Stratech's Chew family is owner of Belmont GCB put up for auction

Thu, Jul 18, 2019


THE husband-and-wife team of David Chew and Leong Sook Ching that used to control mainboard-listed The Stratech Group, now in liquidation, are the registered owners of the Belmont Road bungalow that was put up for auction earlier this week.

Deutsche Bank is the mortgagee for the freehold property, which is in the Belmont Park Good Class Bungalow (GCB) Area.

A guide price of S$42 million has been set for the mortgagee sale, the property's marketing agent, Knight Frank, said on Tuesday, without identifying the owner or mortgagee.

Mr Chew and his wife Madam Leong were made bankrupts last October following a petition by Zana Asia Fund II, searches show.

Mr Chew was Stratech's executive chairman and Madam Leong, its executive director and chief corporate officer. Trading in the company's shares has been suspended for about two years.

The auction for the Belmont Road property will be held at Amara Singapore hotel on July 23. The guide price for the bungalow reflects S$1,556 per square foot on the freehold land area of 27,000 sq ft.

The plot is sizeable but not big enough to be subdivided into two plots (given the minimum plot size of 1,400 square metres or 15,069.46 sq ft stipulated for any newly-created bungalows within Singapore's 39 GCB Areas).

The Chews' bungalow is next to the property bought by Shangri-La Asia chairman Kuok Hui Kwong last July. The daughter of Malaysian tycoon, Robert Kuok, paid S$43.5 million or S$1,430 psf based on the land area of 30,420 sq ft.

The two neighbouring properties are said to be more than 15 years old.

In contrast, two newly-built properties also along Belmont Road have fetched much higher psf prices in the past year. One was bought last month for S$39.8 million or S$2,653 psf on land area of 15,001 sq ft, by Angela Loh Moo Cheng, the former wife of Centurion Corporation director David Loh.

The other changed hands for S$2,243 psf or S$33.8 million last August. The new owner of the house, which has a land area of 15,069 sq ft, Kady Leyau is a former model, actress and VJ with MTV Taiwan. The Singaporean is married to New Zealand-born billionaire Richard Chandler.