Lush Dream Home

SOME members of the Song family behind Nanshan Group Singapore, which has been increasing its presence in the Singapore property market, are said to have bought a brand-new Good Class Bungalow (GCB) in Holland Park sold recently by Frasers Centrepoint for S$30 million.

Talk in the market has it that the purchase was made through Sui Yongqing, wife of Song Jianbo, eldest son of China-based Nanshan Group founder Song Zuowen.

The group, which is headquartered in Longkou City, Shandong Province, has interests as diverse as aluminium and golf courses to education, wine and real estate.

Ms Sui is understood to have become a Singapore citizen a few years ago. Her husband is believed to have become a Singapore citizen very recently.

Ms Sui, a director of Nanshan Group Singapore, is said to be an authorised signatory for the group’s business in Singapore. The couple, along with three of their four children, are said to currently reside in a condo in the Newton area. Their eldest daughter is in university in the US, according to a recent article in Lianhe Zaobao.

The S$30 million price of the freehold GCB translates to about S$1,991 per square foot (psf) on land area of 15,070.54 sq ft. The two-storey property has a pool, lift, five bedrooms, family area and a helper’s room.

Last week, Nanshan is said to have completed its S$270 million purchase of the former Midlink Plaza site in Middle Road on a turnkey basis. The site, which has a balance lease term of about 65 years, is being redeveloped into a 396-room boutique hotel, with some strata retail space. Nanshan has acquired all the shares of 122 Middle Investment Pte Ltd – which holds the project – from a consortium including Lian Beng Group, Centurion Properties, coffeeshop operator Chang Cheng Group and a vehicle controlled by Jason Lee, founder of the K Box chain.

Over in the Tai Seng MRT Station vicinity, Nanshan Group is said to have signed an agreement, subject to approval by the Strata Titles Board, to buy Irving Industrial Building through a collective sale.

This follows the requisite 80 per cent majority consent secured recently from the owners through a supplemental agreement to lower the reserve price to S$160 million, translating S$930 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr) including development charges, from the S$200 million (S$1,079 psf ppr) reserve price agreed in the collective sale agreement.

“We are in the midst of preparing an application for the en bloc sale to the Strata Titles Board,” said Shaun Poh, executive director (capital markets) at Cushman & Wakefield Singapore, when contacted. The group is handling Irving Industrial Building’s collective sale.

The 65,309-sq-ft freehold site can be redeveloped into a new project with 228,581 sq ft maximum gross floor area (GFA). It is zoned for Business 1-White use, with a 3.5 maximum gross plot ratio. Of this, at least 2.5 plot ratio (translating to 163,272-sq-ft GFA) shall be for Business 1 use and the remaining GFA of up to 65,309 sq ft will be for white uses.

Last year, Nanshan paid about S$250 million for the Park Regis Singapore hotel and the adjoining office block. The group also owns some space at GB Building in Cecil Street, where its office is located.

Last month, the group made its maiden purchase of a Singapore private residential site. It paid S$173.57 million or S$731 psf ppr for the 99-year leasehold plot in Lorong Puntong off Sin Ming Avenue.