Several high-value properties transacted

Business Times: Sat, May 26

SEVERAL big-ticket residential properties have changed hands lately including Good Class Bungalows (GCBs) in the Chatsworth, Third Avenue and Binjai Park locations as well as apartments at TwentyOne Angullia Park and Paterson Suites. In the GCB segment, a freehold property along Chatsworth Road has been sold for $30 million. This works out to $1,985 per square foot based on land area of 15,115 sq ft. On site is a an old two-storey bungalow with six bedrooms, a guestroom and swimming pool. The seller as well as the buyers are Singapore citizens. The buyers are understood to be in the gaming business outside of Singapore. The deal was brokered by RealStar Premier Group. "The price on psf of land area is within expectations. Prices in the Chatsworth Park GCBA (Good Class Bungalow Area) are about $2,000 psf," said RealStar managing director William Wong. The psf record price for a GCB Area is held by 6 Chatsworth Road, diagonally opposite the Indonesian Embassy, which transacted at $2,081 psf in July last year. However, the property's land area of 10,571 sq ft is smaller than the typical minimum GCB plot size of 1,400 square metres (15,069.46 sq ft). When GCB Areas were gazetted in 1980, they included some smaller existing sites. These are still considered GCBs as they would be bound by the other GCB planning rules if they were to be redeveloped. For example, such plots cannot be further sub-divided and they cannot be built more than two storeys high (plus an attic and a basement). A freehold bungalow in Third Avenue, about 300 metres from the future Sixth Avenue MRT Station of the Downtown Line, was last month transacted at $25.6 million or about $1,450 psf on land area of 17,659 sq ft. In the Binjai Park GCBA, an old two-storey bungalow was recently sold for $13.5 million or $1,174 psf on land area of nearly 11,500 sq ft. The deal was brokered by Coldwell Banker Realtors. China Sonangol has sold five apartments at its TwentyOne Angullia Park, a stone's throw away from Orchard MRT Station and ION, at prices ranging from $3,950 psf to $4,338 psf. Absolute prices of the units sold range from $7.5 million (for a three bedder of 1,894 sq ft) to $14.3 million (for a four-bedroom apartment of 3,348 sq ft). The 36-storey freehold project has a single tower with 54 units - comprising 25 units each of three-bedroom and four-bedroom apartments, a pair of two-bedders as well as a pair of triplex penthouses. Of the five units sold - three are said to have been picked up by Indonesians, of whom two are Singapore permanent residents. A family from Monaco bought one apartment while an Australian, who recently became a Singapore citizen was the buyer of the fifth unit. Non-PR foreigners have to pay a 10 per cent additional buyer's stamp duty on any residential property purchase in Singapore, but as JTResi founder Jerry Tan says: "If the right product which suits them comes along, whether they have to pay 10 per cent ABSD is not of consequence to their decision-making process. What's more important is that the product has got to fit with how they live. All the five buyers of TwentyOne Angullia Park so far are buying to live in the units. They're looking at their purchase from the standpoint of end-users, not for rental income, not for trading. They look at details of floor plans and finishes." JTResi is the sole marketing agent for TwentyOne Angullia Park. "Foreigners with family offices in Asia - eg in Singapore and Hong Kong - are interesting target buyers for the better high-end projects," he added. Over at Paterson Road, a group of friends - all Singaporeans - are said to be the buyers of 14 apartments at Paterson Suites that were sold at the identical price of $2,500 psf and totalling about $65 million on the same day in April, according to caveats data. The units were sold without a rental guarantee scheme that the seller - Paterson Suites' developer Bukit Sembawang - had begun marketing the project with last month. The 22-storey project was completed in 2010. The 14 units were purchased separately - that is, the friends did not pool their monies to buy the same units. The transaction is understood to have been brokered by Savills Singapore. Bukit Sembawang is now left with just one unit in the 102-unit freehold project - a duplex penthouse of 6,663 sq ft. The unit is identical to another penthouse in the project that was sold for $20 million last November. In late 2010, Real Estate Capital Asia Partners (Recap), a Singapore-based investment fund, bought 20 units at Paterson Suites under a bulk deal for $118.6 million or $2,700 psf. It recently put these units on the market, also packaged with a rental guarantee scheme. Source: Business Times