Ridley Park is one of the most exclusive and yet least mentioned GCB areas – in my opinion, it doesn’t get as much attention as the likes of Nassim or Cluny Park but ought to be mentioned in the same breath. You could say that i’m a retrospective genius, since I am writing this after a Tanglin Hill GCB sized at 15,150 sqft was just sold at a record $6,200 psf or $93.9mil. This GCB is still under construction with a rather unspectacular design, which makes me wonder what made this buyer fork out this much.
This GCB estate includes houses on both Ridley Park and Tanglin Hill and is located off Tanglin Road, which connects Alexandra Road and Grange Road. It is also opposite the largest GCB estate, Chatsworth Park, which I had written a 5-part review on (1 2 3 4 5). The nearest MRTs are Orchard Boulevard (~20 minutes walk) and Redhill (~25 minutes walk).
Ridley Park is named after Henry Nicholas Ridley, the first Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I don’t recall learning much about him in school, but a Malaysian friend who recently visited shared that they learnt extensively about his contributions to the rubber industry. Through the conversation, I learnt that H.N Ridley had pioneered the herringbone method for rubber tapping, which allowed latex to be retrieved up to 3 times a day. It’s no surprise that despite spending the bulk of his 23 years in Southeast Asia mostly in Singapore, he is more revered in Malaysia since his contributions must have propelled them to being the world’s largest rubber producer. The Oxford educated botanist was deeply passionate about his job and gave botany lectures at the predecessor of NUS (King Edward VII School of Medicine). He also diligently promoted rubber and was often found carrying rubber seeds in his pocket in a bid to encourage more to cultivate them. Many sources have picked up the fact that “Mad Ridley”, as he was nicknamed, only got married at 83 and died at a ripe old age of 101 in Kew, London.
Since this GCBA is predominantly populated by black and white houses, I estimate there to only be less than 35 GCBs that are actually privately-owned. The black and white houses here are pretty huge and were constructed between 1923 to 1935 either for senior government officials or military officers given its proximity to the Tanglin Barracks (which is known as Dempsey today). These are available for rent from the Singapore Land Authority, with the one at 17 Ridley Park being awarded at $25k a month.
As for the privately-owned homes, the most famous of them has got to be 2 Ridley Park, which is owned by Tommie Goh Thiam Poh. He purchased it in 1998 for $12mil ($385 psf on 31,151 sqft of land) The house is made famous not only because of its size but Tommie Goh’s extensive collection of Ferraris, many of which are limited edition. He’s much more low profile these days but his achievements should definitely be highlighted for my generation (30s and below). Tommie Goh was an O’Level graduate who had signed on as a SAF regular officer for 13 years before founding JIT Holdings in 1988. His initial investment of $100k reaped a return of 11,600x when JIT was sold to Flextronics for $1.16billion in 2000. JIT Holdings was one of the many firms which benefitted from HP’s presence in Singapore and was HP’s largest contract manufacturer at its peak. It also made all of Motorola’s mobile phones. Since selling JIT, Tommie Goh founded 2G Capital which invests in listed and unlisted companies. Huge respect for this man!
If you are interested in purchasing a GCB at Ridley Park, OK Lim’s GCB at 1K Ridley Park looks like it has yet to be sold since being listed in June 2024. As you would know, Hin Leong has been embroiled in massive scandal and the family have liquidated their GCBs at Second Avenue and Third Avenue. The 15,636 sqft plot at 1K Ridley Park has an asking price of $43mil or $2,750 psf. Quite a bargain if you compare it to the $6,200 psf someone paid recently!
Other famous owners in this GCB estate include Hong Leong Group and City Developments Executive Chairman Kwek Leng Beng, who continues to own huge swathes of empty land here (estimated at close to 150,000 sqft) and KhattarWong and Khattar Holdings Founder Sat Pal Khattar. The High Commission of Brunei used to be at Tanglin Hill as well.
There are also a number of old but prominent condos at Ridley Park, which includes Tanglin Park, Tanglin Hill Meadows and Tanglin Rise. Tanglin Park is my personal favourite, as the design just looks the most timeless and the condition seemingly best maintained among the 3. My wife and I also considered this condo when we were shopping for our matrimonial home in 2021, as prices were around $1800-$2000 psf then, which was not far from what we eventually paid for another development in District 10. Prices haven’t inched up that much compared to the rest of Singapore, with transactions at $2209 psf for a 7th floor 3 Bedroom unit in July 2024. Great value if you drive and want the prestige of living in Ridley Park / Tanglin Hill!
Singapore Property Walkabouts 
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