Greater Shophouses Up For Sale In Tanjong Pagar, East Coast and Geylang

Keihan Real Estate dispatches Osaka’s The High Horie in Singapore

With strong demand seen for shophouses last year, the start of 2020 saw the latest slew of these invetment properties up for sale.

A pair of conservation shophouses along Tras Street at Tanjong Pagar is around the market with a direct price of $12 million to its larger land and $10.8 million to the smaller unit. This works out to about $2,800 per square foot (sq feet ) for each shophouse, only marketing agent CBRE announced on Tuesday (Jan 7).

The larger shophouse has a land area of about 1,494 square feet (sq feet ) and total ground area of about 4,257 sq feet, whereas the smaller unit has a land area of about 1,298 sq feet and total ground area of about 3,852 sq ft.

They are a brief walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT Station, and are fully leased to food and beverage operators around the floor and”soho” or small office/home office customers on the top floors, said CBRE.

Present transactions of 99-year leasehold shophouses comprise 34, 36 and 38 Tanjong Pagar Road, that have been sold together in December 2019 at about $16.4 million or about $3,000 per sq feet; and 76 Pagoda Street, that offered in July 2019 at $13.3 million or $3,500 per sq feet, added CBRE.

Clemence Lee, senior manager of capital markets at CBRE, said that investors’ interest has started to change to”well-located 99-year leasehold shophouses that are thought to provide better value and greater yields”, on the back of increasing prices for 999-year or freehold central business district shophouses.

The 2 shophouses can be purchased individually or together, and are on sale via an expression of interest exercise that closes on Feb 12 at 3pm.

Their direct prices start from $9.9 million to its East Coast shophouse and out of $4.98 million to its Geylang home, marketing agent PropNex Realty said on Tuesday.

The exercise for the two possessions closes at 3pm on Jan 30.

The shophouse on 711 East Coast Road also has a student hostel permit, which allows accommodation facilities for students studying in local primary schools, secondary schools and junior schools, PropNex said.

The four-storey house has a land area of 2,491 square feet (sq feet ) and a total floor area of about 7,670 sq ft. it’s zoned for residential and commercial use on the ground floor.

The East Coast shophouse is leased to a retail store on the ground floor and into a student hostel operator on the top floors. The nearest MRT station is your forthcoming Siglap station on the Thomson-East Coast Line.

PropNex associate division manager Loyalle Chin said:”Having an appealing rental return of more than 3 percent and a very low per-square-foot (psf) price of around $1,300 psf, this asset will be considered by high-net-worth individuals with an eye for undervalued investments, as well as family boutique real estate players trying to expand into hospitality”

It has a present plot ratio of approximately 1.8 and an allowable gross plot ratio of 3.0, which provides it redevelopment potential.

The two-storey shophouse has complete tenancy, using its floor storey approved for food and beverage operations using a liquor permit, while the top floor is used for home. It’s zoned for residential and institutional use.

The rental return of 4.5 percent for its Geylang shophouse is one of the greatest across shophouses in Singapore, Mr Chin said. He noticed that the rental return for a freehold or 999-year leasehold shophouse is typically between 1.8 percent and 2.5 percent.

The house’s owner is expecting to”sell fast” as the family is trying to divest the asset for personal reasons, Mr Chin said.

Located at the intersection of Sims Avenue and Geylang Lorong 11, the shophouse is about a 600-metre walk into Kallang MRT Station on the East-West Line.