Prime Nassim Road property up for sale at $30-32m
A freehold apartment block in Nassim Road understood to be owned by motoring tycoon Peter Kwee has been put on the market with an indicative price of $30-32 million.
Nassim Gardens, located at No 49A to 49K Nassim Road, is a three-storey apartment block comprising 10 apartments with a swimming pool. The property is in the process of being refurbished. Mr Kwee has stopped work ahead of his planned sale of the property.
It will cost the buyer about $2-3 million to complete the refurbishment work. Adding this sum to a price of, say, $30 million for the property would give a per square foot price of about $1,680 to $1,740 for the block’s estimated total saleable strata area of about 19,000 sq ft.
‘On this basis, even a developer would find this project a very lucrative proposition,’ says Credo Real Estate executive director Karamjit Singh, ‘given that the high-end residential market is expected to surpass past record levels, going by recent successful tenders for prime redevelopment sites at Eng Lok Mansion at Napier Road and Angullia Mansion at Angullia Park.’
Credo, which is marketing Nassim Gardens, did not identify the owner of the property but BT understands that it is Mr Kwee.
Credo also expects interest from large families and groups of individuals banding together to buy Nassim Gardens. An additional draw is that foreigners are eligible to buy. A rule change in July last year allows foreigners to buy apartments in non-condo developments of less than six levels without the need to obtain prior approval.
Nassim Gardens has a land area of 45,006 sq ft and is located in a designated Good Class Bungalow area. ‘Even if the buyer disregards the existing incompletely refurbished building and redevelops it into Good Class Bungalows (GCBs), the indicative price range ($30-32 million) reflects a land price of $666 to $711 per square foot of land area,’ says Mr Singh.
He also drew attention to the record price of $647 psf fetched for a bungalow plot at Nassim Road in August 2003.
According to past reports, that record was set by none other than Mr Kwee himself when he sold a 39,383 sq ft site for $25.5 million to Oei Siu Hoa, a member of Indonesia’s Widjaja family and sister of businessman Oei Hong Leong.
However, market watchers say that it may prove costly to redevelop the Nassim Gardens site into GCBs. This is because the site can be carved up for only two GCBs given the minimum land area of 1,400 sq m or 15,069.5 sq ft stipulated by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.
Based on the expected price tag of $30-32 million, this works out to $15-16 million for the land cost alone per bungalow. Adding about $3 million for construction would result in a total development cost of about $18-19 million - higher than the $12-15 million for the price of a new GCB with a comparable land area in the location.
The tender for Nassim Gardens closes on April 28.
Source : Business Times - 20 Mar 2006
Loading ...
Post a Comment
Tell me a bit about yourself; who you are, where you're from, what information you would like to see on this site. As I continue to provide you with Singapore property happenings, your feedback will encourage me to post more frequently. Thank you.