Fraser & Neave unit Frasers Centrepoint and its partners bid $1 billion for a Singapore site, beating six others even as the government introduced more measures to damp property speculation.

Frasers Centrepoint, Far East Organization and Sekisui House plan to build 680 homes and a 365,000-square-foot shopping mall on the north-eastern Singapore site, according to a statement to the stock exchange late yesterday. Far East is the city-state’s biggest privately held developer.

“The seven bids that this tender attracted indicate that developers are still eager to acquire attractive sites,” Nicholas Mak, executive director of SLP International Property Consultants, said in an e-mailed statement.

Singapore’s private home sales declined 11% to 1,189 in January from the previous month as government measures took effect. Last month’s sales were the lowest since October when 1,066 homes were sold, according to data on the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s website.

The bid “demonstrates our confidence in the Singapore property market,” Lim Ee Seng, chief executive officer of Frasers Centrepoint, said in the statement.

The city may take further steps to damp the property market if needed following last month’s curbs, Mah Bow Tan, minister for national development, said in Parliament on Feb 14. The government on Jan 13 raised down payment requirements for second mortgages and raised sales taxes, which were pre-emptive and imposed to cool the market, not “crash it,” Mah said.

Private home prices in the city-state climbed 2.7% to a record in the fourth quarter, boosting gains in 2010 to 18%.