The Claremont hotel along Serangoon Road, near the junction of Owen Road, has been put up for sale. The guide price for the eight-storey, freehold budget hotel is about S$90 million, or S$1 million per room.
Knight Frank, which is marketing the 90-room property through an expression of interest exercise that closes on July 28, were not able to list the room sizes of the hotel at the time of publication.
The Claremont is on 4,838 sq ft of land and has a built-up area of about 30,591 sq ft. The site is zoned for hotel use with a 3.0 plot ratio (ratio of gross floor area to land area) under the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Master Plan 2014, said Mary Sai, executive director of investment and capital markets at Knight Frank Singapore.
The hotel is owned by a company which lists its sole shareholder as Parvinder Chopra, a Singapore permanent resident, according to a company search. Mr Chopra is a US-based hotelier.
Located in District 8, The Claremont is a stone’s throw from Farrer Park MRT Station, and it is also near Mustafa Centre and City Square Mall.
“Investors could potentially reposition the hotel by reconfiguring and adding more rooms, subject to approval from the relevant authorities,” Ms Sai said.
Industry players noted that in 2014, the 328-room Hotel Grand Chancellor in Belilios Road was transacted at S$248 million or about S$756,100 per room. The hotel is on a site with about 92 years’ balance lease at the time. The Claremont is seen as having a superior location in addition to a better land tenure.
Knight Frank is also marketing a retail unit at Bukit Timah Plaza. Located in basement 2, the unit is currently being used as a restaurant. It has a guide price of about S$6.8 million, which translates to about S$2,000 psf for the 3,390 sq ft unit. The property is being put up for sale by its owner, who is looking to retire and wants to cash out his investment in this property, said Ms Sai.
The expression of interest for the unit also closes on July 28. Bukit Timah Plaza is on a site with a balance lease tenure of 59 years.