The good class bungalow (GCB) market is on the road to recovery, with at least six transactions amounting to $170 million recorded since January 2014, according to media reports.
For instance, philanthropist Saw Swee Hock sold his two-storey mansion at Bin Tong Park for $31.5 million. This works out to $1,551 psf based on its land area of 20,315 sq ft.
The property is believed to be one of three adjacent bungalows held by Professor Saw as investment properties, while the buyer is said to be business mogul Goh Cheng Liang of Nippon Paint.
A two-storey old bungalow along Margoliouth Road off Stevens Road also changed hands for $30.8 million, or $1,696 psf based on its land area of 18,161 sq ft. Situated at a cul de sac, the home comes with five bedrooms, a maid’s room and a swimming pool.
Its buyer is understood to be Imelda Tanoto, the eldest daughter of Indonesian mogul Sukanto Tanoto of Royal Golden Eagle International group. The holding company owns one of the world’s largest producers of pulp and paper – Singapore-based Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd.
The six GCB deals also include the planned purchase of a two-storey bungalow in the Cluny area for about $30 million, or slightly below $2,000 psf. However, the deal is still under negotiation. Like the Bin Tong Park and Margoliouth GCBs, the Cluny bungalow is also freehold.
“The GCB market has been quite active lately, probably because of pent-up demand from a lack of activity in the last few months of 2013,” said William Wong, Managing Director of RealStar Premier, the company that brokered the Margoliouth bungalow.
Based on CBRE’s data, the overall value of the six transactions ($170 million) is already equivalent to 25 percent of last year’s total amount ($687.8 million). Only 29 bungalows were transacted for the whole of 2013, compared to 54 deals totalling $1.17 billion in 2012 due to the TDSR, ABSD and tougher LTV limits.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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