Entrepreneurs riding digital economy boom snap up bungalows in Singapore

Strong valuations backing tech businesses and firms riding the digital economy here have also driven up interest in the Good Class Bungalow (GCB) market.

These recent deals brokered in the GCB scene make this point.

Secretlab

According to various media reports, Ian Ang, the co-founder of the gaming chair firm Secretlab, is ploughing S$51 million in just a week on two luxury properties - a GCB in Caldecott Hill and a penthouse near the Botanic Gardens.

The 28-year-old started Secretlab in 2015 with fellow co-founder Alaric Choo.

Secretlab sold its millionth chair last year and has grown 30 times from three years ago.

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Not only did it record yet another year of significant year-on-year growth, its pre-tax earnings also “exploded” multi-fold, BT reported early this year.

Stamped.io

A local tech entrepreneur in his thirties, who recently sold a startup firm, was reported in May to be in the early stages of buying a freehold bungalow under construction along Cluny Hill for S$63.7 million.

Due diligence by The Business Times then suggested that the buyer may be Tommy Ong, who entered into a deal in March to sell the Singapore-based e-commerce marketing platform Stamped.io to Canada-listed WeCommerce Holdings for up to US$110 million.

The S$4,291 psf price for the Cluny Hill property exceeds the S$4,005 psf high set just in March for an existing bungalow in Nassim Road purchased by the wife of Nanofilm Technologies founder Shi Xu. That property has a much larger land area of 32,159 sq ft.

Nanofilm Technologies

In March, a bungalow in Nassim Road sold for S$128.8 million on the freehold land area of 32,159 sq ft.

The buyer is Jin Xiao Qun, the wife of Nanofilm Technologies International founder and executive chairman Shi Xu.

Nanofilm Technologies was listed on the Singapore bourse last October. Since its IPO, the stock has gained 88.7 per cent.