FOR the first time since September last year, the Urban Redevelopment Authority has launched a public tender to sell land.

The tender for the 99-year leasehold hotel site at Short Street in the Bras Basah-Bugis district will close on June 10.

The 12,535.6 sq ft site is ideal for a boutique hotel development located in an area with a 'synergistic cluster of arts, culture and education facilities', URA said in its release. The site is also near the future Rochor MRT station.

The site can accommodate a 12-storey hotel with about 90 to 100 rooms.

URA released the plot, which was on the reserve list of the Government Land Sales Programme, following a successful application by an unnamed party who has committed to place a minimum bid at the tender of $8.8 million, which works out to about $200 per square foot of potential gross floor area (GFA).

Singapore hotels are facing dual pressures of a global tourism slump, denting demand for rooms, as well as an increase in supply coming onstream.

On Monday, CBRE Hotels (Asia-Pacific) executive director Robert McIntosh said that going by the Singapore Tourism Board's forecast of nine million to 9.5 million visitors for this year, the average occupancy rate for Singapore hotels will decline from 81 per cent in 2008 to 71 per cent this year, while the average room rate will fall between 12.5 and 15 per cent this year.

Singapore has close to 10,000 rooms in the four- and five-star categories slated to come onstream by end-2012.

This article was first published in The Business Times.