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A FREEHOLD Good Class Bungalow (GCB) property in the exclusive Oei Tiong Ham Park enclave is up for sale, with a guide price of S$42.8 million.

The S$42.8 million price tag translates to a land rate of about S$2,800 per square foot (psf) on the land area of about 14,982 square feet (sq ft), exclusive marketing agent Savills Singapore said on Thursday (Mar 6).

Located at 5 Jalan Sampurna, the freehold plot close to Holland Road now houses about 10,000 sq ft bungalow built in the 1980s.

Nick Chan, associate director of investment sales and capital markets at Savills Singapore, said the deal is a “rare opportunity” to acquire a freehold GCB redevelopment site in “one of Singapore’s most coveted enclaves”.

Interest in the GCB market reignited last year, driven by younger Singaporean high-net-worth individuals, said Savills.

Based on the consultancy’s database, the sales volume of GCBs in 2024 totalled 26 transactions, twice that recorded in the year before. Total transaction value jumped by 231.6 per cent, totalling S$1.15 billion.

More GCB owners have put their houses on the market, with interest picking up after the dust has settled following the liquidation sale of Hin Leong Trading founder Lim Oon Kuin’s GCBs, Chan told The Business Times.

Several properties belonging to the disgraced oil tycoon, better known as OK Lim, were put on the block after Hin Leong Trading collapsed. Lim was subsequently convicted of cheating and forgery charges. He and his children were declared bankrupt in December 2024, and owe US$3.5 billion to liquidators.

The liquidation sales have set the floor price for GCB transactions, he said. “Sellers are looking to divest their properties and have asking prices usually higher than the last transacted prices for comparable plots in the vicinity. Sellers are always looking to achieve the next high.”

Last August, OK Lim’s Tanglin Hill bungalow went for S$39.2 million, or S$2,507 psf on the freehold land area of 15,636 sq ft.

Another of his properties, a GCB in Third Avenue, was sold in November 2023 for S$26.39 million, or S$1,810 psf. His Second Avenue property transacted in October 2021 for S$33.39 million, or S$1,671 psf.

Landed properties in general make up only about 5 per cent of Singapore’s housing stock, with fewer than 3,000 GCBs and supply confined by strictly demarcated GCB areas.

For the whole of 2024, prices of private residential properties rose by 3.9 per cent after increasing 6.8 per cent in 2023, based on Urban Redevelopment Authority data released in January. The price growth of landed properties lagged the rest of the housing market, rising by 0.9 per cent last year after slowing from 8 per cent in 2023.

Business owners, newly-minted Singaporeans, as well as high-net-worth individuals make up the profile of interested buyers, said Chan, who noted that these buyers negotiate for value deals.

Premiums vary with location and site attributes. For example, a Belmont Road deal that closed last year saw two adjoining freehold bungalows sold for a total of S$131.4 million, in a purchase linked to Hillhouse Investment founder and chairman Zhang Lei.

The price works out to S$3,000 psf on land area for both houses, which is about 15 per cent higher than the historical prices of GCB plots in the vicinity, said Chan.

Chan expects GCB transaction volumes for 2025 to be around the same as 2024, as analysts do not see the US Federal Reserve cutting interest rates consecutively.

“The flurry of deals last year was due to interest rates being cut consecutively in late 2024 and there was much anticipation in the market at that time as people looked forward to further cuts, which could help with financing costs,” he said.

The expression of interest exercise for the Jalan Sampurna property will close on Apr 10.