A record price has been set on Sentosa Cove. This time a prime seafronting bungalow along Ocean Drive on a 7,690 sq ft plot area has been sold for $2,536 per square foot (psf) on land area. This exceeded the earlier record of $2,403 psf posted just in May this year for a bungalow on Paradise Island which has a bigger land area of about 14,983 sq ft reflecting in a much higher price of $36 million.
The latest deal amounted to $19.5 million. Its buyer is understood to be Dalip Kumar Seth, the boss of Sunrise & Co Pte Ltd, a sporting goods wholesaler/distributor which represents the Yonex and Mikasa brands.
On the mainland, a house at Cluny Hill was sold for $28 million or $1,841 psf based on its land area of 15,210 psf. On a psf basis, this is believed to be the second highest price ever achieved in the GCB market, surpassed only by the $1,899 psf that was recorded in 2007 for 32H Nassim Road. However, that was for a smaller land area of 13,423 sq ft.
Property experts note that the $1,841 psf for the latest deal at Cluny Hill surpasses the $1,800 psf which a GCB at Nassim Road sold for in April this year. That property is on 24,187 sq ft land area, resulting in an absolute price of $43.53 million.
Among the other major GCB deals in Q3 are a $21 million (about $1,300 psf) deal at Swettenham Green; the buyer is understood to be plastic surgeon Woffles Wu. There was a also a transaction at Chatsworth Road for $25 million or $1,499 psf. The seller is understood to be Pacific Asset Management’s managing director and chief investment officer Ho Tian Yee.
CB Richard Ellis’ analysis shows that the average price for GCBs sold so far this year is $1,050 psf, about 26% higher than the $831 psf for the whole of 2009.
Rising prices have widened the gap in expectations between buyers and sellers and slowed down demand this quarter.
‘Demand for GCBs has slowed in the third quarter primarily because the price expectations between owners and buyers have widened. On one hand, owners can afford to hold as they’re not in a hurry to sell; on the other, buyers can afford to purchase but are not prepared to pay what the owners are asking,’ says CB Richard Ellis director (luxury homes) Douglas Wong.
‘Some bungalow buyers are waiting and hoping to see a drop in price but most sellers are not reducing. Instead quite a number have actually revised their prices upwards lately in view of the buoyant economy, coupled with a better-than-expected stockmarket performance,’ Mr Wong says.
This price gap will probably mean fewer transactions in the next two to three months, he reckons. Mr Wong predicts relatively slow sales until perhaps early next year, by which time pent-up demand would have built up. ‘That’s when we’re likely to see an increase in GCB transactions again.’
Based on caveats captured up to Sept 23, a total 16 GCB deals have been done this quarter for a total $253.4 million – down from 36 transactions for $777.7 million in Q2 and 31 deals at $516.2 million in Q1.
The final number for Q3 may be higher as more caveats may be filed over the next few weeks.
Despite the weaker volume this quarter, the 83 deals clinched year-to-date have a total sale value of nearly $1.55 billion – just 10 per cent shy of the record $1.72 billion for the whole of last year, when there were 109 deals. CBRE feels the market is on track to record about 100-120 GCB transactions amounting to $1.8 billion for full-year 2010.