A joint venture between UOL Group, CapitaLand Development and Singapore Land Group has topped the tender for a 1,010-home Bedok site with a bid that sets a new benchmark land rate for a pure residential government site outside Singapore's city centre.

TL;DR

  • The New Upper Changi Road GLS tender closed 1 September 2026 with four bids; the top bid was $1.425 billion, or $1,537 psf ppr — a record for a pure-residential Outside Central Region (OCR) government site.
  • The site, opposite Bedok Town Centre and a short walk from Bedok MRT, can yield about 1,010 private homes and is the first GLS plot near the Bedok Integrated Transport Hub in 16 years.
  • The bid is 15.6% above the $1,330 psf ppr Allgreen Properties paid for the nearby Bedok Rise site, and came in above the range analysts had forecast before the tender closed.

What happened at the New Upper Changi Road tender?

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) closed the tender for its New Upper Changi Road site at noon on 1 September 2026, confirming in a same-day release that bids had been received without yet naming an award decision, which URA said would be "publicised at a later date." The site was originally launched for public tender on 15 May 2026 under the first-half 2026 Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme.

Independent reporting, drawing on the bid results, identified the top offer as a joint venture between UOL Group, CapitaLand Development (CLD) and Singapore Land Group (SingLand), which bid $1.425 billion, or $1,537 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) — 13.8% above the next-highest bid, from City Developments Ltd (CDL) and Hong Realty. Third place went to a GuocoLand, Hong Leong Holdings and Mitsui Fudosan consortium at $1.24 billion ($1,340 psf ppr), and fourth to Sim Lian at $1.22 billion ($1,310 psf ppr).

Why is $1,537 psf ppr a big deal?

At $1,537 psf ppr, the top bid is the highest land rate ever recorded for a pure-residential GLS site in Singapore's Outside Central Region (OCR) — the government's zoning tier for suburban, non-prime districts. For comparison, the last comparable Bedok-area site, Bedok Rise, was awarded to Allgreen Properties in December 2025 at $1,330 psf ppr; the new bid sits 15.6% above that benchmark. Analysts polled by The Business Times ahead of the tender close had generally expected top bids in the $1,250–$1,400 psf ppr range, so the winning offer landed above forecast.

Huttons Asia CEO Mark Yip called it a benchmark price for a pure residential parcel in the suburbs. The last pure-residential GLS site to clear $1 billion in total was a Dunearn Road plot sold in June 2022, where the 1,008-unit Grand Dunearn now stands — making the New Upper Changi Road bid only the second time in recent years a suburban site has crossed that threshold.

What's the site, and why does location explain the price?

At roughly 30,769 sq m (331,198 sq ft), the site can yield about 1,010 private homes — a genuine mega-development by heartland standards. Its core advantage is transit: it sits opposite Bedok Town Centre, within a five-minute walk of Bedok MRT station (East-West Line) and Bedok Mall, and is described in industry commentary as the first GLS site within walking distance of the Bedok Integrated Transport Hub in 16 years. Two schools, Fengshan Primary and Bedok Green Primary, fall within a 2km radius.

In a joint statement, UOL and CLD said the site's "exceptional locational attributes within a mature residential neighbourhood" would appeal to "a broad base of buyers, including HDB upgraders and residents from the surrounding landed housing estates," adding that the eventual project would favour two- to four-bedroom formats to keep total price quantum realistic.

Why it matters

Bedok's upgrader pool is unusually deep: nearly 2,300 HDB flats in the estate crossed their Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) between 2022 and 2026, and more than 9,500 flats across Bedok and Tampines combined are due to reach MOP between 2026 and 2029. Among flats 15 years old or younger, 2025 median resale prices stood at $1.03 million for five-room and $860,000 for four-room units — real capital that could flow into a future launch here. At the same time, this record land price sits inside a GLS programme the government has deliberately loosened: the first-half 2026 Confirmed List released 4,575 residential units, roughly 50% above the past decade's average, meaning buyers should weigh this as a genuine supply story rather than assume scarcity will keep driving prices up.

Not yet confirmed: URA has not formally announced the tender award; the bid figures above come from independent media reporting on the tender closing, not an official URA award notice. No launch date, unit mix, or pricing has been announced for any future development on the site.

FAQs

How much was the winning bid for the New Upper Changi Road GLS site?

Reported bid results put the top offer at $1.425 billion, or $1,537 psf ppr, from a joint venture between UOL Group, CapitaLand Development and Singapore Land Group — a record land rate for a pure-residential OCR government site. URA has not yet issued a formal award announcement.

How many homes could the site yield?

About 1,010 private residential units, on a roughly 331,198 sq ft site opposite Bedok Town Centre.

Why did this site attract such a high bid?

Its combination of a five-minute walk to Bedok MRT and Bedok Mall, proximity to the Bedok Integrated Transport Hub (the first GLS site to enjoy that in 16 years), and a deep pool of nearby HDB upgraders gives it rare transit-oriented appeal in a mature, amenity-rich estate.

Sources and Method

This article was compiled from the Urban Redevelopment Authority's own press release confirming the tender closing ("Tender closing for URA sale site at New Upper Changi Road," ura.gov.sg, 1 September 2026) and from independent reporting on the bid outcome syndicated from The Straits Times/The Business Times via Red Hot Singapore ("UOL, CapitaLand aim high with S$1.4 billion or S$1,537 psf ppr bid for New Upper Changi site"). Site background, comparator figures and MOP/upgrader data were cross-checked against PropertyNet.SG's pre-close analysis ("New Upper Changi Road GLS Tender Closes: Bedok Mega-Site of 1,010 Homes at Noon Deadline," 1 September 2026), which itself cites URA's original 1H2026 GLS release. Bid figures are attributed to media reporting on the tender outcome, not an official URA award notice, since URA had not published a formal award decision at the time of writing.