Shophouse at Kitchener Road flipped for $8 mil and 86% capital gain within five months

The conservation shophouse at 147 Kitchener Road has just changed hands for $8 million, after being sold for $4.3 million in January (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)

SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - A freehold, conservation shophouse at 147 Kitchener Road recently changed hands for $8 million, according to a caveat lodged on July 1. This transaction comes just five months after the previous one, which was completed in January, according to a property title search. Although no caveat was lodged then, the transacted price was pegged at valuation in August 2021, which was $4.3 million.

The entity that purchased the property five months ago was Pack Wan, a company created on Aug 14, 2021. The shareholders of the company are Aaron Wan, PropNex senior group district director, and his wife. When contacted, Wan declined to comment on the sale of the property.

The latest owner of the conservation shophouse at 147 Kitchener Road is Eng Teng Association. Founded in Singapore in 1916, Eng Teng Association is one of the most established Hakka Associations set up to provide assistance to new immigrants from Tingzhou prefecture, Fujian province, in China over a century ago.

Eng Teng Association has been located at the double-storey conservation shophouse at 132 Neil Road since 1918. The association owns the shophouse at 132 Neil Road and two other adjoining shophouses along the same row, namely 128 and 130 Neil Road. The shophouses are part of a row of five located in the Bukit Pasoh Conservation Area. Across the road is Pinnacle @ Duxton, the first high-rise, city centre HDB blocks standing 50-storey tall with 1,848 flats. And it’s right on the edge of Tanjong Pagar in District 2. (Find HDB flats for rent or sale with our Singapore HDB directory)

At the end of May last year, Eng Teng Association sold the two shophouses at 130 and 132 Neil Road for $22.5 million to a company called TL Developments, according to a property title search and caveat lodged the. Meanwhile, the shophouse at 128 Neil Road changed hands for $10.5 million, and was purchased by C&P Rent-a-Car.

According to the property titles, the three shophouses on Neil Road previously owned by Eng Teng Association, were held in trust under the names of three individuals. The same three names also appear in the property title for the shophouse at 147 Kitchener Road.

The divestment of the three shophouses on Neil Road yielded a total of $33 million for Teng Eng Association. The amount is more than sufficient to purchase the shophouse at 147 Kitchener Road for $8 million.

The conserved shophouse at 147 Kitchener Road was built sometime in the 1920s. It features an ornate façade as well as a spiral staircase leading from the first level to an open roof terrace on the rooftop. It sits on a freehold site of 1,440 sq ft but comes with a plot ratio of 3.0. This allows the owner to build a new five-storey annex block at the rear of the shophouse.

Considered part of the Desker Road Conservation Area, the shophouse at Kitchener Road is part of District 8, an area which saw 34 shophouses sold in 2Q2022, according to PropNex Research. This amounted to $218.3 million worth of deals, and is the highest quarterly sales since 2Q2013 when 29 shophouses changed hands for $130 million.

The shophouse at 147 Kitchener Road is part of a row facing the 910-unit City Square Residences and City Square Mall, which is linked underground to the Farrer Park MRT station. Other new developments that have sprung up in the neighbourhood in recent years include office buildings, Centrium Square and Arc 380, Uptown @ Farrer mixed-use development, Lyf co-living space as well as healthcare and hospitality project, Connexion.

That particular stretch of shophouses at Kitchener Road has a number of famous eateries. One of Singapore’s oldest Chinese vegetarian restaurants, Zen Fut Sai Kai had occupied 147 Kitchener Road for 64 years.

After Zen Fut Sai Kai closed in 2017, the first floor of the shophouse was leased to Thai restaurant, Thai Goldmine Kitchen, for the next two years. For the last two years until end 2021, the first floor was tenanted to Indian restaurant, Ponnusamy Restaurant.

The new F&B tenant since January 2022 is Sans Laksa, a traditional steamboat restaurant, which is said to have signed a long-term lease with the landlord. The second floor of the shophouse at 147 Kitchener Road has been renovated and leased as an office space.

Further down the same row of shophouses is the Michelin-star Putien Restaurant, which specialises in Fujian cuisine. The shophouse at 127 Kitchener Road marks Putien’s flagship restaurant in Singapore, which opened in 2000. Another famous eatery along the same row is Hillman Restaurant at 135 Kitchener Road, which focuses on traditional Cantonese cuisine. Its first restaurant was on Cantonment Road back in 1963.

When Wan purchased the property at 147 Kitchener Road jointly with his wife in August 2021, they had intended to renovate the shophouse and hold it as a long-term investment. Wan had commented last year that he would only consider selling the shophouse if he received “an offer of around $8 million”.

Little did he expect to receive such an offer five months later. For Wan, the $8 million sale price translates into a capital gain of 86%.

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