It has six bedrooms, a gym, home theatre, steam room, lift, and dehumidifiers in all rooms. The bungalow has a gross floor area of about 14,300 sq ft spread across two storeys and a basement. Mr Lim has also developed another GCB, at 16A Leedon Park, which received its TOP in July last year. That property, which obtained BCA's Greenmark Gold Plus award, is on 15,635 sq ft of land. It, too, has six bedrooms, with two storeys and a basement. The built-up area is about 10,800 sq ft.
Mr Lim indicated that he may keep 16A Leedon Park either for his family's use or for long-term investment rather than sell it in the near future, because of the difficulty of buying more GCB sites for development given the 10 per cent additional buyer's stamp duty he would have to pay on the land.
Newsman Realty is understood to have brokered both the Binjai Park and Ridout Road GCB deals.
Outside the GCB areas, a detached house at Duchess Road was recently sold for $16.41 million or about $1,600 psf on its 999-year-leasehold site's land area of 10,254 sq ft. It is near the future Tan Kah Kee MRT Station. The 21/2-storey bungalow, which has a swimming pool, is about 25 years old and said to be in good condition. The deal was brokered by Coldwell Banker Realtors.
The site is zoned for residential use with a 1.4 plot ratio (ratio of maximum gross floor area to land area), which means it can be potentially redeveloped into a five-storey apartment block.
However, the new owner is likely to keep it as a bungalow given its nice, quiet location off a cul de sac, say market watchers.
This article was first published in The Business Times.
2 GCBs sold for whopping S$91.6m
Apr 13, 2012 - PropertyGuru.com.sg
Two freehold Good Class Bungalows (GCBs), one at Ridout Road and the other at Binjai Park, were recently sold for a combined total of S$91.6 million.
According to The Business Times, the two-storey bungalow at Ridout Road changed hands for S$60.6 million, while the property at Binjai Park is said to have fetched around S$31 million. The prices translate to around S$1,490 psf and S$1,550 psf respectively.
The Ridout Road sale was the highest transaction recorded for a GCB since the sale of 3 Leedon Park in December 2010 at S$61.4 million, noted the report.
Located near Holland Road, the property comprises five bedrooms, a swimming pool and tennis court.
Thomas Chan, a former banker at Goldman Sachs and the owner, is believed to have sold it to Tecity Group.
Meanwhile, the Binjai Park bungalow was sold by GCB investor George Lim.
Sited on a 20,001 sq ft plot, the property received its Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) in June 2011.
It comprises six bedrooms, a lift, home theatre, gym, steam room and dehumidifiers in all rooms. It has a gross floor area (GFA) of approximately 14,300 sq ft spread across two storeys and a basement.