• Rare GCB at Mount Echo Park for sale at $32 mil
AGood Class Bungalow (GCB) at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac on Mount Echo Park is on the market for $32 million. Located off Jervois Road, the property sits on a large freehold plot of 15,156 sq ft and the double-storey house has a built-up area of about 7,000 sq ft. The asking price translates to about $2,111 psf on the land area.
“The neighbourhood is very peaceful because the road in front of the house is a nothrough road, so only the residents of the 30odd houses use this road,” says the owner who declined to be named.
While some of the surrounding houses have been leased out, the majority of the owners have been residents for some years, she adds.
The owner and her husband bought the house for $9 million ($594 psf) in 1997 and it was their family home for more than 20 years. As their children have grown up and moved into homes of their own, the owner has decided to put the house on the market for sale.
The GCB is located on a regular sized plot on level ground, with a car porch for four cars, a swimming pool in the backyard, and landscaped garden with a pond in the front, which is the owner’s favourite part of the home.
The ground floor of the house features a spacious living room, a family room, formal dining room adjoining a spacious kitchen, and a second smaller dining nook. There’s a guest room at the front of the house, which is also ideal as a study. The second level has a family room and four en suite bedrooms.
“Every bedroom has a view of the surrounding greenery, and the orientation of the house is towards Chatsworth Park and Bishopsgate,” says Steve Tay, senior associate vice-president at List Sotheby’s International Realty, the exclusive marketing agent for the sale of the property.
He reckons the new owner will likely tear down the existing property and build a brand new GCB on the site, fully utilising the allowable built up area and maximising the basement space. Tay estimates the cost of building a new GCB will be at least $8 mil
lion, depending on the design and the materials used.
One point of reference for the new GCB could be its neighbour which was recently sold and the property rebuilt. That property fetched $22 million ($1,455 psf) when it changed hands back in Feb 2015, and the new owners have built a new house with a floor area of more than 10,000 sq ft, including a basement carpark that can fit close to 10 cars.
Earlier this month, there was another transaction of an old GCB on Tanglin Hill in the Ridley Park GCB area that fetched $31.5 million. The property sits on a 16,446 sq ft plot and the price translates to $1,915 psf on the land area. The buyer is believed to be Singaporean Koh Tuck Lye, who was a board member of Hong Kong–listed tech giant Xiaomi Corporation. The deal was also concluded by Tay of List Sotheby’s.
Meanwhile, the most recent transaction in Mount Echo Park occurred more than three years ago in Jan 2016, when a 16,824 sq ft GCB site was sold for $22.3 million ($1,322 psf). Other nearby transactions include a 16,727 sq ft GCB plot which changed hands for $25 million ($1,494 psf) in Jan 2014. “As it’s a very quiet GCB enclave, very few GCBs in this area come up for sale,” notes Tay.
According to Han Huan Mei, director of research at List Sotheby’s, “there is still a healthy demand for GCBs. Based on our research, 32 bungalows in GCB areas have been sold up till the end of October this year, for a total investment value of $605 million, of which 15 bungalow deals were in prime district 10. This shows a strong, steady interest in bungalows in district 10.”
The GCB on Mount Echo Park that Tay is now marketing has seen interest from prospective buyers despite the house being listed for sale less than a month ago. Most of the interested parties are newly minted Singaporeans, he says.
Fifteen years ago, GCB land prices at Mount Echo Park were about $500 psf, notes Tay. Hence, it will take a while for Singaporeans to accept the land prices today, he adds.
When the property is redeveloped, the new GCB will be able to command a higher price, he adds. “Demand for GCBs in well-located areas remains healthy.”