8M Real Estate buys island block of 5 shophouses in Jalan Besar for S$40m
The 999-year leasehold property is connected via a covered walkway to an underground pedestrian link to the Jalan Besar MRT station
Kalpana Rashiwala
SINGAPORE-BASED real estate investment company 8M Real Estate is buying an island block of 5 adjoining conserved shophouses along Jalan Besar, literally a stone’s throw from Jalan Besar MRT station, for S$40 million.
The 3-storey properties, located within the Little India Conservation Area, are on 6,584 square feet of land with 999-year leasehold tenure from October 1926. Standing at the corner of Jalan Besar and Veerasamy Road, the shophouses are fully leased to retail and office tenants.
The properties are being sold by Teo Siok Guan (Private) Limited, which is currently in liquidation (members’ voluntary winding up) based on information from data platform Handshakes. The company is named after the late Teo Siok Guan, who owned Guan Hoe Company (Malaya), once located along Hill Street. It was well-known as the sole agents for Suzuki Motorcycles in Singapore and Malaya in the 1960s, according to the Rojak Librarian blog. He died in May 1957.
Teo Siok Guan (Private) Limited also used to own shophouses in Joo Chiat Place, Tembeling Road and Killiney Road, which have already been sold.
The sale of the 5 shophouses along Jalan Besar was brokered by Simon Monteiro of List Sotheby’s International Realty.
8M is expected to pump in S$3 million to S$5 million to spruce up the asset. Market observers suggest that the group could look to convert the shophouses to a hotel, serviced apartments or other forms of accommodation.
When contacted by The Business Times, 8M founder and chief executive Ashish Manchharam highlighted the property’s prime location. The transaction is 8M’s first acquisition in more than a year. Its previous purchase, in January 2021, was of 3 adjoining properties at 8, 9 and 10 Craig Road for S$29.28 million from Hong Kong-based Harilela Group.
“This island block of 5 shophouses in Jalan Besar has unique architectural characteristics dating back to the late 1920s, and is connected via a covered walkway to an underground pedestrian link to the Jalan Besar MRT station. This marks our second acquisition in Little India since we bought Wanderlust hotel along Dickson Road in 2018,” Manchharam added.
8M paid S$37 million for the freehold, 4-storey conserved hotel and expended a further S$3 million to refurbish it.
“We are confident of prospects for the Little India area because of growing demand from tenants and operators as the area transforms following completion of new infrastructure developments such as MRT stations and upcoming residential projects,” said Manchharam.
He noted that the Jalan Besar shophouse block the group is buying is also diagonally opposite the Housing Board’s maiden prime location public housing project, River Peaks I and II, which will come up on 2 plots of land along Weld Road and Kelantan Road, next to Jalan Besar MRT station. The project will have 960 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats spread across 6 blocks, each 47 storeys high. One of the blocks will include some rentals flats. The project is slated for completion in 2028.
8M Real Estate, which Manchharam set up in 2014 with some foreign institutional investors, owns a portfolio of more than 60 properties worth a total of over S$1 billion in Singapore, comprising predominantly conserved shophouses. These are mostly in Districts 1 and 2 in locales such as Boat Quay, New Bridge Road, South Bridge Road, Amoy Street, Gemmill Lane, Duxton Hill and Keong Saik Road.
