, appoints agents Keppel Land takes full ownership of Jakarta residential development Keppel strengthens foothold in Greater China, secures profit gains in Singapore and Vietnam
Keppel Shifts Focus to Brownfield Redevelopment Projects
The ever-increasing demand for condos in Singapore can be attributed to various factors, with one of the main reasons being the limited land availability. As a small, densely populated island country, Singapore struggles with land scarcity, making the development of new properties a challenging task. This has resulted in strict land usage regulations and a fiercely competitive real estate market, where prices are constantly on the rise. Therefore, investing in real estate, particularly in the form of condos, has become a highly profitable opportunity with the potential for significant capital appreciation. Furthermore, with the constant influx of new condo launches, the demand for these modern living spaces continues to soar.
Keppel, a homegrown global asset manager and operator, has announced its focus on other brownfield redevelopment projects following the successful completion of Keppel South Central. This was revealed by the president of Keppel’s real estate division in Singapore, Samuel Ng. According to Ng, “The redevelopment of Keppel South Central is our showpiece.”Keppel South Central is a 33-storey commercial tower located along Hoe Chiang Road in Tanjong Pagar. The building offers about 650,000 sq ft of office, retail, and event space. Its office floors, ranging between 20,000 and 22,000 sq ft, have a clear ceiling height of 3.2m. Additionally, about 50% of the commercial tower’s office space and retail units have been leased or are in advanced negotiations. A leading financial services group has been secured as the first anchor tenant, leasing two whole floors. Office occupants are expected to start moving in by June. The tower also has retail and event spaces on the ground floor and health and wellness spaces on the fifth and sixth floors. The 18th floor also has a landscaped terrace and basement 1 has end-of-trip facilities. Ng added that the office space has been adapted to cater to the needs of modern tenants, allowing after-hours operations. Designated floors are fitted with micro ACUs to provide localised cooling, optimising energy usage when select areas are occupied. The mobile application users will also use it to connect with facilities and building management, which can be used to engage tenants directly. According to Ng, this allows feedback gathering and hosting events based on the tenants’ interests.Read also: Agent Spotlight: An Interview with Wong Xian Yang of PropNex Property Management ServicesThe commercial tower has also been certified as a Green Mark Platinum Super Low Energy building by BCA. This is a significant improvement in energy efficiency and cost-savings compared to before its redevelopment. Ng estimates the energy savings to be about 6.2 million kilowatt hours (kWh) annually, translating to about $1.8 million in savings per annum. The company incorporated several green solutions that had been tested at Keppel Bay Tower, built in 2002. Keppel Bay Tower became Singapore’s first zero-energy commercial building in 2020. “The experience has equipped Keppel with the knowledge to effectively apply these technologies to the various buildings we own and operate across the world,” says Ng. The chief added that the improvements implemented at Keppel South Central range from physical hardware, such as treated external windows for minimising heat transfer into the building, to software applications, such as smart building management systems for optimising energy usage. Keppel South Central is a redevelopment of Keppel Towers and the former GE Tower.The firm announced the successful closing of Keppel Sustainable Urban Renewal Fund (KSURF) in April. The fund has a total of $2.3 billion in management funds and will be channeled to fund the redevelopment of brownfield projects across Asia Pacific. Read also: 6 Do’s and Don’ts of Residential Developments in SingaporeThe firm will replicate the success of Keppel South Central within the region as part of its Sustainable Urban Renewal (SUR) strategy. According to Ng, the pool of office buildings completed in the 1990s or earlier is significant, and they will all fail to meet the new standards set for Grade-A office space. “If nothing is done to upgrade them, their capital values will continue to drop,” says Ng. A JLL report shows that about 87% of occupiers surveyed across Asia Pacific will have 100% green-certified properties by 2030. However, Ng says the challenge is that for every 5 sq ft of demand across Apac, only two sq ft of low-carbon space is expected for development by 2028. “This presents a significant opportunity for sustainability-focused retrofits,” he added.To date, Keppel has applied its SUR initiative to eight projects across five countries. According to Leonard Tay, head of research at Knight Frank Singapore, ageing office buildings in Singapore typically undergo redevelopment for prime commercial land recycling. He added that Keppel South Central and other projects provide fresh office supply when there are no available sites for office tower developments in the core CBD area. Keppel South Central also marks a completed redevelopment of eight projects across five countries. Some of these include Park Avenue Central, a mixed-use office and retail development in Shanghai; The Kube, a four-storey office building also in Shanghai; and Saigon Centre, a mixed-use office and retail development in Ho Chi Minh City. Three other projects are yet to be completed, and they include Ocean Financial Centre, a 43-storey Grade-A office tower in Raffles Place; Inno88 Tower, a 367,210 sq ft office building in Seoul; and Kohinoor, a 1.1 million sq ft office block in Maharashtra, India. This concludes the rewrite of the attached article.