Paya Lebar mixed-use complex’s S$970 million en bloc tender draws no bid

City Plaza’s collective-sale tender closed on 13 October 2026 without a formal bid, despite its owners finally securing enough support to take the freehold Paya Lebar complex to market after two unsuccessful attempts.

The owners now have a 10-week private-treaty period to pursue direct negotiations with interested parties. For its 450 shop and apartment owners, that keeps the sale effort alive—but it does not mean a buyer has agreed to the S$970 million guide price.

Private talks are not a completed deal

Three separate steps can blur together in an en bloc sale: owners agreeing to pursue the sale, a purchaser submitting a formal tender bid, and parties negotiating privately after the tender closes.

City Plaza cleared the first step in February 2026. Owners representing 83.05% of its strata area and 81.26% of its share value supported the current sale exercise after the cooling-off period. That mandate allowed the property to proceed to tender, which opened on 11 August with a S$970 million guide price.

The tender itself produced no formal bid. Marketing agent Huttons Asia said it nevertheless received expressions of interest, commonly called EOIs, and moved into the 10-week private-treaty period.

An EOI is a sign that someone may be studying the site; it is not the same as a priced bid or signed sale agreement. No number of interested parties has been disclosed, nor have their identities, proposed prices or conditions.

The private-treaty window gives those parties more time to perform their checks and negotiate directly. It could produce an agreement, but the available information does not show that negotiations are close to one.

Eight years to reach the market

The tender’s outcome carries extra weight because City Plaza’s owners spent three sale attempts getting this far.

In 2018, the first attempt sought S$1.05 billion but obtained 53% support. The second attempt in 2021 used a S$970 million reserve price and reached 79.3%, narrowly missing the support needed to proceed.

This third exercise was different. It gained sufficient backing from owners, allowing City Plaza to launch its first tender arising from these three attempts.

The challenge has therefore shifted. Previously, the obstacle was agreement among City Plaza’s own owners. Now it is finding an outside purchaser prepared to commit on terms the sellers can accept.

That is why the no-bid result is both a setback and a continuation. The owners achieved the internal breakthrough that had eluded them for years, but crossing that line did not automatically create a buyer.

A large and complicated property

City Plaza is a freehold mixed-use complex along Geylang Road near Paya Lebar MRT. It comprises 450 strata units: 66 apartments and 384 retail units, spread across a site of about 13,146 sq m, or roughly 141,500 sq ft.

A simple division of the S$970 million guide price by the site area works out to approximately S$6,855 per sq ft of land. This calculation is useful only for understanding the scale of the asking price. It is not a redevelopment land rate or an estimate of what a future project would cost.

A prospective purchaser would still need to study the site’s planning, financial and commercial considerations. Terence Lian, Huttons Asia’s head of investment sales, said interested parties may require more time to assess those matters before committing.

The guide price also needs to be read correctly. It is the level at which the property was marketed, not an offer received by the owners, an accepted price or money paid for the site.

The next meaningful development

For now, private treaty changes the way discussions happen, not the status of the sale. Interested parties can negotiate during the 10-week period without submitting another bid through the closed public tender.

The distinction matters for anyone following the en bloc attempt: City Plaza has reported interest, but it has no disclosed buyer, agreed price or completed transaction.

After eight years and three attempts, the owners have finally moved beyond persuading one another. Their remaining question is whether private negotiations can produce the commitment that the public tender did not.