SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - A Good Class Bungalow (GCB) at 24 Coronation Road West, built 50 years ago, has recently been made available for sale. For the last 30 years, it had been tenanted to a British expatriate couple who have since relocated. The owners have therefore decided to put the property up for sale by private treaty, with Steve Tay, senior associate vice president of List Sotheby’s International Realty, as the exclusive agent.

The GCB sits on a 24,000 sq ft, freehold plot with a gentle downward-sloping terrain towards the rear of the property. The existing entrance to the house is from Coronation Road West, off Holland Road. “The charm of the site is that the new house can be reoriented to face Jalan Sampurna,” says Tay. “By doing that, the property would appear to be on an elevated site when viewed from Jalan Sampurna.”

Changing the orientation and road access would mean having to change the address of the property to 9 Jalan Sampurna. “That’s a nice address as ‘Sampurna’ means ‘perfect’ in Malay,” says Tay. The change of address would also mean that the GCB will now be part of the Oei Tiong Ham GCB enclave in District 10.

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A precedent

It would not be the first property at Coronation Road West where the owner has forsaken the address. Tay points to the GCB next door, where construction works are underway. He had brokered the sale of the property three years ago when it was 22 Coronation Road West. The freehold site of 25,429 sq ft has a similar sloping terrain, and had changed hands for $36 million ($1,416 psf) in June 2018.

The buyer of the GCB at 22 Coronation Road West managed to obtain approval from the authorities to convert the address to 7 Jalan Sampurna. “When viewed from that road, it looks like a majestic, elevated plot,” says Tay.

Given the natural slope of the terrain, the new 2½-storey GCB being built on the site is able to incorporate a basement garage and entertainment space without having to cut the land too much, he adds.

The GCB at 24 Coronation Road West will enjoy similar site attributes, notes Tay. Its asking price is $37 million, or $1,542 psf based on land area. However, construction cost has also risen. In the pre-Covid era, construction cost was around $500 psf. But with disruption to the construction sector due to Covid, it is likely to hover in the $800 to $1,000 psf range, reckons Tay. A new 12,000 sq ft house would therefore cost between $9.6 million and $12 million to construct. When added to the land cost of $37 million, the total cost of the GCB would be anywhere from $46.6 million to $49 million.

Setting new benchmark prices

Meanwhile, newly built GCBs in the area today have asking prices of $3,000 psf, notes Tay, which means a brand-new bungalow sitting on a land area of 24,000 sq ft would be able to command a $72 million price tag.

Moreover, the site at 24 Coronation Road West will be able to accommodate a basement garage housing 12 to 15 cars without requiring too much excavation, given the terrain, estimates Tay. The property has a 40m frontage too, which is extremely rare for a site of such a size, he notes. “The best way to unlock the value of this land would be to build an impressive mansion,” he reckons.

Adjacent to the property at 24 Coronation Road West is a state-owned remnant land — a narrow strip of about 8,000 sq ft. The buyer of the property could apply to Singapore Land Authority (SLA) for approval to purchase the site and amalgamate it with the property to create a bigger plot. “However, that is subject to SLA approval,” Tay emphasises.

The property at Coronation Road West is on the market for sale by private treaty. “The owners have not adjusted their price expectations,” says Tay. “They are looking to sell at a fair price.”

In recent years, large GCB plots have been sought-after by the ultra-rich. Just off Oei Tiong Ham Park is Leedon Park, where a GCB sitting on a 44,435 sq ft, freehold plot fetched $73 million ($1,643 psf) last September. Another neighbouring GCB at Leedon Park, which sits on a site area of 21,584 sq ft, changed hands for $37.3 million ($1,728 psf) in January this year. Both are old properties that are likely to be redeveloped.

Repricing, attempts to break new records

In March this year, a GCB on Nassim Road sitting on a freehold site of 32,160 sq ft was purchased for $128.8 million. The transaction reverberated across the island as it set a new high of $4,005 psf based on land area. The existing house is likely to be torn down and redeveloped, according to property agents familiar with the site.

Following that transaction on Nassim Road, other GCB owners in the Nassim area as well as other prime GCB areas such as Cluny, Chatsworth and Bishopsgate are now hoping that their property would in turn be sold at a new record price.

“As prices move up in these prime areas, buyers will start to see more values in GCB areas neaerer to amenites such as schools, shopping and greenery, in locations like Holland Road and Bukit Timah,” notes Tay.

Meanwhile, other owners and developers of landed property in other parts of Singapore are now hoping to set a new price benchmark for their respective neighbourhoods. At Lengkok Merak, Michael Ang, managing director of property developer Hansa Land and builder, Hong Kiat Construction, set a new price threshold in the One Tree Hill enclave when he sold a newly-completed linked detached house sitting on a 4,672 sq ft, freehold corner lot for $15.6 million ($3,339 psf). The deal was brokered by Realstar Premier Group.

Located directly across the road is an old semi-detached house at 5 Lengkok Merak, which niche landed property developer Sevens Group  purchased for $6.9 million ($1,905 psf) in January this year. The property, which sits on a freehold site of 3,622 sq ft, will be redeveloped into a new two-storey house with a built-up area of 9,160 sq ft and five en suite bedrooms. The property is scheduled for completion sometime in 4Q2022.

However, Sevens Group intends to launch the property for sale sometime in the second half of this year. Called “Futura @ 5 Lengkok Merak”, the property will have a price tag of $13.22 million ($3,650 psf).

Sevens Group had also purchased another semi-detached house within One Tree Hill estate earlier last July. It was the property at 12 Jalan Arnap, which sits on a freehold land area of 3,156 sq ft and was purchased for $6.8 million ($2,170 psf). The property is being redeveloped into a new double-storey, semi-detached house with a built-up area of 8,235 sq ft. It is scheduled for completion in 3Q2022. Called “Glamour @ 12 Jalan Arnap”, it will be launched at $12.53 million ($3,970 psf) sometime in the second half of the year.

“We are pricing the project close to $4,000 psf,” says Eric Cheng, founder and CEO of Sevens Group. “We are trying to set a new record for the area.”

Snapping up sites in the East

At the end of April, Sevens Group sold a corner detached house on a site of just 2,757 sq ft on Guillemard Road for $5.8 million ($2,104 psf), just two months after launching it for sale. It is a new high in terms of psf price for a completed house in that enclave.

The developer has been aggressive in acquiring sites: Having purchased 11 sites over 55 days last year for a total of $70 million, it followed suit with another 20 sites for $127 million this past year, according to Cheng. A majority of the acquisitions have been focused on the eastern region, an area that he is familiar with.

Towards the end of June, Sevens Group intends to launch a new terraced house at 7C Figaro Street in Opera Estate, in the east. The property sits on a site area of 1,400 sq ft, and has a built-up area of 4,355 sq ft. The new five-bedroom house is up for sale at $4.4 million ($3,143 psf).

At 80 Upper Aljunied Road, Sevens Group has purchased an old single-storey corner terraced property sitting on a freehold site of 5,063 sq ft. Sevens Group paid $3.95 million ($780 psf) for the site last August. The site was large enough to be subdivided into two smaller terraced house sites, and redeveloped. The intermediate terraced house was snapped up off-plan in January this year, while the corner terraced house is still available for sale. The new corner terraced house at 80A Upper Aljunied Road will sit on a land area of 2,284 sq ft, with a built-up area of 5,630 sq ft. The asking price is $4.7 million ($2,058 psf).

Other sites in the eastern region that Sevens Group has snapped up include a 20,007 sq ft, freehold site at East Coast Terrace in District 15, which the developer intends to redevelop into three pairs of semi-detached houses. The developer recently acquired two sites with a combined land area of 20,860 sq ft along Mountbatten Road, which will be redeveloped into a detached house and two pairs of semi-detached houses.

Cheng has also purchased a detached house at Pasir Ris, which he intends to redevelop into a detached house and a pair of semi-detached houses.

Backed by strong demand, the price index for landed private property surged 6.7% q-o-q in 1Q2021, outpacing the rise in the non-landed private property price index over the same period, notes Nicholas Mak, head of research for ERA Realty.

Indeed, the 6.7% q-o-q increase in the 1Q2021 price index for landed property followed a 1.6% drop in 4Q2020, says Tricia Song, Colliers International head of research for Singapore. She adds that “this brings landed property price index to an all-time peak”, which is 3.6% above the previous peak in 3Q2013.

Check out the latest listings near Coronation Road West, Jalan Sampurna, Oei Tiong Ham Park, Leedon Park, Nassim Road, Lengkok Merak, One Tree Hill, Guillemard Road

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