Peirce Road GCB jointly owned by Jopie Ong’s sister and kin of Tan Kah Kee being sold for S$148 million

[SINGAPORE] A huge Good Class Bungalow (GCB) property on Peirce Road, jointly owned by the daughter of Metro founder Ong Tjoe Kim and the grandniece of Tan Kah Kee, is in the process of being sold for S$148 million.

The transaction, now at the option stage, would be the biggest GCB deal since a Nassim Road house on a similarly sized plot was sold for S$230 million in 2019.

Documents seen by The Business Times show that an option to buy the 80,447-square-foot freehold plot was granted in early December to Soh Chooi Lai. Also known as Victor Soh, the buyer is a boutique property developer whose Pinnacle Assets has acquired, carved up and redeveloped several landed lots over the years.

The sale price puts the value of the Peirce Road property, held jointly by Tan Huan Gie nee Ong and Tan Cheng Han, at about S$1,840 per square foot (psf) of land.

Tan Huan Gie nee Ong is the daughter of Metro Holdings founder Ong Tjoe Kim and the sister of Jopie Ong, who was the listed company’s longest-serving managing director from 1973 until his death in 2016.

Tan Cheng Han is the daughter of the late Tan Keong Choon, a prominent Chinese business and community leader who was the nephew of Singapore rubber baron and philanthropist Tan Kah Kee.

Tan Keong Choon is credited with introducing innovative processing methods that raised demand for quality rubber exports from Singapore. He was also known as a strong supporter of education in Singapore, following in the footsteps of his uncle, Tan Kah Kee, who founded and supported many Chinese schools in Singapore and Malaysia.

Tan Cheng Han, who is in the business of property development, is a director of SC Land, which owns and manages several projects in Australia.

Along with Tan Huan Gie nee Ong, Tan Beng Tat and Tan Keong Choon, she is listed in business registration filings as a business owner of Nassim Management Services. The firm provides management consultancy, bookkeeping and income tax services for its partners.

Tan Beng Tat previously served as director of the Tan Kah Kee Foundation, established by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce in 1961 in honour of the businessman and philanthropist.

The option to purchase the property in the Peirce Road GCB Area was granted to Soh in early December, and a caveat was lodged.

Soh’s Pinnacle Assets’ property development portfolio ranges from apartments to landed properties, cluster housing and GCBs. The group has recently focused on landed projects, most of which are located in prime District 10.

Its past developments include the 74-unit Adana @ Thomson, located near Lower Pierce Reservoir; the semi-detached housing project East Coast Terrace; and RV Suites @ River Valley, which comprises 96 units of freehold apartments.

In 2023, BT reported that Pinnacle Assets acquired two adjoining freehold plots at 43 and 45 Gentle Road for S$30.89 million, a slight premium over the guide price of S$30 million. With a combined land area of 1,479.3 square metres, the acquisition translates to a land rate of S$1,940 psf.

Pinnacle Assets said at the time that the company planned to develop the sites into landed homes, together with another pair of semi-detached houses along Chancery Lane, which it acquired in June 2023 for S$16.6 million.

In the vicinity, a bungalow in Peirce Hill changed hands in May at S$37 million, or S$2,144 psf on a land area of 17,260 sq ft. The property, which is in the Ridout Park GCB Area, is part of the Peirce Villas project developed by City Developments Ltd.

The highest-value GCB deal closed on record is the 2019 sale of a Nassim Road bungalow for S$230 million.

The property was sold by a private company owned by Wing Tai Holdings chairman Cheng Wai Keung and his wife, Helen. The price works out to S$2,721 per sq ft on the land area of 84,543 sq ft.