Shun Tak Ventures Into Singapore Residential With $444M Dual Site Buy

Casino tycoon Stanley Ho’s Shun Tak Holdings has paid S$593.5 million ($444 million) for a pair of luxury residential plots near Singapore’s Orchard Road shopping district, marking the company’s first foray into the residential market in the Southeast Asian city-state.

Shun Tak Holdings announced that it had won the bids for the freehold redevelopment sites located at 21 Orchard Boulevard and at 14-14A Nassim Road in District 10, in a statement released by the company late Wednesday. The acquisitions will allow the company to add residential projects to its existing hotel and commercial portfolio in Singapore, according to the document.

“Our group has been diligently exploring investment opportunities beyond our Greater China home base, and Singapore is certainly one of our strategic emphases given its robust growth,” said Pansy Ho, Group Executive Chairman and Managing Director for the company in the statement.

Shun Tak Orchard Boulevard Buy Breaks SG Price Record

The Hong Kong-listed developer paid S$375.5 million for the site of the Park House condominium project at 21 Orchard Boulevard via a collective sale. Shun Tak’s winning bid was more than S$67 million above the tender’s guide price of S$308 million and translates into S$2,910 per square foot of floor area.

The purchase of the site opposite the Regent Hotel near the Orchard Road shopping strip set a collective sale price record for price per square foot, according to CBRE, which brokered the sale.

Shun Tak plans to redevelop the 46,084 square foot (4,281 square metre) site into a luxury residential condominium development spanning 129,037 square feet of gross floor area. The current 60-unit Park House, comprises 56 apartments and four shop units and is a ten-minute walk from the Orchard MRT Station.

Going Exclusive North of Orchard Road

Shun Tak’s second acquisition is a 66,452 square foot residential site at 14-14A Nassim Road, just one kilometre north of the Orchard Boulevard property. The Ho family controlled developer spent S$218 million to acquire this plot near the embassies of Japan and the Philippines from an undisclosed seller.

The site just a five-minute walk from the Orchard MRT station will be redeveloped into an “ultra-luxurious low-rise residential project,” Shun Tak said. With a maximum gross floor area of approximately 93,033 square feet, the price works out to S$2,343 per square foot of floor area,

Shun Tak Continues to Build Singapore Portfolio

Hong Kong-listed Shun Tak, which started out in transportation and expanded to build a portfolio of casinos, hotels and commercial buildings in Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China, has been ramping up its presence in Singapore since 2016.

In May 2016 the company acquired a 25,741 square foot prime freehold site located at 9 Cuscaden Road for S$145 million, and is planning to redevelop that plot into a hotel with no fewer than 140 rooms, according to the company’s latest annual report.

Shun Tak expanded its portfolio in Singapore a year later by spending S$347 million to acquire a 70 percent interest in the company that owns the majority of the commercial complex at 111 Somerset Road known as TripleOne Somerset. The 766,550 square foot development features office units, medical suites and two levels of retail podium.

More Hong Kong Developers Making the Flight to Singapore

As Shun Tak increases the number of flights that its team will be taking from Hong Kong to Singapore, the developer is likely to run into a growing number of its competitors as it passes through Chek Lap Kok or Changi.

Just last week, Far East Consortium (FEC) bought the freehold residential project 21 Anderson Royal Oak Residence near the Orchard Road shopping district from US private equity giant Blackstone for S$196 million.

And during May FEC teamed up with New World Development and Singapore’s SC Global Developments to acquire a 99-year leasehold property on Cuscaden Road in the same area for a record-breaking S$410 million.