Orchard Boulevard GLS site: tender closes 29 October

The Orchard Boulevard GLS site, a small residential plot near Orchard Boulevard MRT station, closes for tender at 12 noon on Thursday 29 October 2026. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is selling it on a 99-year lease, and its own estimate is about 110 homes on 3,438.0 sqm of land, according to URA's page for the site.

For a buyer watching the Orchard area, 29 October brings a list of bids, not a project. URA's recent practice is to publish the bids received on the day a tender closes and to announce any award later, and it may reject any bid, including the highest. No developer, project name, launch date or selling price exists for this site yet, and this page does not predict one.

What exactly is URA selling at Orchard Boulevard?

A small residential site. URA's Current GLS Sites table (last updated 15 October 2026) lists it at 0.34 ha with a gross plot ratio of 2.8, "Open for tender". The plot ratio is the ceiling on floor area relative to land: 3,438.0 sqm of land at 2.8 gives about 9,627 sqm, the maximum GFA on URA's site page.

Divide that floor area by URA's estimate of 110 homes and you get about 87.5 sqm, or roughly 942 sq ft, per home (our arithmetic). That is not a unit size. It is the whole permitted floor area shared across an estimate, and the developer decides the actual mix.

It is also a different proposition from the Orchard Boulevard parcel URA sold in 2024. That one was 7,031.4 sqm with a maximum GFA of 24,610 sqm, offered for residential development with commercial use at the 1st storey. The 2026 site has under half the land and about 39% of the floor area, and is zoned residential only.

Two conditions shape who can bid. Tenders must be "firm and unconditional offers", per URA's FAQ for prospective tenderers (last updated 6 August 2026). And because the site was launched after 22 May 2026, it falls under URA's land sales disqualification and sales suspension framework, which can bar errant developers from land sales. URA's framework page (last updated 29 September 2026) says no developer or individual is currently disqualified or suspended under it.

What will URA publish on 29 October?

If it follows its recent releases, a same-day "tender closing" notice with an annex giving "details of the site and tender bids received", which "is not an announcement of tender award". Any award comes in a separate release. How long that second step has taken:

1. Orchard Boulevard, 2024: launched 17 October 2023, closed 1 February 2024, awarded to the highest tenderer, United Venture Development (No. 7), on 21 February: 20 days.
2. Marina Gardens Crescent, 2024: closed 18 January 2024. On 8 February URA did not award it: the sole bid was "assessed to be too low" and the site moved to the Reserve List.
3. Holland Plain, 2026: closed 7 May, awarded on 12 May to its sole tenderer.
4. New Upper Changi Road, 2026: closed 1 September, awarded on 4 September.
5. Lorong Puntong / Sin Ming Avenue, 2026: closed 15 September, awarded on 18 September.
6. Marina Gardens Lane, 2026: closed 15 October; URA's pages showed no award release when we checked on 22 October. Our Marina Gardens Lane guide explains why its closing release reads as a single bid.

So the gap has run from three days to three weeks, and a low bid can be turned down. Those are patterns in past releases, not URA commitments about this site.

How do you read the bids when they appear?

Put every bid on one basis: price per square foot of permitted floor area. URA quotes tendered prices per sqm of GFA, so divide by 10.7639, the number of square feet in a square metre. Our sqm to sq ft converter does the conversion if you prefer not to.

Two real reference points, both converted by us:

• Orchard Boulevard, February 2024: S$17,402.72 per sqm of GFA, about S$1,617 psf ppr.
• Lorong Puntong / Sin Ming Avenue, September 2026: another residential site with a gross plot ratio of 2.8 (11,994 sqm of GFA), awarded at S$17,350.26 per sqm, about S$1,612 psf ppr.

Our comparison of 2026 GLS awards lists the rest of this year's results on the same basis.

Now an illustrative calculation, not a forecast. Suppose the top bid on 29 October matched the 2024 Orchard Boulevard rate of S$17,402.72 per sqm. Across 9,627 sqm, the land would cost about S$167.5 million. Spread over URA's estimate of 110 homes, that is about S$1.52 million of land per home before anything is built. A real bid could sit well above or below that.

The land price is only the first cost. URA's FAQ says the successful tenderer pays stamp duty on the tender acceptance letter, calculated on the full land price, and construction, financing and marketing follow. So a land price tells you what one developer was willing to pay; it does not tell you what a home in the finished project will cost.

What should a buyer do with the result?

Treat it as the first entry in a file, not a reason to act. A checklist for your new launch research file:

1. On 29 October, open URA's closing release. Note the number of bids, the top two prices and their gap, each converted to psf ppr.
2. Wait for the award release before naming a developer. Until then, the top bid is an offer URA may still reject.
3. When a project is announced, check that the developer holds a valid housing developer's licence. URA's housing developers page (last updated 19 October 2026) links the licence check and the disqualification and sales suspension list. Our guide to what a developer must have before you pay a booking fee covers the other checks.
4. If a foreign developer wins, note one rule: URA's land sales procedure requires foreign housing developers buying GLS residential land to sell all the homes within two years of the Temporary Occupation Permit.
5. Judge any eventual launch on your own needs, using our method for a clear project comparison, not on the land price.

For the other sites still to close this year, see our 2H 2026 GLS tender calendar, and for more ways to research a project, Start your research.

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