HK family buys Club St shophouse for S$21.8m

Recent deals include the S$15.688m sale of 96 Amoy St, which houses the Ka-Soh fish head noodle business

Wed, Aug 22, 2018


A 999-year leasehold corner shophouse at 64 Club Street is being sold for S$21.8 million.

The price works out to S$3,880 per square foot based on the estimated built-up area of 5,618 sq ft.

The buyer is a Singapore-incorporated company controlled by some members of the Chan family of Hongkong which owns Wincome Group, which has a presence in the US.

The property investment, development and management firm based in Anaheim, California, has a portfolio that includes hotel and office properties in Anaheim and Costa Mesa, California.

The group was founded by Paul Chan Chark Yee in 1988; he has handed the reins to his son Mark Chan Man Kit.

The Club Street shophouse - which the Chans are buying from a company affiliated to Clifton Partners - is not the family's first Singapore property acquisition. In late 2015, they picked up three adjoining freehold shophouses at 42, 44 and 46 Joo Chiat Road, for S$23 million or S$1,552 psf on estimated built-up area. BT understands that the Chan family also owns a shophouse in the South Bridge Road area.

The S$21.8 million transaction price for 64 Club Street is understood to translate to about 3.5 per cent gross yield. Comprising two storeys, a basement and an attic level, the entire property is permanently approved for restaurant use. Caffe B, a Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant, occupies the entire shophouse under a long lease.

The shophouse, which sits on land area of 2,250 sq ft, has two entrances: on Club Street and Ann Siang Road. It used to be the home of Pondok Peranakan Gelam Club, which served as a communal home for Baweanese immigrants until the 1960s.

Clifton commissioned Malaysian design firm Sculptureatwork to create a 3D steel-rod wall mural mounted on the side facade of the shophouse. The mural depicts a series of caricatures featuring familiar characters from Singapore's past such as the coolie, the samsui woman and the rickshaw puller.

JLL brokered the deal but declined to comment.

Other shophouse deals in recent months include the S$29 million sale of 33 Liang Seah Street near Bugis Junction. This works out to S$2,522 psf on the estimated built-up area of 11,500 sq ft.

No 33 Liang Seah Street comprises three adjoining shophouses which are three storeys high in front and five storeys at the rear.They are on a single corner land lot of 2,694 sq ft; the 999-year site is zoned "commercial and residential" with a 4.2 plot ratio .

The buyer is Heap Trading, which is part of the Heap Seng Group, famous for wholesaling household and kitchenware brands at its own premises at 36 Liang Seah Street, comprising three shophouses opposite the property the group bought recently.

Loyalle Chin, associate group director at PropNex Realty, noted that Heap Seng Group is expanding its presence in the area; it also owns the nearby shophouse at the corner of Liang Seah Street and North Bridge Road at 496 North Bridge Road. An air-conditioned eatery operates on the ground floor. Earlier this year, Mr Chin brokered the sale of 32 Liang Seah Street, next to No 36, for S$12.2 million or about S$3,200 psf based on its estimated built-up area.

More recently, Mr Chin handled the sale of 96 Amoy Street, which fetched S$15.688 million. The ground floor of the 999-year leasehold property is occupied by Swee Kee Fish Head Noodle House, also affectionately known as "Ka-Soh".