City Developments Ltd. (CDL) increased its third quarter sales to S$325 millions, up from S$281 in the previous period.

In the same period, they sold 183, up from 95 a year ago.

CDL stated that its Thursday (Nov. 23) operational update showed an improvement in the company’s performance due to the launch of The Myst – a residential development with 408 units located along Upper Bukit Timah Road.

The group has sold 169 apartments at an average price of S$2,065 a square foot since its launch in July. The group noted that 94% of the buyers were Singaporeans, with permanent residents and other foreigners making up the remaining 6%.

CDL announced that it has secured a residential Government Land Sales plot at Champions Way measuring 155,351 sq ft for S$294.9m, or S$904 per square foot.

The group does expect private home sales will be measured, as the market is taking a “temporary break” to digest the slew new launches that took place in July.

The company is preparing for the launch of its 512-unit Lumina Grand Executive Condominium Project at Bukit Batok Avenue 5 during Q1 next year.

According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Q3 real estate statistics, the group’s Singapore office portfolio had an occupancy rate of 97.2 per cent. This is higher than the island-wide occupancy of 90%.

The group reported that while the rents for its flagship building, Republic Plaza, were up 7.4 percent as of Sep 30, 2023 but had dipped by just 0.1 percent in Q3 of this year. This marked the end of nine quarters of consecutive growth.

Rents are down mainly because occupants have become more cost conscious, due to the increased cost of capital as well as macroeconomic uncertainty.

CDL’s Hotel Operations continued to recover strongly, and all regions have seen higher revenue per available rooms (RevPAR).

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Global RevPAR increased by 31.6 percent to S$163.60 in the nine-month period ended September 2023. This is up from S$124.30 a year ago.

After completing several acquisitions, the group stated that its net gearing stood at 58 percent as of Sep 30, 2023. These included St Katharine Docks, UK, two hotels, and various private rented sector properties. The group said that interest cover was 3.2 times.

CDL shares fell 1.1 percent or S$0.07 to S$6.21 before the release of the update.