Forrest Li’s wife purchases a bungalow on Gallop Road next to one that he has renovated
Ma Liqian buys the property of Kidney Dialysis Foundation founder Gordon Ku’s children.
Forrest Li, the boss of SEA Ltd, is expanding the presence of his family in the Good Class Bungalows (GCB) Market in Gallop Road, near the Singapore Botanic Garden.
Ma Liqian is buying a S$42.5million old bungalow right next to Li’s nearly completed renovation. Both properties are located on freehold property. Ma’s price is S$2,544 a square foot on a land area of 16703 square feet. The site features a long drive. The couple is a Singaporean citizen.
Li paid S$26m or S$1,722 per square foot in December 2018 for an old bungalow on a site of 15,100 sq ft. The bungalow has been converted into a detached two-storey house with a basement and an attic, as well as a swimming pool.
Ma buys the property from the Children of Gordon Ku, the deceased kidney doctor who founded Kidney Dialysis Foundation. Dr Ku passed away in February 2023.
The two bungalows are located in the Gallop Road/Woollerton park GCB Area
Sea, a New York-listed company, was founded by Li in his forties. He is also the chairman, chief executive and founder of Sea.
Li started Sea with Garena in 2009, an online gaming company he founded. Later, the e-commerce platform Shopee as well as digital financial services unit SeaMoney was added. Sea was listed at the New York Stock Exchange as of 2017.
Sea announced in March of this year that it had achieved its first profit year ever, earning US$162.7 millions for 2023. This was a turnaround from the loss of US$1.7 Billion in 2022. This was below analysts’ expectations of US$301.7million.
The revenue for the period increased by 4.9 percent to US$13.1 Billion from US$12.4 Billion a year earlier, surpassing analysts’ expectations of US$12.9 Billion.
Shopee, the e-commerce division of Alibaba, booked profits in the first two quarters 2023. The e-commerce revenue in 2023 increased by 23,5% to US$9 Billion from US$7.3 Billion in 2022. The unit suffered a loss for the year of US$550.5 Million.
Li, a Tianjin native, has a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University. After completing his MBA at Stanford University, he moved to Singapore. He was named Businessman for the Year 2019/2020 in the 35th Singapore Business Awards, organized by The Business Times & DHL Express Singapore.
The self-made billionaire stated in his acceptance speech: “Singapore welcomed me when I was nothing. I had no savings and was owed a hundred thousand dollar in student loans when I arrived. “My wife and I were only able to rent one room in a three bedroom HDB flat located in Braddell.”
The 39 gazetted GCB Areas, which are Singapore’s most exclusive landed housing form, have strict planning requirements to maintain their exclusivity and character. The minimum size of a plot for newly built bungalows within GCB Areas is 1,400 sq m or 15,070 square feet.
Owning one of the 2,700 properties is a “rare” opportunity
In general, one must be a Singaporean citizen in order to purchase a landed estate within a GCB Area.
A house in Cornwall Gardens, which is a little over S$36m, is another recent GCB transaction that was completed this year. The price is S$1,875 psf for the 19,207 sq ft of land. According to market watchers, about 10 to 15% of the land will be required as road reserves and must be handed over to the government upon redevelopment. The buyer, a Singaporean woman in her 30s who works in early childcare and education, is also a Singaporean. The purchase option was exercised in this month. The deal began around the middle of 2023.
Bloomberg recently reported that the youngest child, Wee Ee-Cheong, chief executive of UOB, is purchasing a bungalow in Ford Avenue for S$39.5M. The land area is 19,554 square feet. This works out to S$2,020 per square foot.
Other deals in this year include the sale of a bungalow on Gallop Park Road for S$26.5m or S$2,059 per square foot on a land area of 12,870sqft and a Garlick Avenue property that sold for S$19.5m or S$1,885 per square foot on 10,345sqft.
According to List Sotheby’s International Realty’s analysis of URA Realis caveats, seven deals totaling nearly S$200,000,000 have been transacted in GCB Areas so far this season. Last year, 18 transactions totaling S$432.5m were recorded.
There are also some transactions for which the buyers have not filed caveats.
This figure is estimated at S$700m for 2023. Four bungalows on Nassim Road were purchased for nearly S$295m by the Fangiono Family, behind Singapore palm oil producer First Resources.
