Knight Frank Singapore CEO Galven Tan resigns after 2.5 years at helm

[SINGAPORE] Real estate veteran Galven Tan has stepped down as CEO of Knight Frank Singapore after two and a half years, with his deputy Low Kin Hon taking over as interim CEO with immediate effect.

Tan resigned to pursue new opportunities, the property consultancy said.

Low has assumed day-to-day leadership of the Singapore business, while Craig Shute, CEO of Knight Frank Asia-Pacific, will continue to provide oversight to ensure continuity for the firm’s people and clients.

In response to queries from The Business Times, Shute said Tan is working with Low on the handover before commencing gardening leave, as part of what Shute described as an orderly transition.

Tan’s sudden resignation came as a shock to peers in the Singapore real estate industry, although some talk of his leaving had been circulating for a few months.

The departure follows an announcement from the firm on Monday (Jul 27) that it was shutting down its associated real estate agency business Knight Frank Property Network (KFPN). It inked an agreement with OrangeTee & Tie to allow its KFPN salespersons to move over.

Tan’s exit, 2 1/2 years after he joined Knight Frank from Savills Singapore, comes in the wake of the firm’s London-based parent taking full control after buying out its Singapore partner AF Global’s 55 per cent stake for S$36 million in 2025.

AF Global is majority-owned by the Koh family behind Fragrance Group.

Tan left a high-flying capital markets team at Savills Singapore, where he was deputy managing director of investment sales and capital markets, to take up a role vacated by Wendy Tang when she left Knight Frank as group managing director in November 2022.

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Several other key business leaders in the firm have left in the last two years.

Among them were Daniel Ding, who joined Knight Frank Singapore in 2019 as head of capital markets (land and buildings, international real estate) and left after five years, and Chia Mein Mein, who rejoined the firm in 2022 as head of capital markets (land and collective sale) before departing in early 2025.

At end-2025, Knight Frank Singapore’s head of retail Ethan Hsu left the firm after nearly six years to establish his own boutique retail consultancy and real estate firm Catbird Singapore.

The company also retrenched “a small number” of roles in marketing and communications earlier this year, saying the roles were affected by a broader strategic integration of its Singapore and Asia-Pacific teams, undertaken “to operate more effectively and to improve collaboration”.

Asked if Tan’s departure was linked to the performance of the Singapore business over the last two years, Shute said it was not. “Galven has decided to pursue new opportunities, and we respect his decision,” he said.

There had been no recent senior departures, he added, and the firm has no plans for further leadership changes.