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Hind Group has sold 10 adjoining freehold conservation shophouses, home to its 79-room boutique hotel Naumi Liora (pictured), in Chinatown to 8M Real Estate, reported the Business Times.
47 to 65 Keong Saik Road is said to have been sold for around $75 million to $76 million, or around $2,800 psf based on its gross floor area (GFA) of about 27,000 sq ft.
Commenting, Surya Jhunjhnuwala, Founder and Managing Director of Hind Group, said: “Our current strategy, going forward, is to focus on what Naumi does best – offering a bespoke luxury experience…We now find that Liora does not fit into this mould, and as a group, we will be focusing on expanding to properties that can fulfil this.”
Meanwhile, 8M Real Estate has revealed plans to convert the ground floor level of the shophouse units into F&B outlets.
“We want the entire ground level of this asset as F&B outlets because this provides higher value from a rental perspective. Keong Saik is an established F&B location and we plan to curate new concepts to enhance the area’s pull,” said 8M Real Estate Founder Ashish Manchharam.
The upper levels, on the other hand, could remain as a hotel or be transformed into offices, he added.
The property investment firm had acquired three adjoining shophouses at 28, 30 and 32 Ann Siang Road for $52 million in April, as well as three adjoining shophouses along Boat Quay for about $32 million to $33 million.
Including the latest acquisition, 8M Real Estate’s portfolio of shophouses is now worth over $400 million.
CBRE Research’s analysis of URA Realis data as at 7 June showed that 49 caveats worth $369 million were lodged for shophouse acquisitions during the first five months of 2017.
The figure, however, excludes transactions for which the buyers have not lodged caveats, such as the case of those involving share of sales in companies holding the shophouses.
“Shophouse sales volumes and transaction values continue to hold, reflecting sustained interest in this niche asset class. Shophouses continue to be sought after due to their limited supply,” said Sammi Lim, CBRE Director of Capital Markets.
With buyers including local and foreign ultra-high-net-worth investors as well as family funds, the pool of “serious investors exploring this asset class will widen further with the entry of more boutique institutional funds exploring shophouses to add to their portfolio for diversification”, she added.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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