City Developments Ltd. (CDL)—controlled by billionaire Kwek Leng Beng and his family—sold 20% of a luxury residential skyscraper it is building on the edge of the Raffles Place central business district amid tepid demand from high-end buyers.

The Singapore-listed developer said it sold 75 units of the 366-unit Union Square Residences over the weekend at an average selling price of S$3,200 ($2,400) per square foot. It sold a five-bedroom Sky Suite at level 38 of the 40-story skycraper for S$9.3 million.

“The encouraging take-up for Union Square Residences reflects the consistent interest from homebuyers who recognise the enduring value of a prime mixed use development,” Sherman Kwek, group CEO of City Developments, said in a statement.

Despite the decent sales of Union Square Residences, analysts believe it will take a while before demand for luxury apartments fully recover amid the prevailing property curbs, which includes the additional buyers’ stamp duty (ABSD) of 60%, imposed by the government on foreign buyers to rein in property prices.

“Demand for high-end apartments remains lukewarm and selective, though we are seeing some nascent recovery signs with economic growth remaining healthy,” Vijay Natarajan, an analyst at RHB Bank in Singapore, said by email. “A key impediment remains to be the high ABSD rates, which deter foreigners and investors from buying high-end residential units.”

CDL is building Union Square residential tower on the sites of the former Central Mall and Central Square commercial properties. City Developments bought Central Square from Far East Hospitality Trust, a unit of Robert and Philip Ng’s Far East Organization, for S$315 million in 2021 and combined it with the adjacent Central Mall building to create the Union Square mixed use complex.

City Developments has been actively redeveloping older buildings in the Raffles Place CBD and surrounding areas. CDL and partner CapitaLand are constructing CanningHill Piers, a residential, commercial and hotel complex at the former site of the Liang Court shopping center in Clark Quay. The company is also building another mixed-use project on the site of the former Fuji Xerox tower in Tanjong Pagar.

The Union Square residential tower will be seamlessly connected to Union Square Central, comprising a 20-storey Grade A premium office tower with shops and restaurants. The apartments are priced at S$1.4 million for the one-bedroom (436 square feet) units to S$9.5 million for the five-bedroom Sky Suite at level 39.

The Sky Suites along with the penthouse on level 40 will give future residents panoramic views of the Singapore River and Marina Bay. “We are confident that the unique attributes and convenience of Union Square Residences will continue to attract keen interest,” said Sherman, eldest son of billionaire Kwek Leng Beng, who is executive chairman of City Developments.

The elder Kwek is also the executive chairman of Singapore’s Hong Leong Group, which was founded by his father in 1941. His billionaire cousin Quek Leng Chan runs a separate group in Malaysia, Hong Leong Co. (Malaysia), which has interests in finance, food and property. With a net worth of $11.5 billion that he shares with his family, Kwek was ranked No. 4 on the list of Singapore’s 50 Richest that was published in September.