Singapore’s Perennial Seeking $269M for Caldecott Hill Residential Site

Nearly five years after buying a hilltop residential site in central Singapore, Perennial Holdings has put the prime plot on the market at a guide price of S$350 million ($268.8 million).

The private builder controlled by local billionaire Kuok Khoon Hong acquired the Caldecott Hill site from national broadcaster Mediacorp for S$280.9 million in late 2020, when the land still housed facilities of the former Caldecott Broadcast Centre. Perennial has since demolished the facilities, clearing the way for redevelopment of the 752,014 square foot (69,864 square metre) site into 60 good-class bungalows with a minimum land area of 8,611 square feet each.

Savills and local property consultancy Delasa will conduct a sale exercise for the leasehold site, according to a Wednesday statement by the advisories. Jeremy Lake, managing director of Savills Singapore, pointed to the 17 acre (6.9 hectare) parcel as a rare convergence of scale, location and design flexibility.

“Few sites offer such a blank canvas to create an entirely new and distinctive landed development,” Lake said. “Developers would benefit from the considerable groundwork carried out so far, including the demolition of all the structures on site, engagement and masterplanning.”

Healthcare Pivot

Perennial had originally planned to redevelop the Caldecott Hill site with large good-class bungalows — Singapore’s term for the most exclusive landed homes in the country — but later decided to concentrate on healthcare properties.

“With our pivot towards a healthcare-centric, complemented by healthcare real estate strategy, we are availing the site for sale so that resources can be recalibrated to focus on our core business,” a Perennial spokesperson said.

Positioned as a potential “luxury bungalow enclave” near MacRitchie Reservoir Park and Caldecott MRT station, the site is surrounded by greenery and close to top schools like Raffles Institution and Singapore Chinese Girls’ Primary School, per Wednesday’s announcement.

Delasa CEO Karamjit Singh said he expects a consortium of ultra-affluent Singaporeans, including extended families, to band together to acquire the site for the development of bespoke mansions.

“This approach offers three advantages: they can curate a super-luxury enclave to their own design, live as immediate neighbours, and crucially deploy materially less equity by capitalising on the leasehold discount relative to mainstream freehold bungalows,” Singh said.

The S$350 million guide price for the site translates to S$465 ($358) per square foot of leasehold land. In May, the family behind food court operator Koufu Group was said to be in talks to buy a 39,276 square foot freehold GCB site with two existing bungalows in Caldecott Hill for S$58 million, or S$1,477 per square foot, according to a report in the Business Times.

The expression of interest exercise for the former Mediacorp site will close on 15 January 2026.

China Hospitals and REITs

Perennial announced in May that it had signed a deal with Guangzhou Metro Group to establish a tertiary general hospital in Guangzhou as Perennial’s second wholly foreign-owned hospital in China, following the opening of the 500-bed Perennial General Hospital Tianjin in February.

Chairman and CEO Pua Seck Guan told the Business Times in June that Perennial was exploring REIT listings in China, including one for commercial properties and another for healthcare assets.

The trusts could be listed in Shanghai or Shenzhen and would ride on booming demand from yield-hungry investors on the mainland, Pua said in the interview. Perennial, which was listed on the Singapore Exchange from 2014 until the group’s privatisation in 2020, may also consider listing its healthcare business in Hong Kong or mainland China, the CEO said.