Singapore Property Walkabouts

Ridout Park has been among the more prominent GCB areas in recent years, less so because of its transactions, but because of the controversy surrounding the rental of 2 massive Black & White bungalows by Ministers K. Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan at 26 and 31 Ridout Road respectively. In 2023, an independent review led by then Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean found no impropriety in the rental of their 249,340 sqft (rented at $26.5k / month) and 98,569 sqft (rented at $20k / month) GCBs. A more extensive summary can be found on this Wikipedia link.

The Ridout Park GCBA is fairly large and comprises of homes along Ridout Road, Swettenham Road, Peirce Hill and Peirce Road. It shares its GCB boundary with Holland Park and is located close to Dempsey Hill as well. Interestingly, while its only vehicular entry is via Peirce Road off Holland Road, some houses are much closer to the Queenstown / Margaret Drive area, which would benefit from amenities such as the Queenstown MRT, Queenstown Public Library and Margaret Drive Hawker Centre. I trust that the day would come where the government will build a new road for better vehicular accessibility. That said, there is already a pedestrian footpath close to 43 Ridout Road, where it will be a 15 minute walk from Queenstown MRT.

The GCBA is named after Sir Dudley Howard Ridout, who was born in British India in 1866. He graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada and served in South Africa before being posted to Singapore from 1915 to 1921, where he was the General Officer Commanding Troops of the Straits Settlements. There are a number of large black and white colonial bungalows here, which are said to be built for high-ranking officials in the past. As mentioned in the earlier paragraph, 2 current government ministers live in them, albeit on a commercial rent.

GCBs in Ridout Park tend to be larger than the 15,060 sqft minimum, and despite its relatively large area, are rarely transacted as well. To illustrate the size of some GCBs here, 35 Ridout Road was sold in 2015 for $91.7mil, at a psf of $1,251 for 73,281 sqft of land. Its buyer was logistics tycoon Tan Yeow Khoon, whose company, Cogent Holdings, became a subsidiary of China Cosco Shipping Group in 2018.

Famous owners here include Sheng Shiong cofounder Lim Hock Leng, who conserved the existing century-old bungalow and built an extension on his 33,691 sqft property. He purchased his 27 Ridout Road home in 2014 for $35m at $1,039 psf and its renovations were covered extensively on CNA.

Others include:

• Wong Kan Seng – former Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore
• Low Tuck Kwong – President-Director of PT Bayan Resources, a coal mining tycoon with a net worth of US$27 billion, ranking him the 3rd richest person in Indonesia. He was born in Singapore before moving to Indonesia.
• Karsono Kwee – Executive Chairman of Eurokars, who owns dealerships to Rolls Royce, Porsche, Mclaren, BMW, Mazda among others in Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and China
• Ben Chng, – CEO of Viz Branz, an instant beverage maker, who sold a majority stake of his company to Bahrain-based Investcorp for $500mil
• Edmund Cheng – Deputy Chairman, Wing Tai Holdings
• Calvin Ho – Non-Executive Chairman, First Sponsor Group and billionaire descendant of banker Ho Sim Guan, with substantial shares in UOB Bank and stakes in Calsberg and Heineken Malaysia
• Wong Yip Yan – Founder, Wywy Group, which was said to have 76 companies and an annual turnover of over $900mil. He was formerly Chairman of Yeo Hiap Seng as well.
• Tan Fuh Gih – CEO of integrated marine company Swissco Holdings

Recent transactions:

Nov 2021: 4A Swettenham Road – $22.5m ($1,461 psf) on 15,398 sqft land

Jun 2021: 31 Swettenham Road – $36m ($1,954 psf) on 18,427 sqft land

Jan 2021: 5 Swettenham Close – $48m ($2,893 psf) on 16,594 sqft land

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