EXCLUSIVE: Wing Tai chief sells GCB for whopping $230m

[reporter2]

EXCLUSIVE: Wing Tai chief sells GCB for whopping $230m

By Cecilia Chow / EdgeProp Singapore

July 30, 2019



The biggest Good Class Bungalow (GCB) plot on Nassim Road, at No. 33, has been sold for $230 million, setting a new record in terms of absolute transacted price. At 84,544 sq ft, it’s one of the largest freehold GCB plots on Nassim Road that remain intact today.

The seller is Winright Investment, a private company set up for holding property investments, owned by property magnate Cheng Wai Keung, chairman of Singapore-listed Wing Tai Holdings, and his wife Helen Chow. Cheng declined to comment when contacted by EdgeProp Singapore.

The buyer is believed to be a Singapore-owned trust, SG Casa.

A property title search showed that the contract for the purchase was exercised on May 10, with the transfer to the buyer completed and registered on July 4.

Nevertheless, at $2,720 psf, the price achieved for the Nassim Road GCB is still one of the highest in terms of psf price today. Most of the recent record prices in psf terms were for new GCBs sitting on smaller sites.

For instance, the GCB at Jervois Hill sitting on a 15,094 sq ft, freehold site fetched $41.2 million ($2,730 psf) in June last year. Meanwhile, earlier this month, a newly completed GCB on Cluny Road purchased by the UK’s richest man, James Dyson, is said to have fetched a price of above $41 million. The bungalow sits on a land area of about 15,100 sq ft. The original price tag of the bungalow was $45 million or $2,980 psf.

“Given the land size of the Nassim Road GCB, the magnitude of the price – both in absolute and psf terms -- is astounding,” according to a source who declined to be named.

Six years ago, the GCB at 33 Nassim Road was in the limelight when it was put on the market for sale by tender, with JLL as the exclusive marketing agent. The asking price then was $250 million to $300 million, which translated to $2,957 to $3,548 psf.

The GCB is large enough to be sub-divided into four smaller GCB parcels of about 20,000 to 21,000 sq ft each. In fact, a written permission was obtained in March 2016 for the sub-division of the land into four smaller plots, according to EdgeProp Inspector Tool.

However, the double-storey mansion with its sprawling garden, tennis court and swimming pool at 33 Nassim Road remains unchanged. The site, which has a long frontage of about 100m, is bordered by a thick hedge of trees, providing privacy from prying eyes.

Even in the current climate of record prices achieved by Chinese billionaires and single-handedly by Dyson, the GCB at 33 Nassim Road recently sold by Wing Tai’s Cheng still succeeds in shattering all records for GCBs – both in absolute and psf terms.

[reporter2]

Wing Tai chairman, wife, sell Nassim GCB site for record S$230m

Price works out to S$2,721 psf on land area of 84,543 sq ft

Wed, Jul 31, 2019


A GOOD CLASS BUNGALOW on a sprawling freehold site in the Nassim area has been sold for a record S$230 million.

The property along Nassim Road was sold by a private company owned by Wing Tai Holdings chairman Cheng Wai Keung and his wife, Helen. The price works out to S$2,721 per sq ft on the land area of 84,543 sq ft. Property searches list the buyer as SG Casa Pte Ltd.

A company search showed that its principal activity is in the category of trustee, fiduciary and custody services firms. However, sources suggest that the party behind the trustee company could be Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin, who resides here.

In 2017, he snapped up the super penthouse at SC Global Developments' Sculptura Ardmore project for S$58 million or S$5,648 psf based on the strata area of 10,269 sq ft.

Property records show the contract date for the Nassim Road sale was May 10 this year, with the transfer of the property to the buyer registered on July 4.

In absolute price terms, this deal topples the S$105.3 million paid last year by Tony Tung, the Singaporean chairman of Hong Kong-based Winson Group, for a bungalow on 42,515 sq ft of freehold land, also along Nassim Road. Winson Group is involved in oil trading, marine bunkering and oil storage and terminal facilities.

In terms of psf on land area, the latest transaction is among the highest achieved in a GCB Area.

Last year, a record was set at S$2,729.52 psf by bungalow investor George Lim when he sold a newly-built bungalow that he developed in Jervois Hill, albeit on a much smaller plot of 15,094 sq ft.

The S$41.2 million property was bought by the daughter of Alan Chong, the cash-flush founder of Wah Loon Engineering who earlier last year had sold most of his stake in the company to a subsidiary of Euronext Paris-listed infrastructure and construction giant Vinci SA.

However, property agents believe that record is likely to have been broken by British consumer electronics maker Dyson's founder, James Dyson, with his recent purchase of a bungalow along Cluny Road facing the Singapore Botanic Gardens. That property has a land area of about 15,100 sq ft.

The Nassim Road plot that the Chengs have sold is rectangular with a near 100-metre road frontage. It can be redeveloped into five bungalows. The existing bungalow on site has a pool, and a full-sized tennis court.

The Chengs put the property on the market in 2013 for sale by tender, with an asking price in the region of S$250-300 million.

Bungalows in the 39 gazetted GCB Areas are the most prestigious form of landed housing in Singapore, with strict planning conditions stipulated by the Urban Redevelopment Authority to preserve their exclusivity and low-rise character.