A detached house on a sprawling freehold plot of 24,189 sq ft off Dunearn Road and Shelford Road has been launched for sale with an asking price of $60 million ($2,480 psf). Perched atop a hill, the house is concealed from street view, offering a rare sense of seclusion in the Bukit Timah area of prime District 11.

Built in 1953, the house is a rare architectural throwback to a bygone era in Singapore. The main two-storey residence features a circular driveway at the front entrance and a single-storey annexe, originally an outhouse for domestic workers, later converted into a room for a family member. It now houses the family’s domestic helper. Adjacent to the annexe are a two-car garage and a covered car porch.

The house has remained largely unchanged for over 70 years. Once home to four generations of the Ong family — at one point, about 20 people lived in the house — it is now occupied by just four: Patrick Ong, 47, his elderly parents and their helper, along with a lively menagerie that includes 10 chickens, a parrot, a cockatoo and a dog — all of which roam freely in the garden.

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Over time, other family members had moved out to start their own families and purchase houses of their own. However, Ong’s family stayed behind. “My father is the eldest son, and I’m the eldest grandson, so it was our responsibility to care for my grandmother when she was ill,” he says.

Ong family’s chronicle

As the family’s unofficial historian, Ong was inspired by Alex Haley’s novel Roots to chronicle their heritage. In a 2017 Facebook post, he paid tribute to his great-grandmother, “the matriarch of the family”.

According to Ong’s account, his great-grandmother Tan Hock Muay was born in 1885 in Fuqing, a city in China’s Fujian province. After marrying Ong Chin Chuan, she moved into his family home in the coastal village of Jiang Tou. “Life in Southern China towards the end of the Qing Dynasty was tough,” Ong wrote.

Seeking better opportunities, the couple migrated to Singapore around the time of the 1911 Chinese Revolution. Then a British colony, Singapore offered promise to new immigrants, many of whom relied on kinship networks. As the Ongs were from the Hockchia (Heng Hua) dialect group, they found community among fellow migrants from Fuqing. The couple started in the transport industry by renting out rickshaws.

By the 1920s, they had expanded into operating small seven-seater “mosquito buses”, so named for weaving in and out of traffic to pick up passengers.

According to family lore, the initial capital for the first mosquito buses came from pawning two gold bracelets Tan received from a wealthy relative, for whom she had worked as a domestic helper for several years when she first arrived in Singapore. It was her only valuable possession at the time.

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Origins of the Green Bus Company

The business was formalised in 1934 as the Rochor Bus Company, which served rural areas underserved by the British tram and trolleybus system. That same year, Ong Chin Chuan (Ong’s great-grandfather), his younger brothers, including Ong Kim Hock and their partners rebranded as The Green Bus Company. It was officially registered on Sept 24, 1941.

“I think my great-grandparents were among the forerunners in setting up Singapore’s transport industry,” says Ong.

At its peak, the Green Bus Company operated a fleet of 35 buses running from Queen Street to areas such as Jurong, Lim Chu Kang and the former Princess Elizabeth Estate (now Hillview). On May 1, 1950, it launched a cross-border route to Johor Bahru and expanded its fleet with Vulcan omnibuses. That same year, it opened a $100,000 garage and workshop at its depot in King Albert Park — now the site of the mixed-use development KAP Residences and KAP Mall.

The company continued operations until it was merged into United Bus Company in 1971, part of a government-led consolidation of private bus operators. As the family prospered, Ong’s great-grandparents became community leaders in the Hockchia Ting Hua clan. “When they arrived in Singapore, they had nothing,” Ong recalls. “When they became successful, they wanted to help others from China settle here and find work in the transport industry.”

Building a multi-generational family home

Tan had always dreamt of building a home large enough for the entire extended family. The family acquired the hilltop site off Dunearn Road in the early 1950s, completing the house in 1953.

“At that time, there were no other houses in the area — just Poh Ming Tse Temple next door and Ng’s Mansion at 2 Watten Estate Road,” says Ong. “The rest were mangosteen plantations.” The private housing estates on Shelford Road and Watten Estate had yet to be developed.

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The home’s design was inspired by Tan’s marital home in China.

A feng shui master was consulted during the construction of the house. Situated atop a small hill, the site was considered a “dragon’s head” in feng shui — a symbol of good fortune. “In a way, the dragon has protected us for four generations,” says Ong.

The house was built not only to accommodate the extended family, but also to host guests from the Hockchia (Heng Hua) community in Singapore, many of whom were prominent businessmen and philanthropists.

One of the home’s distinctive features is a spiral staircase next to an air well, which has now been covered. “In the past, the air well was left open to allow light and ventilation into the house,” says Ong. “When it rained, the water would collect and drain through a system built beneath the slightly sloped floor.”

At the time, there was no modern sewage system. An outdoor toilet collected waste in a bucket, which was emptied nightly by a night-soil collector. Today, the home has been upgraded with proper plumbing.

Friends and Neighbours

Inside, the house features a spacious living and dining area, a large kitchen, a yard, and seven bedrooms — three on the first floor and four on the second.

The rear of Ong’s house backs onto the garden of Ng’s Mansion — the home of the late property tycoon Ng Teng Fong, founder of Far East Organization. “My grandfather, Ong Chin Siang and Ng Teng Fong were not just neighbours, but also friends,” says Ong.

Ng’s Mansion is situated within Watten Estate, a private landed enclave that the Far East Organisation began to develop in 1969. Other developments by Far East Organization in the Bukit Timah area include the former freehold Watten Estate Condo (completed in 1983); the 103-year leasehold, 62-unit Greenwood Mews (completed in 2016); and the 99-year leasehold, 54-unit The Siena (2016).

Watten Estate Condominium was sold en bloc to a joint venture between UOL Group and Singapore Land Group for $550.8 million in October 2021, in a deal brokered by JLL. The site has since been redeveloped and launched as the 180-unit freehold Watten House in November 2023. To date, the luxury condo is 94% sold at an average of $3,257 psf, based on caveats lodged.

The most recent detached house transaction in the Dunearn Road-Shelford Road neighbourhood was for a 10,042 sq ft freehold plot on Shelford Road. Built in 1992, the property changed hands for $18.68 million ($1,860 psf) in January, based on a caveat lodged with URA Realis.

On the market

A title search shows that the house at 436 Dunearn Road is held under Ong Chin Chuan Holdings, a company established by Ong’s great-grandfather to hold the property.

The Ong family has now decided to sell the property. “From my family’s perspective, the property is not just about land value,” says Ong. “It represents the legacy of our ancestors — their hard work, their vision and the home they built. Generations of memories live within these walls.”

JLL has been appointed the marketing agent, with senior director of capital markets Nicholas Ng handling the sale, which will be conducted by private treaty. Under the URA Draft Master Plan 2025, the property falls within a three-storey mixed landed housing zone.

According to Ng, the site is fairly regular, with a 43m frontage and 57m depth. He estimates it can be redeveloped into four detached houses — three measuring 5,113 sq ft each and a larger one of 8,826 sq ft accessible via the existing driveway.

Alternatively, it could be redeveloped into four semi-detached houses of about 3,832 sq ft each, with the rear plot reserved for a detached house — subject to planning approvals.

Ng estimates the current construction costs for a new house to be around $550 to $600 psf.

‘More than just market value’

Potential buyers could include boutique landed developers, multi-generational families, or those seeking proximity to top schools and an MRT station, says Ng.

Nearby institutions include Methodist Girls’ School, Nanyang Girls’ High School, National Junior College, Hwa Chong Institution and Raffles Girls’ Primary School.

The house at Dunearn Road is just 350m — a five-minute walk — from Tan Kah Kee MRT Station and near the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is an eight-minute drive away.

JLL’s Ng also believes the property will appeal to buyers seeking a trophy asset or legacy home, given its freehold tenure, substantial land size and historical charm.

Ong says the $60 million asking price reflects more than just market value. “It represents the significance of the estate, which holds the legacy of the Ong family,” he adds.