Far East Organization Sells Watten Estate Property for S$84.2 Million to Aurum Land, Landed Project Planned

The site at 134 Watten Estate Road houses a three-storey walk-up apartment complex built by Lucky Realty Company, a subsidiary of Far East Organization, in the 1970s. The group has held the property since then, leasing the apartments out.

The sale to Aurum Land, for which a caveat was lodged on 31 August, works out to about S$2,266 per square foot on a total site area of about 37,155 square feet, comprising a plot of about 32,953 sq ft and an adjoining parcel of about 4,202 sq ft.

The deal was brokered by Realstar Premier Group. The property had been marketed for at least six months and drew several offers, with Aurum Land, the boutique property development arm of Woh Hup Group, ultimately emerging as the buyer.

The apartment complex sits on land zoned for mixed-landed housing. The Business Times understands that Aurum plans a landed project on the site.

From January to August this year, some 11 freehold landed properties changed hands in the Watten area, according to the government’s Realis database.

Transactions ranged from S$5.4 million, about S$1,100 psf, for a detached unit in a cluster landed project at Watten Residences, to S$18 million for a semi-detached house on some 8,700 sq ft of land at Watten Estate Road, valuing that property at S$2,064 psf.

Against that range, the S$2,266 psf paid for 134 Watten Estate Road sits above the highest individual landed transaction recorded in the area this year, which is the sort of premium a developer pays for a redevelopment site rather than a finished home.

Located in the prime residential enclave of Bukit Timah, the site at 134 Watten Estate Road is part of the sprawling Watten Estate built up from the 1960s by the late Ng Teng Fong, whose family home, Ng’s Mansion, sits on one corner at the entrance to Watten Estate Road. Spanning over two million sq ft, Watten Estate comprises mostly landed homes.

Far East Organization also built several apartment projects in the neighbourhood, including the 104-unit Watten Estate Condominium on a site at Shelford Road. It was sold in a collective sale to UOL Group for S$550.8 million in 2021. UOL and subsidiary Singapore Land have since developed the site into Watten House, a 180-unit project which sold 57 per cent of its units at an average of about S$3,230 psf when the freehold project was first marketed in November 2023.

Far East Organization continues to hold properties in the Watten and Shelford area for rent.

Aurum Land, run by Michelle Yong whose father Yong Tiam Yoon helms construction conglomerate Woh Hup, has made several acquisitions in recent years.

In 2023, it bought the freehold Kew Lodge at 34 and 36 Kheam Hock Road for S$66.8 million. The 34,433 sq ft plot was redeveloped into eight landed homes, comprising semi-detached, detached and terraced houses.

Its residential portfolio also includes the 117-unit The Hyde in the Balmoral area and the 48-unit The Asana in Bukit Timah. The developer made its first foray into the commercial sector in 2024, when it acquired The Rail Mall in Upper Bukit Timah for S$78.5 million from Paragon real estate investment trust.