SG – Singapore Property Walkabouts

Garlick Avenue Good Class Bungalow GCB Review, District 10, Singapore

January 14, 2022November 27, 2022 Property Zai Kia1 Comment

Garlick Avenue is located off Bukit Timah Road and can be accessed primarily from Old Holland Road or Sixth Avenue. Accordingly, it is very close to the 34ha site at Holland Plain (or commonly known as Old Holland Rd Field) which will yield some 2,500 new homes as part of the URA Masterplan.

This GCBA was named after Dr George Herbert Garlick, Medical Director of the Singapore Antituberculosis Association. Born in London to Dr George Garlick, he was educated at Epsom College and St Mary’s Hospital Medical School before qualifying as a doctor in 1912. He was a radiologist by training and Principal Medical Officer of the Johor State. He was accorded the Dato honorific by the Sultan of Johor for his contributions, which included setting up a nursing school, a hospital and extensive rural public health training. He served with the British Army during WWII as a radiologist and was a Prisoner of War at Changi before re-establishing the radiology department at today’s KK Hospital. He is buried at the Bidadari Garden Cemetery after he passed on in Switzerland in 1959.

Among the recent transactions in this GCBA was Singapore’s richest billionaire Goh Cheng Liang’s purchase of a palatial 101,550 sqft mansion from Thye Hong Biscuit Co for $93m in Sept 2020. After factoring in provisions for roads, this plot can be subdivided into up to 6 GCBs. Not that the Goh family needs that extra cash anyway. This is arguably the largest plot in this relatively small GCBA.

Other transactions include:
Jun 2021: $23.5m ($1427 psf) – 16,464 sqft
Apr 2021: $11.3m ($1225 psf) – 9,222 sqft
Sept 2020: $37.5m ($1660 psf) – 22,595 sqft
Jul 2020: $16.8m ($873 psf) – 19,248 sqft.

Prominent residents in this GCBA past and present are rumoured to also include Sustained Land’s Douglas Ong, a boutique developer who has been relatively active in the new launch market with 3 Cuscaden, Sky Everton, One Meyer and Coastline Residences among their launches. Others include Nelly Rolles, shareholder of Poh Tiong Choon Logistics and Swiss wine industrialist Emil Strickler.

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Victoria Park Good Class Bungalow GCB Review, District 10, Singapore

January 8, 2022November 27, 2022 Property Zai KiaLeave a comment

Victoria Park GCBA includes Kingsmead Rd and Victoria Park Cl but this GCBA is dominated by the sprawling 403,012sqft Victoria Park Villas by Capitaland. The 106 semi-Ds + 3 bungalows were designed by Mok Wei Wei alongside his equally acclaimed peers Hyla, Ar43 and Studio Willis Architects. These homes stand out not only because it’s one of the largest developments in a GCBA but also bc of its 99 year tenure. Thankfully for Capitaland, all were fully sold by the time they were built at $4-8m for the semi-ds (2,153sqft-6,943sqft) and $8-9m for the bungalows (10,904-11,539sqft), with about 50% of buyers <40 years old.

Bounded by Farrer Road and Tan Kah Kee MRTs, some homes in this GCBA are within walking distance to the 2 MRT stations. The biggest appeal in this GCBA however, is its 1km radius to Nanyang Pri.

This GCBA’s name was taken from a 49ha nutmeg plantation on Mt Victoria, which was recorded on Singapore’s 1846 map. In turn, Mt Victoria was named after Queen Victoria’s accession, the 2nd longest reigning British monarch (1837-1901).

Former/current owners in this GCBA are said to include Alibaba’s Jack Ma, Chairman of SGX & ST Engin Kwa Chong Seng, CK Tang’s Tang Wee Sung, Scotts Holdings (defunct) scion & property tycoon Iqbal Jumabhoy, Kuok Group scion Kay Kuok, corporate lawyer and former Minister of State Tang See Chim, late Ho Wah Onn, name partner of law firm Haridass Ho & Partners, lawyer Wong Meng Yeng of Alliance LLC, gynecologist Dr Loke Yue Nam, CEO of Fine Wines Singapore Lo Bok Nan, CEO of Straits Construction Wong Chee Herng, former CK Tang CEO Foo Tiang Sooi, ambassador Quek Poh Huat, serial entrepreneur William Liu, CEO of PGIM’s private capital arm Josephine Au Yeong and 1969 President’s Scholar BG(Ret) Wesley D’aranjo.

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Holland Park Good Class Bungalow GCB Review, District 10, Singapore

December 24, 2021November 27, 2022 Property Zai Kia1 Comment

Holland Park is bounded by Holland Road and the GCB areas of Ridout Road and Pierce Road. It takes its name from Hugh Holland, an architect, amateur actor and early resident of the area.

This GCBA is closely tied with the billionaire Lien family, who derived their wealth from Overseas Union Bank, and continues to hold a 5% stake in UOB following their $10Bn merger in 2001. The sale included their hospitality assets held through OUE, including the landmark Mandarin Orchard Hotel built in 1971, the tallest hotel in SEA then. OUE was sold to Lippo’s Riady family in 2006. Today, the Lien family operate their private investments through their family office, Wah Hin & Co and are actively involved in philanthropy through the Lien Foundation, which was started in 1980 with half of Lien Ying Chow’s net worth. Talk about being ahead of his time!

At the mouth of Holland Park is the Lien Towers, a 12-storey building with just 24 identical units at 5,048 sqft each. The last transaction was in Jun 2021, at $8.4m ($1,657 psf) and still off its historical high of $1,882 psf in 2012.

Following Lien Ying Chow’s passing, their sprawling 100,000 sqft GCB was redeveloped into 6 GCBs (Lien Villas Collective) with 1 retaining the original grandeur of the home, with each being designed by different architects – K2LD’s Screen House, Ministry of Design’s Zig Zag House, Edmund Ng’s Raw House, Terre, PODesign’s 8 Box House & Zarch Collaboratives.

Eminent residents here are said to include the billionaire Song family of China’s Nanshan Group, former Rajah & Tann Senior Partner Chen Choong Joong and former Venture Ccorp Chief Technology Officer Thian Nie Khian.

Past transactions:
May’21 – $24.5m ($1699psf) – 14,416 sqft
Dec’16 – $25.5m ($1691psf) – 15,080 sqft
Nov’14 – $30m ($1991psf) – 15,071 sqft

Gallop Road / Woolerton Park Good Class Bungalow, District 10, Singapore

December 18, 2021December 15, 2021 Property Zai KiaLeave a comment

This GCBA’s name has origins tracing back to John Frazer’s nutmeg plantation in the 1830s, where the land was used for exercising horses. Woollerton Park, having previously been named Gallop Hill, was only named in 1949 after the last pre-war General Manager of Asiatic Petroleum Co (Shell today). Interestingly, this GCBA also shares the name (albeit with spelling differences) with a tourist landmark in the city where I went to university.

This is one of the larger GCBAs, bordered by Farrer Road, Tyersall Road, Cluny Hill GCBA and Singapore Botanic Gardens. In fact, a gate along Woollerton Drive leads you directly to the Gallop Extension of Botanic Gardens. Don’t think you can get any closer to nature!

The Gallop Extension leads you to where the restored Atbara and Inverturret houses are. This pair of houses have often been (mistakenly) identified as Singapore’s first Black & White bungalows. Built by the famed R.A.J Bidwell for lawyer John Burkinshaw (his firm Donaldson & Burkinshaw still exists), they were left in disrepair after the French embassy vacated it in 1999. Thankfully, they have now been beautifully restored to house the Forest Discovery Centre and Botanical Art Gallery for the enjoyment of Singaporeans and tourists alike. You can check out more details on the history by The Long & Winding Road here.

A couple of interesting points about its surroundings. Tyersall Road is where the abandoned Istana Woodneuk is located, and the total land area of more than 2mil sqft is said to be worth $4.5Bn by the Sultan of Johore. It was also the inspiration behind Young’s family home in Crazy Rich Asians.

As for Woollerton Park, its location just off Farrer Road also makes it very convenient, with some GCBAs less than 5 mins walk from the MRT and close to amenities offered by the nearby HDB estate. There also a couple of condominium projects in this area, including the Woollerton Park Condo, Gallop Green and Gallop Gables, with the latter 2 being built by Straits Trading Limited. In particular, Gallop Gables has oft been cited as a potential en-bloc site, as it has just 140 units on 250,000 sqft of land, making it ripe for redevelopment. The only downside is that it sits on a long, slightly irregular plot of land that lacks the wide frontage expected of a luxurious development in District 10.

Back to the GCBA itself, in Jan 2021, Singapore’s richest man Zhang Yong of Haidilao fame broke this GCBA’s psf record by paying $42m ($1,940 psf) for the 21,649 sqft house. It is also beside his $27m ($1,700 psf) Winged House by K2LD Architects purchased in 2016.

Other prominent occupants are said to include billionaire Bachtiar Karim (Chairman, Musim Mas), Chua Phuay Hee (former CFO, Keppel TatLee Bank), David Low (CEO, Futuristic Store Fixtures), David Toh (former Head of Corporate Tax, PwC), Koh Kok Kwang (Director, CTLC Law), Teo Soo Chew (former Chairman, SHC Capital).

Other transactions:
Jul 2021 – $18m ($1,902psf) – 9,463 sqft
Nov 2020 – $24.2m ($1,610psf) – 15,004 sqft
Aug 2020 – $35m ($1,273 psf) – 27,491 sqft

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Fourth / Sixth Avenue Good Class Bungalow GCB Review, District 10, Singapore

October 23, 2021November 27, 2022 Property Zai KiaLeave a comment

In my previous post, I shared that the First / Third Ave GCBA also includes Second Ave and while that GCBA contains only the “odd” avenues, this one here contains only the “even” ones. Unsurprisingly again, it also includes houses on Fifth Ave, which is actually has a very steep incline as well.

As with First / Third Ave GCBA, it is in the heart of Bukit Timah with Hwa Chong and NJC close by. Its closest MRT is Sixth Ave, which is relatively near for many homes around the area. In fact, Fourth Avenue Residences will just be at the MRT’s doorstep, albeit being of a 99-year tenure. The 476 unit condo has an average psf of $2,414 and is about 73% sold. The other new launch around the vicinity is Royalgreen at Anamalai Avenue, which is a 285 unit condo with an average psf of $2,691 and is about 50% sold.

Compared to First / Third Ave, which consists of only landed properties, this GCBA has quite a few condos. Among them are Fifth Ave Condo, which set the record psf of $1,300 psf in the area when it launched in 1996, just before the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. The latest transaction was for $2.5m for a 2 Bedroom 1,346 sqft unit ($1858 psf) so you could say that the original buyers did not make much of a killing.

On the other hand, the current The Sixth Ave Residences, was the largest enbloc site back in 1996 at 172,000 sqft. Because the property market went into doldrums in the years after, the developers Keppel Land actually had to write down its value significantly before launching the project in 2009 at just $1,000 psf. The latest transaction was for a 1,356 sqft 3 Bedroom unit for $2.61m ($1924 psf), which means that the original buyers made 90+% in just 12 years. Therefore, while we do not expect prices to crash, I think that timing we purchase the property still matters, even if you are not able to catch it at the absolute lowest point.

Although Sixth Avenue has the fewest number of GCBs compared to the other avenues, it is perhaps the most famous of the lot. It connects Bukit Timah Rd to Holland Rd and provides access to neighbouring GCBAs of Queen Astrid Park, Garlick Ave and Maryland Drive. With its location just across from Turf Club, Sixth Ave also used to be heavily congested on the weekends as punters thronged the area until Turf Club relocated in 1999.

There are a couple of more interesting looking houses on Fifth Avenue, which you should check out if you get the chance 🙂 Pretty great views up here as well.

Sixth Avenue is also known for its wide array of dining options – from coffee shops to slightly more upscale restaurants such as Pasta Fresca Da Salvatore. You can also buy your groceries at Cold Storage, have a cuppa at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and some kuehs at Bengawan Solo at Guthrie House. Sixth Avenue also has a number of famous religious sites close by including Masjid Al-Huda at Jalan Haji Alias and Fong Yun Thai Association at Holland Link.

Some of the past transactions include:
Fifth Ave – (2021) $22m (13,508 sqft, $1,629psf)
Sixth Ave – (2021) $5.4m (4,596 sqft, $1,171psf)
Sixth Ave – (2021) $11.2m (4,478sqft, $2,501psf)
24 Fourth Ave – (2017) $25.9m (20,204 sqft, $1,280psf)

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King Albert Park Good Class Bungalow GCB Review – District 21, Singapore

November 14, 2020November 26, 2022 Property Zai KiaLeave a comment

This GCBA was named after King Albert I of Belgium and developed by a Belgian bank in 1939. It adjoins the Old Bukit Timah Railway Station (imagine how noisy it was when trains used to ply this route from Malaysia daily) and also borders Bukit Timah / Dunearn Rd and Clementi Rd. The former leads you to King Albert Park MRT and MGS while the latter will take you to Ngee Ann Poly and SUSS in a couple of minutes.

There are still large swathes of green (undeveloped) land nearby, which represent lots of redevelopment potential for the area. Add that to the upcoming Beauty World transformation and there seems to be a decent upside potential for this place!

Pictured here are several prominent GCBs in this area. 26 KAP, a 16,750sqft home, was sold by SC Global’s Simon Cheong for $25mil ($1,493psf) back in 2016.

This doesn’t look like much but it was originally 70,820 sqft of land owned by K16 Services. Yip Yuen Hong of ipli Architects designed 4 distinct GCBs from that plot – Concrete (23KAP) Copper (19KAP), Black Aluminium (18KAP) & Brass (18A KAP) and all are currently tenanted.

Famous owners in the KAP GCBA include Far East Organisation, who purchased 18 KAP, a colossal 39,228 sqft home in Mar 2017 for $43.8mil ($1,117psf). FEO somehow tends to snag pretty good deals (and sell them for a fortune after). Robert Kwan, who brought McDonald’s to Singapore and Dr Julian Theng of Eagle Eye Centre (who has a tennis court at home!) also live in this GCBA.

In Sept 2020, a 7,945 sqft bungalow was listed at $10.8mil ($1,359 psf). As this plot is below the URA requirement of 1,400 sqm, it is not considered a GCB despite being located in a GCBA. It was orignally built in 1960.

Credits to Robert Powell for the history of this GCB estate.