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“Religious organisations hope to pay less for leasehold land as Govt reviews tender policies” (ST, Jul 12)
“Sources told The Straits Times about the ongoing review, which comes as some religious groups are having difficulty renewing leases for their sites owing to high costs.
The prices of land for places of worship have been high in recent years, they noted.
The spokesman said some temples have faced difficulties forking out 30-year lease renewal premiums of about $1 million to $3 million in recent years.
New sites for Chinese temples, churches and Hindu temples are sold on 30-year leases via tenders, with each site open only to a particular religious group.
Mosque sites, meanwhile, are allocated to the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore at a price determined by the chief valuer.
Tender prices for places of worship land under the Government Land Sales programme, however, have remained high.
For instance, winning bids for two Chinese temple sites in Punggol were $2,150 and $2,204.23 per sq m per plot ratio in 2019, compared with $1,875 for a site in Sengkang in 2015 and $1,311.42 for a Woodlands site in 2014.
While bids for church land have come down from 2013 rates, the latest winning bids of $2,503.65 per sq m per plot ratio in 2020 and $1,999.57 per sq m per plot ratio in 2019 are comparable to recent successful Chinese temple bids.
MND and SLA told ST that pending the review’s outcome, religious organisations with expiring leases can either take up the standard 30-year lease renewal or a short-term tenancy of three years, which can be renewed for another three years.
Zion Bishan Bible-Presbyterian Church, whose 30-year lease ended on June 30, took up the short-term option.
Rev Yip said the church is now paying about $17,000 per month. This was the best option, he said, as a fresh 30-year lease was estimated to cost between $12 million and $15 million, which would work out to at least about $30,000 per month.
The church’s lease renewal committee said it would not make sense to pay large amounts for a new lease, which could otherwise go towards serving the community.
“We are not a commercial entity paying rent to a landlord before turning in a profit, and so it would be wrong to collect public monies only for most of it to go into the land,” it said.”
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