Oxley Land unit buys stake in owner of Devonshire site

Redevelopment could yield about 120 units averaging 300 sq ft each

GOLDEN Flower Group, controlled by the family of Indonesian businessman Nico Po, has sold a majority stake in the company that owns a residential site at 55 Devonshire Road. The buyer is an an associate company of Oxley Land.

The deal is understood to have valued the freehold site at about $1,380 per sq ft per plot ratio inclusive of an estimated development charge of under $2 million.

Working backwards, analysts estimate the lump-sum value of the site would be about $50 million for the transaction.

Golden Flower paid $42 million for the site in 2007.

The 13,404 sq ft plot, which is now bare, formerly housed Mayer Mansion, a 10-unit apartment development.

The plot is zoned for residential use with 2.8 plot ratio - the ratio of maximum potential gross floor area to land area - under Master Plan 2008.

Buyer Oxley, which is controlled by Ching Chiat Kwong, was in the news last year when it launched Suites@Guillemard, featuring what is believed to be Singapore's smallest apartment unit at 258 sq ft.

Since then, the authorities have been approving development applications with apartment components only if the apartments are at least 300 sq ft each, according a BT report last October.

Oxley could redevelop the 55 Devonshire site into a new project with about 120 units averaging 300 sq ft.

The sale of 55 Devonshire was done through a private treaty deal brokered by DTZ.

In a separate transaction, Knight Frank last week sold at auction a property comprising six adjoining freehold shophouses in Desker Road in the Jalan Besar conservation area at $10.3 million.

The freehold shophouses have two storeys and attics.

The seller, believed to be Claremont Group, operates a 25-room hotel on the second and attic floors.

The hotel will close as Claremont has undertaken to give the new owner vacant possession of the second floor and attics along with the ground floor of one of the units, which serves as the hotel's entrance and lobby.

The other five ground- floor shop lots are tenanted with leases expiring at various times from year-end to June 2011.

The six shophouses have a combined land area of 6,664 sq ft and a total gross floor area of 11,500 sq ft.

Source: Business Times, 3 Aug 2010