Wanderlust Hotel, a boutique hotel on Dickson Road, off Jalan Besar in Little India, has just changed hands for $37 million. The buyer is 8M Real Estate, a boutique real estate investment firm founded by its managing director Ashish Manchharam.

The property occupies a freehold, 4,639 sq ft site, with a gross floor area of about 15,500 sq ft. Based on the GFA, the price translates into $2,387 psf. The vendor is Loh Lik Peng, director of the Unlisted Collection, and the deal was brokered by Simon Monteiro, associate director of heritage buildings at Savills Singapore.

Loh purchased the conservation property at 2 Dickson Road in 2008 for $10.3 million. He converted the former Hong Wen School — one of Singapore’s oldest Chinese schools — into a 29-room boutique hotel, which he named Wanderlust. The room rates are $259 a night, according to Expedia.

8M Real Estate is purchasing the property as an ongoing concern. The company has been on a buying spree and amassed a portfolio of properties, primarily conservation buildings worth more than $500 million. In March, it purchased a portfolio of nine conservation shophouses and a commercial building at Boat Quay, Circular Road and New Bridge Road, for a total of $82.5 million.

Lately, 8M Real Estate has been acquiring conservation shophouses that have been converted into boutique hotels. Last June, it acquired the former The Club Hotel at 28 Ann Siang Road for $52 million, or $2,167 psf, based on a total GFA of about 24,000 sq ft. He has repositioned the property and reopened it as the 20-room Ann Siang House.

Also in June last year, 8M Real Estate snapped up the Naumi Liora on Keong Saik Road. The 79-room hotel spans across 10 freehold conservation shophouses. 8M Real Estate paid $75 million, or about $2,750 psf, for the property, based on a GFA of close to 27,300 sq ft. Manchharam is converting the ground floor units into an F&B destination.