IF THE property pundits are right, Bishan and Toa Payoh will be the next areas to be buzzing with hot property market action.

A plot in each location is about to go on sale, and both are earmarked for public housing to be built by private developers.

The exact locations of the two choice sites were released yesterday, along with those of two others in Simei and Bedok slated for the same kind of development.

They were part of a package of more than 7,000 new HDB flats and seven land plots, meant for a mix of higher-end public housing and executive condominiums, to be released between now and June.

They also include 1,162 new flats on Bukit Panjang Ring Road and Punggol Road that were put up for sale yesterday.

The four sites for developer-built public housing can yield 1,900 homes. They will be put up for tender progressively, starting from next month until June.

Meanwhile, another three plots meant for executive condominiums - at Yishun, Jurong West and Sengkang East Avenue - will be put on the reserve list in the first half of next year. This means they will be put up for tender once an interested buyer submits a minimum bid acceptable to the Government.

Property consultants and analysts contacted by The Straits Times did not think this move would lead to any oversupply in the market. There was healthy demand for new HDB flats, they said, and this was supported by economic growth.

Citigroup economist Chua Hak Bin said: 'The market has to pay a price for the sites, has to feel comfortable that there is a demand, so it is still market-driven.'

There was a general consensus that developers would make a beeline for the plots in Bishan and Toa Payoh when they were put up for tender.

The Bishan site, which can fit about 390 homes, will be put on the market next month. It is at Bishan Street 24, near public housing blocks and schools, and a short walk from Bishan North Shopping Mall.

The other, to be put up for tender in April, is located at Lorong 1A Toa Payoh. It sits between the Braddell and Toa Payoh MRT Stations and is also a stone's throw from the bustling HDB Hub.

Developers who bag the sites will have to build flats according to the general rules of public housing, which means their common spaces will have to be easy to maintain, for example.

While they are free to design, build and price the flats, they can sell the properties only to families who earn not more than $8,000 a month, and they must maintain an ethnic quota within the estate.

The first such hybrid housing project, developed by Sim Lian Land in Tampines, was launched to overwhelming response last year. The second, to be developed by a Hoi Hup Realty-led consortium in Boon Keng, is expected to be launched soon.

The tender for a third such plot in Ang Mo Kio closed earlier this week with a higher-than-expected top bid of $212.40 per sq ft (psf) per plot ratio. This means flats there could be launched from $580 psf.

Mr Ku Swee Yong, the director of business development and marketing at Savills Singapore, predicted an even better response to the Bishan and Toa Payoh projects. He said: 'Selling prices of the finished units could hit $600 psf or even more, which means HDB prices may reach the levels of private 99-year leasehold condos.'

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