Semi-detached house at 8 Bournemouth Road on the market for $11.6 mil

After over a year, a semi-detached house at 8 Bournemouth Road in the Katong neighbourhood of East Coast is now up for sale. In August 2022, a caveat was lodged with URA Realis for $11.6 million, with the buyer identified as Sevens Group (Aquarius), a company associated with property developer Sevens Group, controlled by founder and CEO Eric Cheng.

Sevens Group paid an option fee of of $116,000 or 1% of the purchase price to sign the option to purchase the property on July 25, 2022. The remaining deposit of $464,000 (4% of the purchase price) was paid when the option was exercised.

However, a decision to terminate the sale and purchase agreement was made due to a dispute between the buyer and seller, and the caveat was withdrawn from the Singapore Land Authority’s Integrated Land Information Service on June 27. The seller has decided to keep the same $11.6 million price tag, which translates to a psf price of $2,154.

RealStar Premier Group’s Julian Yip, who specializes in landed property, believes the absolute price is very palatable to developers. The site features a double-storey house built in 1990, boasting six en suite bedrooms and a built-up area of 3,800 sq ft. With a 17.7m frontage and a freehold land area of 5,386 sq ft, it can be subdivided into two smaller semi-detached houses or even re-zoned into a detached house.

For comparison, the highest psf price for a semi-detached house along Bournemouth Road was achieved by 47 Bournemouth Road, which fetched $2,351 psf in a deal transacted in February 2022. Located on a smaller freehold site of 2,552 sq ft, it had been a redevelopment of a former detached house acquired for $398 psf in January 2002.

Once again for sale, 8 Bournemouth Road may also draw the interest of owner-occupiers, who may be more interested in keeping the land intact and getting it re-zoned as a detached house. According to URA’s planning controls, this would require a minimum land area of 400 sq m (4,306 sq ft) and land width of 10m.

The closest MRT station presently is the upcoming Tanjong Katong MRT Station on the Thomson-East Coast Line, three minutes away and due to open in 2024.

Situated in Bukit Batok, Lumina Grand is an exclusive 99-year leasehold condominium offering 495 units of 1-5 bedroom units. With its convenient location, residents of Lumina Grand can expect effortless access to establishments such as eateries, shopping malls, schools, and parks. It also connects to major expressways for convenience.

In 3Q2023, due to the property cooling measures implemented in April and macroeconomic factors such as the high interest rate environment, overall transaction volume in the landed property segment slowed and prices slid 4.9% q-o-q. Despite this, Yip expects buying sentiment to improve next year.