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Two other GCBs were withdrawn from auction

A GOOD Class Bungalow (GCB) at 27 Cornwall Garden which once belonged to one-time Alfa Romeo’s Singapore franchisee Kenneth Chow was sold for $11 million at an auction by Knight Frank yesterday.

The buyers are believed to be a prominent doctor couple who live in the same estate. The buyer, or buyers, bid through a nominee.

Knight Frank declined to confirm the identity of the buyer, or buyers.

Bidding for the freehold property began at $10 million. The $11 million sale price works out to nearly $396 psf of land area.

The property was sold by its mortgagee bank, which BT earlier reported to be Standard Chartered.

The mortgagor, Mr Chow, also goes by the name Wira Tjakrawinata. He ran foul of the Malaysian Securities Commission a few years ago in connection with a reverse takeover bid for Omega Holdings.

Two other GCBs - 15 Ford Avenue and 29-C Ridout Road - were withdrawn at yesterday’s auction. No 15 Ford Avenue, once occupied by a British couple until they died, was withdrawn at $9.4 million. Bidding for the property began at $8 million.

The third GCB, 29-C Ridout Road, was put up for sale by its owner, listed Fraser & Neave group.

Bidding started at $7.5 million and the property was withdrawn at $7.7 million. All three bungalows are freehold.

Knight Frank, however, was more successful with two other properties at the auction.

It sold a 334 sq ft shop unit at Orchard Plaza for $300,000 and a JTC workshop with office at 20 Sungei Kadut Avenue for $770,000.

Source : Business Times - 21 Jul 2006

14 lots are up for sale, expected to fetch $350-$370 psf

ALMOST four years after 24 units at the Automobile Megamart Ltd (AML) were put up for auction, the remaining 14 unsold units will again go under the hammer this Friday.

Among those up for grabs are four ground floor car showroom units. Bigger than the used car display lots on the upper floors, they are expected to fetch between $350 and $370 per square foot, according to industry sources. This works out to about $1.10 to $1.15 million for a unit of 3,089 square feet.

One of the showrooms is smaller at 2,798 sq ft, but it has good frontage as it faces the busy Eunos Link and Ubi Avenue 2 junction.

Also available are three adjoining car accessory shops and a food court on the ground floor; five used car display lots on levels four and five; and three lots of offices on three floors.

The auction is being handled by Colliers International, as was the first one in November 2002. Executive director and veteran auctioneer Grace Ng will be conducting it at the AML building’s multi-function hall on the sixth level.

Colliers declined comment on prices when contacted. But market watchers expect interest to be high as the lots come with relatively attractive yields.

The units have a 30-year tenure from July 19, 1996. All have existing tenants, unlike those units sold earlier. In addition, the transacted prices in 2002 were higher. For example, a 2,798 sq ft ground floor showroom was then sold at $1.335 million, which netted a yield of 9 to 10 per cent.

Current expectations have been revised to maintain a similar yield at 10 per cent as it was four years ago.

‘At $9,000 in rental per month, it is seen as a good investment,’ said one source, adding that the owners were taking advantage of the ‘more buoyant market’ to sell.

The properties are jointly owned by the 71 shareholders of AML. The shareholders are used-car dealers who came together and bid $41 million for the site a decade ago.

They invested about $50 million more to build an eight-storey car retail centre - the biggest in Singapore.

When it opened in mid-1999, AML offered a net floor area of 30,260 sq metres with 11 new car showrooms and 80 second-hand car lots, with 71 of the latter sold. The rest, including the upper office floors, were jointly owned by AML.

Source : Business Times - 19 Jul 2006

SELLERS of the substantial detached houses known as Good Class Bungalows, or GCBs, are continuing to use auction sales to try to get the best price for their prestigious property.

Knight’s Frank’s auction on Thursday next week will see three interesting freehold GCBs go under the hammer. All are in District 10 but have very different histories.

One, at 15 Ford Avenue near Holland Village, was occupied by a British couple until they died. The property, with 19,554 sq ft land area, was owned by Edward Ivor Parrish, a prominent supplier of medical and scientific products in Singapore and Malaysia before he sold his business to the Jardine group in the early 1970s.

He passed away in 1990 and his wife Renee died in November last year. The single-storey property, with three bedrooms and servants’ quarters and a sloped lawn leading down to a swimming pool, is being sold by Mrs Parrish’s estate.

‘The charming bungalow with generous living areas, patio and sloping turf, plus the accompanying Victorian-style furniture, grand piano and old-style sewing machine all give you the feeling that you are taking a step back in time to the era captured by English novels like EM Forster’s A Room With A View,’ said Knight Frank veteran auctioneer Mary Sai as she showed the premises to BT.

Ms Sai expects to sell the furniture and other movables in the bungalow at a separate auction.

The indicative price for 15 Ford Avenue is $9.5 million to $10 million.

The second bungalow that Knight Frank is auctioning is 27 Cornwall Garden, once home to Indonesian businessman Kenneth Chow, who once held the Alfa Romeo franchise here.

Mr Chow, who also goes by the name Wira Tjakrawinata, ran foul of the Malaysian Securities Commission a couple of years ago in connection with a reverse takeover bid for Omega Holdings.

He is understood to have fallen behind on his mortgage payments for the Cornwall Garden bungalow, leading the mortgagee bank - shown as Standard Chartered according to searches - to put up the property for sale.

The indicative price for the two-storey GCB, which stands on 27,796 sq ft land area, is $11 million to $12 million.

The third GCB, also a two-storey property, is at 29-C Ridout Road. It is being put up for sale by its owner, which according to searches, is listed Fraser & Neave group.

Unlike the other two properties, which are being sold with vacant possession, the Ridout Road bungalow will be sold subject to a tenancy that runs until August next year. Its indicative price is $8.5 million to $9 million.

Ms Sai hopes the auction of the three GCBs will help sales of more bungalows and high-end apartments by auction - not just by mortgagee banks but also owners and trustees.

‘They can capitalise on better market sentiment, and the rigorous bidding at auctions allows sellers to reach the best price for their properties,’ she said.

She estimated that prices for GCBs have increased 10 to 15 per cent over the past six months.

She cited the example of a bungalow she sold at Cornwall Gardens last year for $6 million, whose new owner could have spent $600,000 to $800,000 on refurbishment. It could fetch $7.5 million to $8 million if it were to be sold today.

Net rental yields on GCBs are below 4 per cent.

GCBs have traditionally been the most prestigious type of landed housing on the island, with planning constraints such as a minimum plot size of 1,400 sq m (15,070 sq ft), and a building height restricted to two storeys above ground. A basement is allowed.

However, some market watchers think GCBs could be knocked off their perch when more bungalow developments are completed on Sentosa Cove, the upscale waterfront housing district shaping up on Sentosa Island. This is especially given the fast-track approval accorded to foreigners for buying landed properties on Sentosa Cove.

In 2004, GCBs became the first part of the Singapore residential market to start buzzing in the current upcycle.

Pick-up in GCB buying is often seen as a lead indicator of better economic times as buyers tend to be captains of industry - people who are the first to sense an overall business recovery from their order books.

Knight Frank’s July 20 auction at Carlton Hotel begins at 2.30pm.

Source : Business Times - 13 Jul 2006

New owners pay $700,000 more than last offer at previous auction

TWO adjacent properties on Mohamed Sultan Road, which used to house Madam Wong’s Bar, have been sold for close to $9.2 million. Once one of the hippest joints in town, Madam Wong’s made a quiet exit from the local nightspot scene earlier this month, in stark contrast to the hype about the place at its peak.

The new owners, who declined to be named, shelled out some $700,000 more for the properties than what was offered at previous auctions. At the most recent one on June 29 held by DTZ Debenham Tie Leung, the only offer received was $8.6 million against the opening reserve price of $10 million. The properties, with a combined area of 21,382 sq ft, were withdrawn as it fell short of the reserve price.

The sale price of $9.2 million or $430 per square foot (psf) is still considerably lower than the joint valuation of the properties, which stood at $11.3 million or $528 psf.

According to Mrs Susan Ye, Manager of Isabel Redrup Agency which brokered the sale, the buyers were intrigued by pictures of the conservation buildings on the agency’s website and conveyed their interest via an e-mail enquiry.

This is the second time the agency has handled the sale of 28 and 29 Mohamed Sultan Road, the first being the sale to Cliffview Holdings Pte Ltd in 2000. Cliffview Holdings lists Peter Wong, the owner of Madam Wong’s Bar, as one of its directors.

The properties were previously marketed by the auctioneers as having potential for redevelopment, in terms of building up to 10 storeys behind the current facade, based on the 3.8 plot ratio of the buildings.

However, the new owners will be conserving the building completely in its present state, as the rear of the property encompasses a road reserve and hilly terrain which makes such rebuilding difficult.

Mrs Ye revealed that the buyers are likely to designate the ground floor as a restaurant or pub and the upper level as office space. Madam Wong’s Bar, however, is not likely to be a factor in the new owners’ plans.

On Madam Wong’s future, an article in The Straits Times on June 9 reports Mr Wong as saying: ‘The name has been built up so we’re not going to let it go. If the new owners want us, we will change the concept. If not, we will go somewhere else.’

Whether or not Madam Wong’s will make a comeback elsewhere remains to be seen as Mr Wong could not be reached for comment. However, with much of the young crowd preferring to chill at the Ministry of Sound, Wala Wala and other joints, and with the upcoming St James Powerhouse, the future does not augur well for Madam Wong’s.

Source : Business Times - 12 Jul 2006

Shrugging off stigma, they see potential in clinching good deals through bidding wars
THE number of homes going under the auctioneer’s hammer has surged as Singaporeans open up to the idea of bidding wars to clinch a better deal for their properties.

Home owners have long shunned auctioning their properties for fear of being mistaken for debt-ridden mortgagees desperate to sell their property at forced-sale prices.

But auctions are beginning to lose their stigma of being associated with distressed sales, with more owners now seeing them as an efficient and potentially more lucrative way to sell their properties.

Property consultant Colliers International said the number of residential auctions it conducted jumped from 22 in the first quarter of the year to 103 in the April to June quarter, with an increase in sales value from $700,000 to $4.77 million.

These include quality bungalows in prime areas like Bukit Timah, detached houses at Mount Sinai and Siglap, as well as apartments in Districts 9, 10 and 11.

Colliers’ executive director and veteran auctioneer, Ms Grace Ng, said: ‘Owners of these highly sought-after properties are recognising the benefits from the publicity generated to a wider market of buyers by auction advertisements compared to a sale by private treaty.’

One owner, a businessman in his late 60s who wants to remain anonymous, is putting his 2,200 sq ft terrace house in River Valley up for sale later this month. ‘I’ve attended a number of auctions and I’ve seen how the prices go up when people are fighting for a piece of property,’ he said.

Although he has had private offers of about $1.1 million, he expects the price at auction to hit $1.3 million.

‘It’s two bites of the cherry,’ he said. ‘If the bid doesn’t meet the reserve price, there’s always room for negotiation with the owner.’

Property consultancy Knight Frank, in its report, has also observed a ‘noticeable growth’ in auctions among owners.

The firm recorded a 50 per cent increase in the number of sales via auctions in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year.

The trend seems to be towards buyers attracted to high-end residential properties with bigger floor areas for owner-occupation as well as a potential for future collective sales, said the report.

For example, a 42-year-old businessman, who wanted to be known only as Mr Toh, bid successfully for a 3,030 sq ft Hillview corner terrace earlier this year. It cost him about $900,000.

‘I wanted a place big enough for my parents and two children to live comfortably,’ he said. ‘I don’t mind paying a little more as long as my requirements are met.’

Locking in buyers through a 10 per cent deposit and immediate contract signing also gives sellers more security.

Knight Frank auctioneer Mary Sai said: ‘Some owners prefer this to the two-week window period and 1 per cent deposit through property agents.’

To auction a property, the owner pays a fee of $600 to $800 to cover advertisements, photographs, printing of the property’s particulars and rental of the auction room. This is in addition to auction charges of 1 per cent of the sale price, similar to what property agents charge. A goods and services tax of 5 per cent is also levied.

If a property fails to sell at the auction, usually because bids are below the reserve price, they are then put up for private treaty sale before being entered for a repeat auction.

‘Owners of large properties normally have no problem with paying the auction expenses. In fact, some even fork out a higher budget for larger and more prominent advertisements,’ said Ms Ng.

It is no wonder then that analysts predict a jump in the sales figure of residential properties sold by auctions this quarter. Most will come from several high-value properties being put up for sale, like that of the 12 bungalow parcels at Sentosa Cove’s Southern Residential Precinct on Aug 25.

Ms Sai, who expects a 15 to 20 per cent increase, said: ‘Given the bullish market, people will take the opportunity to expose their properties to competitive bidding. They’re confident it will help them achieve the best price possible.’

Source : Sunday Times - 9 Jul 2006