BEIJING, July 5 -- Tomson Group, developer of Shanghai's most expensive apartment project, Tomson Riviera, said yesterday it will sell one tower of the waterfront residences in a global public tender after it failed to sell a single unit in half a year.

    The company said it has hired DTZ Debenham Tie Leung's Hong Kong office as the global sole agent for the sale of Tower B, one of the four buildings in the luxury residential project located in the heart of the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone of Pudong New Area.

    Tower B is a 44-story block with 74 luxury apartments ranging from 406 square meters to 1,240 square meters and has a total residential gross floor area of about 36,000 square meters, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

    The developer didn't offer more details about the public tender such as starting sales price or potential marketing destinations.

    Tomson started to sell Tower C of the project in Shanghai on its own in October at an average price of 110,000 yuan (US$13,564) a square meter, surprising the local real estate market as it set the record as the city's most expensive apartment to date.

    Tomson Riviera consists of four residential towers on the east bank of Huangpu River, each of 40 to 44 stories and providing a total of 220 luxury apartments and a clubhouse with a total gross floor area of approximately 142,000 square meters.

    Tomson's original plan was to sell the Tower C first and then Tower B, both of which have a less ideal location compared to Tower A that it wants to sell last. It plans to operate Tower D as serviced apartments.

    Though the company said it received a warm response from individual investors and were in talks with a number of institutional investors for en-bloc sales, it has not sold one unit so far.

    Local analysts blamed the sluggish sales to the sky-high price while other projects at similar prime locations all reported strong sales in the first half.

    A slowdown in residential transactions in Shanghai since last year has created a buying opportunity for overseas institutional investors in the first half.

    Morgan Stanley acquired one tower of Chateau Pinnacle, a luxury apartment project near Xujiahui last month for about 760 million yuan. The average price the investment bank paid was 28,043 yuan per square meter.

    Gateway Capital bought a block of 103 apartments in Lakeville Regency near Xintiandi for about 600 million yuan in March.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)