land benchmark of around $2,645 psf per plot ratio, above 21 Anderson’s $2,490. Another lapse would confirm that developers still draw the line below the owners’ number.
• Mark the date: 12 October, 3pm. If the tender closes without an award, expect the usual private treaty window before this attempt formally lapses.