Fragrance Group boss selling Sentosa Cove villa for S$24m

Koh Wee Meng had bought property for S$16.8m in 2011 from late Nina Wang's feng shui consultant

Thu, Mar 05, 2020

KALPANA RASHIWALA


FRAGRANCE Group boss Koh Wee Meng is understood to be in the early stages of selling a sea-fronting bungalow in Sentosa Cove for S$24 million.

The price works out to S$2,464 per square foot based on the land area of 9,740 sq ft. The property, along Cove Grove and with views of the Southern Islands, is on a site with 99-year leasehold tenure starting late-June 2008, leaving a balance of about 87 years. The buyer is an Indonesian who is a Singapore permanent resident (PR).

Based on earlier media reports, Mr Koh had paid close to S$16.8 million or slightly over S$1,720 psf for the property back in 2011. He bought it from Tony Chan Chun Chuen of Hong Kong, the former feng shui consultant to the late tycoon Nina Wang and who had tried to claim her multi-billion-dollar estate by forging her will - a crime he was convicted of in 2013.

Chan incurred a loss from selling his property to Mr Koh, having forked out around S$16.5 million for the land alone in 2008.

The sale to Mr Koh was completed in early 2012. The bungalow spans two-and-a-half storeys, including a spacious attic, and boasts eight bedrooms and a swimming pool. Mr Koh also used to own another villa a few doors away which he sold in 2012 for almost S$24 million or S$2,468 psf.

According to List Sotheby's International Realty (List SIR) senior associate vice-president Steve Tay, the S$2,464 psf at which Mr Koh is selling the property in the current deal is pretty good and just slightly shy of the S$2,515 psf for a similar-sized sea-fronting villa on Cove Drive that changed hands in November 2018. It also has views of the Southern Islands.

Mr Tay did not broker the sale of Mr Koh's villa, although he has handled the sales of four Sentosa Cove bungalows since the July 2018 property cooling measures.

The S$24 million absolute price for the ongoing deal along Cove Grove would be the highest for a bungalow transaction in the waterfront housing district since Centurion Corporation director David Loh's S$32 million sale last year of the "Copper House" along Cove Drive. However, that property has a much bigger land area of 18,053 sq ft - the result of an amalgamation of two adjoining plots of land - and the price translated to S$1,773 psf.

List SIR's analysis of URA Realis data shows that including Mr Koh's ongoing sale of his Cove Grove property, there have been four bungalow transactions in Sentosa Cove in the first two months of this year.

This is the same as the tally for the whole of last year. There were 11 deals in 2018 and 15 in 2017.

Mr Tay said that despite the July 2018 cooling measures, potential buyers are keen on well-located, well-designed villas in Sentosa Cove. He is confident of the buying momentum continuing for the rest of this year.

Notwithstanding the Covid-19 outbreak, there has been a steady momentum of viewing activity from foreigners and PRs for bungalows on Sentosa Cove. "These include some mainland Chinese who were already in Singapore before the Covid outbreak, and who are continuing with their house hunting."

Mr Tay added that current pricing levels for bungalows in Sentosa Cove are attractive and with just about 350 of them, they offer a unique waterfront lifestyle.

"This is the only place in Singapore where foreigners, even if they are not PRs, are allowed to buy a bungalow with its own land title," he added.