Reserved for purchase only by Singapore citizens, bungalows within the 39 gazetted Good Class Bungalow (GCB) Areas are Singapore’s most prestigious form of landed housing. Image: A GCB on Gallop Road via Google Street View
The son of Haidilao hotpot chain co-founder Zhang Yong has been granted an option to purchase a bungalow at Gallop Road for $42 million, reported The Business Times (BT).
The price works out to $1,940 per sq ft (psf) based on the freehold site’s area of 21,647 sq ft.
Market watchers noted that the $1,940 psf on land alone reflects the price hike in Good Class Bungalow (GCB) Areas.
In fact, it is much higher compared to the $1,700 psf that the family paid for a bungalow located right next to the site. Dubbed the Winged House, the bungalow was designed by K2LD Architects and occupies a 15,884 sq ft freehold site. It was around four years old when the family acquired it in 2016.
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Ranked as Singapore’s richest by Forbes, Zhang and his wife, Shu Ping, has an estimated net worth of US$19 billion (S$25 billion) as at August 2020.
He is chairman and executive director, while Shu is non-executive director and also co-founder at Haidilao International Holding. The couple and their son, who is in his early-20s, are all Singapore citizens, said BT.
Bungalows within the 39 gazetted GCB Areas are Singapore’s most prestigious form of landed housing. They come with strict planning conditions to preserve their low-rise character and exclusivity.
Although anyone can purchase a non-landed private home in the city-state, only Singapore citizens are allowed to buy a landed property within a GCB Area.
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The GCB market has witnessed brisk activity, buoyed by acquisitions by naturalised Singapore citizens and wealthy local families who continue to buy GCBs for their children as well as their grandchildren.
GCB buyers also include the newly rich whose businesses benefitted from the current crisis, said market watchers.
Other recent transactions within the GCB Areas include a Cluny Hill bungalow, which was transacted for $38.6 million or $2,315 psf, showed URA Realis data. A bungalow at Lermit Road was sold for $34.75 million or $2,000 psf and another in Mount Echo Park was transacted for $32 million or $1,712 psf, said BT.
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