A newly completed Good Class Bungalow (GCB) at 43 Belmont Road was recently sold for $33.8 million. Based on the freehold land area of 15,070 sq ft, the price translates to $2,243 psf.
According to property ownership information available on the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) Integrated Land Information Service or INLIS, the buyer of the GCB at 43 Belmont Road is socialite Kady Leyau Chandler, brand director of Fil Skin Body & Spa Intelligence, which is owned by her family. A former model, actress and VJ with MTV Taiwan, Leyau is the wife of Richard Chandler, the Singapore-based, New Zealand-born businessman billionaire and chairman of Clermont Group.
The GCB at 43 Belmont Road has a built-up area of 21,829 sq ft, if the basement garage is included. The basement garage is big enough for 10 supercars. The house has two upper levels and comes with a formal living and dining room, six en suite bedrooms including a master and junior master suite, a 24m swimming pool, a steam/spa room, a dry and wet kitchen as well as space for a wine cellar.
The house was developed by Fission Group founded by Melvin Poh, in a joint venture with Pinnacle Assets, headed by Victor Soh. The duo had purchased a 31,129 sq ft GCB plot at 45 Belmont Road for $44.188 million ($1,420 psf) in 2015. They subsequently subdivided the plot into two smaller GCB plots: 43 Belmont Road, that was recently sold to Leyau; and 45 Belmont Road, which is currently under construction as Soh’s new home.
K H Tan, managing director of Newsman Realty, the appointed marketing agent for 43 Belmont Road, brokered the sale. “It’s a fair price given today’s market and since the property cooling measures came into effect on July 6,” says Tan.
Meanwhile, in the waterfront residential enclave of Sentosa Cove, a single-storey bungalow in Sentosa Cove has been sold for $33.3 million ($1,795 psf), according to List Sotheby's International Realty, Singapore, which represented the buyer.
The property was able to fetched $33.3 million as it occupies a land area of 18,555 sq ft – which is rare in Sentosa Cove – located on Cove Grove, with a view of the South China Sea. As the house is single-storey, it can be rebuilt into a 2½ storey bungalow, according to List Sotheby’s in a media release on Aug 23.
The buyer is said to be a Singapore Permanent Resident (PR) and a first-time home buyer, and therefore exempted from the higher additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) rate that came into effect on July 6 for those who buy a second or subsequent residential property.
Despite the property cooling measures that have caused some buyers to adopt a “wait-and-see take a “wait-and-see approach” to buying property, there is still a segment of “serious buyers” who are looking for homes for their own stay and as long-term investments, says Rowena Chan, relationship manager of List Sotheby’s.