GCB in Cluny Park being sold for S$40m

Price works out to nearly S$1,964 psf based on freehold land area of 20,369 sq ft

Tue, Mar 31, 2020

KALPANA RASHIWALA


A BUNGALOW in Cluny Park near the Singapore Botanic Gardens is being transacted for S$40 million, or nearly S$1,964 per square foot based on the freehold land area of 20,369 sq ft.

On the site is a bungalow completed more than two decades ago; market watchers expect the buyer to redevelop the property, which is in the Cluny Hill Good Class Bungalow (GCB) Area.

The buyer is understood to be Han Xiaoli, a director of Lobb Heng Group. She co-owns the company with Guan Zhishan; the duo are Singapore citizens.

According to a 2018 article from The SME Magazine, published by The Business Times, the group was founded here in 1993 to trade in base metals and is a leading supplier of non-ferrious metals for export to China.

It also manages warehouses that are approved by the Shanghai Futures Exchange for the delivery of metals.

The company buys primarily from suppliers in Europe and South America, and sells to buyers in Asia.

In 2005, the company established a logistics and warehousing business to capture the rapid growth of e-commerce in China.

A seasoned market watcher told BT the price of S$1,964 psf is slightly high for GCB development land in the area.

However, the price may have been agreed in the first half of January, when sentiment was still positive prior to the Covid-19 outbreak here.

The option to purchase was granted earlier this month and exercised by the buyer about two weeks later.

The house, which has two levels and a basement, has a swimming pool, a gym and five bedrooms.

It is one of 12 bungalows that Straits Steamship Land (SSL), now known as Keppel Land, developed in the 1990s.

Based on earlier media articles, SSL sold the 12 bungalows at between S$8 million and S$9.5 million each within two weeks of a private launch in 1994.

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.