Shun Tak Adds $407.5M Luxury Site to Growing Singapore Portfolio

Hong Kong’s Shun Tak Holdings has picked up a residential site near Singapore’s posh Orchard Road shopping district for S$556.7 million ($407.5 million) as it readies another upscale residential development amid growing demand for premium homes.

The company founded by the late casino billionaire Stanley Ho emerged as the top bidder in a collective sale of High Point, a 22-storey luxury condominium located at 30 Mount Elizabeth in the posh District 9, marketing agent Savills Singapore said in a release late Thursday.

Shun Tak said in a separate release that it is planning to redevelop the 47,606 square foot (4,423 square metre) freehold development site to build up to 226,815 square feet of new homes.

“With the acquisition of this fifth property, we shall further expand our portfolio and foothold in Singapore and continue to bring in top-quality and unique elements to enrich the vibrant development of the city,” said Pansy Ho, Shun Tak’s group executive chairman and managing director.

In announcing the new project, Ho, who is the daughter of the late gaming magnate, pointed to the strong reception of Shun Tak’s earlier projects in the city, with a penthouse at its Park Nova project in District 10 having sold for a record S$34.38 million in June and a unit at its ultra-luxe Les Maisons Nassim on Nassim Road having sold for S$39 million in May as demand for high-end homes ramps up.

Shun Tak Aims High End

Marking Shun Tak’s fifth Singapore acquisition to date, the developer is paying 1.2 percent above the guide price of S$550 million set when Savills began marketing the project in late October.

The owner of the Shun Tak Centre in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan area and other commercial developments will be able to build a new project up to 36 storeys high on the High Point site, and with homes averaging 200 square metres in size, could produce 98 units, based on existing regulations.

The Hong Kong-listed developer is paying the equivalent of S$2,626 per square foot of built space, making it the highest-priced land sale in the city by price per unit area since 2018 and the third highest ever in Singapore, according to Savills.

“High Point is the first prime site to be launched for sale in Singapore since July 2018, and the attributes of High Point will enable the buyer to develop an exclusive ultra-luxurious development,” said Galven Tan, deputy managing director for investment sales and capital markets at Savills Singapore. “This is something that other sites in the market may not be able to achieve.”

In terms of total value, the acquisition marked the second-biggest collective sale in the city-state this year following Hoi Hup Realty’s S$815 million purchase of a Thiam Siew Avenue project last month, in a deal that was also brokered by Savills.

The deal for High Point, which sits at the end of a dead-end street in Mount Elizabeth within a 10-minute walk of the shopping and lifestyle hub Orchard Road and the Orchard Road MRT station, follows a collective sale attempt two years ago that failed to find a buyer for the 1973-vintage project.

Premium Homes in Demand

Developers have been actively picking up luxury homes in the city-state recently, pushing the volume of home sales worth S$10 million or more to a record high in the first nine months of 2021 as demand recovered from the shock of the pandemic, the Business Times reported.

In the third quarter alone, the number of private homes and executive condo units sold went up 23 percent to 4,267 from the 3,461 units sold in the previous three months, according to separate public data.

Savills’ Tan said the redevelopment project at 30 Mount Elizabeth should help fulfil the rising demand for posh housing, a sector that has been experiencing a strong rebound in sales and prices.

Aside from the High Point deal, there were at least three other successful collective sales in the past three months, including the sale of the Peace Mansion complex in District 9 to a consortium led by Gordon Tang-controlled companies last week and local developer UOL Group’s purchase of a Bukit Timah residential site in October for S$550.8 million.

Growing Portfolio

Shun Tak first ventured into the Singapore residential market in 2018 when it bought a pair of residential plots in District 10, including one at 21 Orchard Boulevard (which is now the Park Nova tower) and a second at 14-14A Nassim Road (which is now Les Maisons Nassim) for a total of S$593.5 million.

In April last year the company took full ownership of 111 Somerset, a commercial complex on Somerset Road, when it bought out the remaining 30 percent stake held by SGX-listed developer Perennial Real Estate Holdings for S$155 million.

Shun Tak had taken a controlling stake in 111 Somerset in 2017, nearly a year after taking on its first project in the city in 2016 when it acquired a freehold hotel site at 9 Cuscaden Road in District 10 from the estate of the late tycoon Tan Hoon Siang.