Good Class Bungalows (GCBs) are a hot commodity among tech entrepreneurs in the city-state, who are snapping up the exclusive properties amid an escalation in GCB prices.
Singaporean Chew Shou Zi, CEO of Chinese video sharing application TikTok is in the early stages of purchasing a 31,800 square foot property located in GCB district Queen Astrid Park, «The Business Times» reported on Friday.
Chew, 39, was appointed CEO in May, is expected to redevelop the 999-year leasehold property that costs S$86 million ($63.53 million), or $2,700 per square foot, the report (behind paywall) said.
The former investment banker worked for Goldman Sachs in 2006 to 2008 before moving on to DST Investment Management, where he was a partner from 2010 to 2015. He joined Xiaomi as its chief financial officer in 2015, and moved to TikTok parent company Bytedance in March 2021 as chief financial officer before being named CEO three months later.
Hot Commodities
The purchase follows similar purchases in recent months by Grab CEO and cofounder Anthony Tan and Ian Ang, co-founder of Temasek-backed gaming chair company SecretLab.
Tan splashed out S$40 million on a GCB in neighbouring Bin Tong Park in a deal completed earlier in July, while Ang bought a S$36 million GCB in the Caldecott Hill Estate and a S$15 million penthouse at Leedon Residence in June.
According to Sotheby's International Realty, there have been 53 deals in GCB areas totalling nearly S$1.4 billion in the first half of 2021, surpassing the 46 deals that took place over the whole of 2020. The luxury realtor cited stock market gains, low interest rates, and a rise in the number of affluent families who are working from home as behind the boom.
Exclusive Properties
According to property website «PropertyGuru,» there are around 2,700 GCBs in Singapore, a country in which 90 percent of the population lives in high-rise public housing.
To be classed as a GCB, the site must be at least 15,000 square feet, with the property occupying at most 40 percent of the land area not more than two storeys high, and located within one of 39 gazetted areas. Typically, only Singaporeans are allowed to purchase such properties.
Big names who reportedly own GCBs in Singapore include Chinese superstar entrepreneur Jack Ma, whose wife is believed to be Singapore citizen, British billionaire inventor James Dyson, and Alibaba co-founder James Sheng.
