City Developments Limited (SGX: C09) Stock: Quayside Isle Sale, Analyst Targets, and What Could Move CDL Shares Next (Dec. 17, 2025)

SINGAPORE (Dec. 17, 2025) — City Developments Limited (CDL) shares traded higher on Wednesday as investors digested fresh monetisation headlines and a drumbeat of broker commentary that has increasingly framed the property and hospitality group as a “value-unlocking” story. As of 1:51pm SGT, CityDev (CDL) was last indicated at S$7.61, up S$0.11 (+1.47%) on the day, according to delayed market data. ^[1]

The near-term narrative is being shaped by asset recycling (selling mature assets at premiums to book value), selective reinvestment, and the market’s ongoing debate over how quickly CDL can translate deal headlines into a stronger balance sheet, steadier shareholder returns, and a narrower discount to its underlying asset value. ^[2]

What’s driving CDL stock today: Quayside Isle divestment at a premium

CDL announced that it has entered into a sale and purchase agreement to divest Quayside Isle @ Sentosa Cove for S$97.3 million (about S$2,205 psf), a transaction that management said represents a ~47% premium over book value (book value: S$66.0 million) and is expected to complete in Q1 2026. ^[3]

Beyond the headline premium, CDL also highlighted that it is exiting the asset at a 2.6% cap rate, pointing to strong demand for prime, income-producing assets in a tightly held waterfront enclave. The company positioned the sale as its eighth asset divestment in 2025, reinforcing a broader “capital recycling and portfolio optimisation” push. ^[4]

The Business Times reported that the buyer is understood to be an entity owned by Patrick Kho, though CDL’s announcement described the counterparty as a Singapore-based institutional buyer. ^[5]

2025’s bigger CDL theme: capital recycling at scale

Quayside Isle is not a one-off. CDL has spent much of 2025 reshaping its portfolio through disposals and selective acquisitions—an approach it argues improves capital efficiency and creates room for debt reduction, new development pipeline, and potentially enhanced distributions.

South Beach: the landmark monetisation that reset the year

In June, CDL and Malaysia’s IOI Properties Group announced a deal under which IOI would acquire CDL’s 50.1% interest in the iconic South Beach development. The transaction was based on an agreed property value of S$2.75 billion (100% basis), and CDL’s estimated sale consideration was S$834.2 million, which CDL said was at an approximate premium to the latest valuation as of Dec. 31, 2024. ^[6]

Japan: Osaka hotel sale to Blackstone-managed funds

In late November, CDL said it was proposing to divest Bespoke Hotel Osaka Shinsaibashi for JPY 14 billion (about S$117 million) to real estate funds managed by Blackstone, aligning the transaction with its capital recycling strategy. A legal advisory update in December also referenced the same transaction size and counterparties. ^[7]

United States: Sunnyvale multifamily divestment

CDL also completed the divestment of a 250-unit residential property at 1250 Lakeside Drive in Sunnyvale, California, for US$143.5 million (S$186.8 million), according to The Straits Times. The company described the asset as non-core and said the sale enables it to reduce gearing and redeploy capital; the broader Sunnyvale site includes an upcoming M Social Hotel targeted for completion in 2H 2026, the report added. ^[8]

The scoreboard, per management

With the Quayside Isle agreement included, CDL said it has secured around S$2.0 billion in total divestments in 2025, outpacing total acquisitions of around S$1.7 billion for the year—an explicit attempt to reassure markets that sales are not being fully “recycled” into new spending. ^[9]

CDL is still buying: London hospitality bet with a stated 6%+ running yield

While divestments dominate the headlines, CDL has also made targeted acquisitions—most notably in the UK hospitality space.

On Dec. 2, CDL announced it had completed the acquisition of the 706-room Holiday Inn London – Kensington High Street for £280 million (about S$480.2 million), calling it a rare freehold site in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. CDL said the asset is expected to generate a running yield of over 6%, and noted the hotel achieved occupancy rates of over 97% for the nine months to September 2025. ^[10]

CDL framed the London move as a “value-creation opportunity” with long-term redevelopment potential, while also pointing to easing interest rates in the UK as part of the backdrop for selective investment. ^[11]

Operating backdrop: Singapore residential momentum, mixed hotel performance

Investors have been weighing CDL’s asset-sale progress against its operating read-throughs in development and hospitality.

In its third-quarter operational context reported by local media, CDL’s Singapore property sales in Q3 2025 fell sharply versus the year-ago period, largely because there were no new launches in that quarter; sales were mainly from existing projects. ^[12]

However, year-to-date figures cited by The Business Times and The Straits Times indicated stronger momentum: for the first nine months of 2025, total sales value was reported higher year-on-year, supported by performance at projects such as The Orie (a Toa Payoh joint venture launch), which was cited as being largely sold through. ^[13]

On the hospitality side, commentary in the same update cycle pointed to a modest decline in global RevPAR for the first nine months of 2025, with weaker performance in parts of Asia highlighted by the company, even as Europe/UK dynamics were more supportive in some accounts. ^[14]

Analyst forecasts and price targets: why brokers see “upside,” and why they disagree

Broker research has turned more constructive into December, driven by three recurring ideas:

Asset sales can reduce leverage and narrow the valuation discount,
A lower interest-rate environment can lift developers’ relative appeal, and
Capital return optionality (including the market’s recurring speculation around special dividends).

DBS Research: a notably bullish target

DBS Research took a more optimistic sector stance and raised CDL’s target price to S$11.80 (from S$9.00), while maintaining a “buy” call, according to The Business Times. The report framed developers as entering a potential new phase of growth, supported by capital recycling and a more favourable interest-rate backdrop. ^[15]

RHB: upgrade to “buy,” but governance remains a watch item

RHB upgraded CDL to “buy” from “neutral” and lifted its target price to S$8.50 from S$4.90, citing Singapore residential strength and renewed divestment momentum, The Business Times reported. RHB also highlighted balance-sheet metrics such as net gearing and interest cover, while explicitly noting that corporate governance lapses remain a concern for some investors, reflected via an ESG discount in its valuation framework. ^[16]

OCBC: more cautious, closer to the market price

OCBC maintained a “hold” stance with a fair value estimate cited at S$7.49, while flagging macro uncertainty and the potential for policy-related demand dampening to affect sentiment, according to The Business Times. ^[17]

Phillip Securities: “accumulate,” with special dividend chatter in the background

Phillip Securities (via POEMS) showed a more balanced stance, indicating an RNAV-based target price of S$8.34 and noting that stronger take-up at launches alongside the accelerated divestment pace could help narrow the RNAV discount. The same commentary also pointed to the possibility of a special dividend around FY2025 results, linked to divestment proceeds, while expecting a more supportive event calendar for hospitality. ^[18]

A quick way to interpret the spread

As CDL traded around S$7.61 on Dec. 17, the broker targets above imply very different worlds:

DBS (S$11.80) implies very large re-rating ambition,
RHB (S$8.50) implies moderate upside,
OCBC (S$7.49) sits close to the prevailing price, signalling a more “wait and see” posture. ^[19]

That disagreement is itself the story: the market is still pricing uncertainty around how durable CDL’s operating recovery will be—and how consistently the group can translate asset monetisation into shareholder-visible outcomes.

The governance overhang: why it still appears in broker notes

CDL’s valuation debate in 2025 has not been purely financial. Earlier in the year, the group faced a high-profile boardroom dispute that included a trading suspension and legal action, Reuters reported, before CDL later said the executive chairman dropped the lawsuit in an effort to resolve the tussle while both chairman and CEO remained in their roles. Reuters also noted that some analysts cautioned that key issues were unresolved even after the legal case was dropped. ^[20]

By late 2025, this history continued to surface in analyst framing—less as a day-to-day operational factor, more as a valuation “haircut” risk that can keep discounts stubbornly wide even when asset sales look objectively positive. ^[21]

What investors will watch next: CDL catalysts into 2026

Several concrete milestones are now on the market’s near-term checklist:

Quayside Isle completion (Q1 2026): Investors will watch whether the sale closes as guided, and how CDL allocates proceeds (debt reduction vs reinvestment vs shareholder returns). ^[22]
Follow-through on capital recycling: CDL has explicitly positioned 2025 as a heavy divestment year; markets will look for continuity rather than a one-year “burst.” ^[23]
Hospitality performance amid a busy events calendar: Broker and media commentary has pointed to event-driven tailwinds as a support for near-term hotel trends, though this is inherently cyclical and sensitive to travel demand. ^[24]
Any signal on capital returns: Special dividend expectations appear in some market commentary, but remain dependent on board decisions, earnings, and balance-sheet priorities. ^[25]

Bottom line for CDL stock on Dec. 17, 2025

City Developments’ share price action this week is less about a single asset sale and more about whether CDL is finally convincing the market that its 2025 playbook—sell mature assets at strong prices, reinvest selectively, and improve capital efficiency—can persist into 2026 without getting derailed by macro shocks or execution slip-ups.

The Quayside Isle deal hands bulls fresh evidence that high-quality assets can be monetised at meaningful premiums. The bears, meanwhile, will likely keep asking the same hard question: how much of that value ultimately shows up in sustainable earnings, lower leverage, and shareholder returns—as opposed to remaining trapped inside a complex global portfolio.