Singapore's Chip Eng Seng mothballs local projects
CEL Australia's $140 million, 29-level tower at Fishermans Bend in South Melbourne.

Singapore's Chip Eng Seng mothballs local projects

Singapore-listed property powerhouse Chip Eng Seng has mothballed plans for a new Hyatt hotel in Adelaide and an ambitious apartment project in Melbourne as it waits out the coronavirus-caused slowdown.

Chip Eng Seng expects to post a first-half loss as it absorbs the impact of the pandemic. Its footprint extends across Singapore, Australia and the Maldives.

“Based on a real estate market report prepared by analytics firm CoreLogic in May 2020, the residential property market in Australia has been impacted by the weakened economic conditions and a plunge in consumer sentiment,” Chip Eng Seng said.

“In view of this, the group has suspended its marketing efforts for its residential development project in Melbourne, FIFTEEN85, till 2021.”

Even before the virus crisis overwhelmed the local residential market, the developer’s local arm, CEL Australia, had struggled with buyer interest in the 700-unit apartment project at Fishermans Bend on the city fringe.

At the first stage launch two years ago, the developer signed up buyers for just three of the 222 apartments on offer, despite offering tens of thousands of dollars in incentives to get purchasers over the line.

Chip Eng Seng’s hotel portfolio in Australia is also feeling the chill. Occupancy at its two Australian hotels, The Sebel Mandurah in Western Australia and Mercure & Ibis Styles Grosvenor Hotel in Adelaide, has fallen to single-digit levels since March.

“The group expects occupancy in these two hotels to remain low so long as the demand for travel is severely curtailed by Australia’s travel restrictions and quarantine requirements,” it said.

Plans to add another hotel its holdings in Australia, a 27-storey development for Hyatt in the Adelaide CBD, have also been deferred until next year.

The 295-room Hyatt Regency on Pirie Street had been slated to open in 2023.

Chip Eng Seng reported earlier this week that it had launched legal proceedings for the return of a deposit on a childcare centre in Melbourne’s west after the deal turned sour.

Three years ago the Singaporean developer abandoned one of the city’s most controversial apartment developments, Tower Melbourne, putting it back on the market and refunding hundreds of buyer deposits after a protracted legal battle with a neighbouring landlord.

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