Sino Group chairman’s son acquires GCB for $37m

The East Sussex Lane GCB is acquired by Alexander Ng – the son of Hong Kong-based Sino Group chairman Robert Ng. Image: ntfcf.org.hk

The sale of two good class bungalows (GCB) in District 10 for over $30 million last month boosted the total tally of GCB deals for 2019, reported The Business Times.

The property along Cluny Hill is transacted for $30.8 million or around $2,025 per square foot (psf) on 15,208 sq ft land, while the other one in East Sussex Lane changed hands at a little over $36.88 million or $1,000 psf based on a land area of 36,883 sq ft.

A part of the Holland Rise GCB Area, the East Sussex Lane property is acquired by Alexander Ng – the son of Hong Kong-based Sino Group chairman Robert Ng. The site comes with an old house that is suitable for redevelopment.

The Cluny Hill bungalow, on the other, is located near the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Completed in 2003, the well-maintained property has two storeys and a basement.

Singaporean Mike Scott, who paid $28 million for the bungalow in 2010, sold the property to a Singaporean businessman who was previously from North Asia.

Including the two deals, a total of 40 GCB transactions amounting to $782 million were registered last year, showed List Sotheby’s International Realty’s (List SIR) analysis of URA Realis data.

This is lower compared to the 42 transactions worth $1.03 billion posted in 2018. But once other deals learned by The Business Times but were not reflected in the URA Realis data were taken into account, the total value of GCB deals for last year would be around $1.25 billion, which is slightly lower than 2018’s $1.37 billion.

The deals not captured by the URA Realis system include those not caveated and sales of vacant land within GCB Areas.

Buyers would typically lodge a caveat or a claim of interest in a property, following the exercise of the option to purchase. However, the lodging of caveat is not compulsory.

A Nassim Road bungalow’s $230 million sale by Wing Tai chairman Cheng Wai Keung to an entity linked to Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin was an example of a known transaction last year that was not caveated.

Singapore’s most prestigious form of landed housing, bungalows within the 39 gazetted GCB Areas come with strict planning conditions from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to preserve their low-rise character and exclusivity.

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Victor Kang, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email victorkang@propertyguru.com.sg