Grab CEO Anthony Tan's family grabs Bin Tong Park good class bungalow for $40m

The Bin Tong Park property has a bungalow on site which is said to have been built in the 1990s.ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

Grace Leong

Senior Business Correspondent

Jul 9, 2021, 7:07 pm SGT

SINGAPORE - The family of Grab co-founder and chief executive Anthony Tan has bought a freehold property in the Bin Tong Park Good Class Bungalow (GCB) area for $40 million.

Mr Tan's wife, Chloe Tong, bought the home from a doctor, according to media reports. A title search names the seller as Lau Chee Chong.

The couple are expected to redevelop the Bin Tong Park property, which has a bungalow on site said to have been built in the 1990s.

Grab did not respond to queries on Friday (July 9).

Ms Carin Puah, senior director (capital markets) at real estate agency JLL Singapore, said: "GCBs are very sought-after as a status symbol. The newly rich younger generation and new citizens tend to want to get GCBs for their own use.

"It's a regular plot with good frontage. But the 1990s resort-style bungalow is no longer in trend and is likely to be redeveloped."

The $40 million price translates to $1,851 per square foot (psf) based on the 21,602 sq ft site - exceeding the last transacted price of $1,685 psf, or around $37 million for a bungalow in Bin Tong Park last December.

OrangeTee & Tie associate executive director Harry Yap said that the last highest transacted psf was $2,063, or $48 million for a bungalow in the same area in March 2018.

"Given the current GCB buying spree, and a 7 per cent increase in overall landed property prices in the first quarter this year from a year ago, the $1,851 psf price is reasonable," he said.

Ms Puah added: "The $1,851 psf is fair value for the Bin Tong Park GCB area in today's market. The nearby Leedon GCB cluster is already commanding $1,700 to $1,800 psf."

The Tan purchase comes on the heels of another high-profile GCB deal by 28-year-old Ian Ang, chief executive and co-founder of gaming chair firm Secretlab.

Mr Ang splashed out $51 million in the span of a week last month on a good class bungalow in Caldecott Hill and a penthouse near the Botanic Gardens.

He exercised an option to buy a $36 million bungalow in Olive Road on June 24 and lodged a caveat on a 7,007 sq ft, five-bedroom triplex penthouse at Leedon Residence off Farrer Road for $15 million four days later.

Mr Ian Ang plans to live at the Leedon Residence penthouse while the bungalow is being torn down and rebuilt.

JLL noted that there have been 53 deals in GCB areas totalling nearly $1.5 billion this year, exceeding the tally for the whole of last year, when 50 transactions amounting to $1.29 billion were done.

Grab, the ride-hailing and food-delivery giant led by Mr Tan, 39, the scion of Malaysia car distributor Tan Chong Motor's president, plans to list in the United States later this year.

It will involve a merger with Altimeter Growth Corp that could value the combined entity at about US$40 billion (S$54 billion).

Mr Tan could see his fortune surge to US$829 million based on the amount of stock he will own, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.