A REVIEW OF THE URA CONCEPT AND PRICE REVENUE TENDER SYSTEM

Abstract

In Singapore’s pursuit to be a global city of design and architectural excellence, the Government Land Sales programme plays the vital role of design review in determining the shape of development on the sale sites. Few studies in land sales research have investigated the programme from a design review perspective. Much of them explored this issue by studying conventional open tenders and Request-for-Proposal with Fixed Land Price, with few researches conducted on the URA Concept and Price Revenue Tender system. As such, this study seeks to discuss, analyze and evaluate this tender system. In-depth interviews conducted with 15 experts and three URA directors, and 100 surveys carried out with Iluma shoppers and Collyer Quay visitors, found that design review through the two-envelope tender system makes a valuable contribution to Singapore’s urban, economic and national development. However, the high initial capital costs which possibly marginalise small developers, subjectivity in the concept evaluation stage, evaluation of business concepts, inflexibility in changing development’s design and concept, and the apparent lack of a mechanism to monitor business operations have questioned its effectiveness in achieving the best of both worlds in terms of design and concept in accordance with planning objectives with a competitive land price. Therefore, while it is concluded that there is value in using this land sales method, there is a crucial need for it to be refined by engaging the public and incorporating anonymity in the design review process, explore the possibility of assigning a weightage to concept proposals and price in the tender evaluation stage and organizing design competitions to achieve better outcomes.