Singer Ho Yeow Sun and pastor husband to reap $2.3m in en bloc sale

Singer Ho Yeow Sun and pastor husband to reap $2.3m in en bloc sale

By Janice Wong - Apr 9, 2007

AsiaOne

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Local singer Ho Yeow Sun and her husband, Reverend Kong Hee, will likely receive a $2.32 million bonaza from the proposed en bloc sale of their upmarket condo home in Leonie Hill, which they bought in 2000.

The 210-unit Horizon Towers is applying to be sold to a consortium in the next two weeks.

Given that 83 per cent of the owners, including Ms Sun and Rev Kong, have agreed to the sale, the deal is likely to go through, unless the minority owners of 34 units succeed in blocking it. Those resisting the deal include Far East Land & Housing Development Company which owns six units.

The law requires consensus from at least 80 per cent of shareowners before a sale can go through.

Horizon Towers, occupying a prime residential site off Orchard Road, will be sold to Hotel Properties and two foreign funds for $500 million. It will be the second largest en bloc transaction in terms of absolute dollar quantum, after Gillman Heights, which is in the suburbs.

The price reflects a unit land price of about $810 to $820 per square foot of potential gross floor area, inclusive of an estimated $45 million to $50 million lease upgrading premium to top up the 204,742 sq ft site's lease to 99 years from a remaining term of about 71 years.

Ms Ho and Rev Kong, who is City Harvest Church founder, have been living there with their 2 1/2-year-old son, Dayan, since 2000. They moved into the 28-year-old condo unit after selling their five-room Tampines HDB flat.

Rev Kong told The New Paper in 2000 that they like the privacy that the personal lift lobby provides, as well as the spacious 2,650 sq ft apartment, which has two living rooms, four bedrooms and a compact kitchen.

He declined to say how much he paid for the apartment, but a similar unit was sold for $1.1 million in 2004, according to URA. Records show that they took a bank loan and dipped into their CPF. Rev Kong said that he made a handsome profit from the sale of their Tampines flat which went into settling the downpayment.

"We bought our flat for $127,000 and sold it at $420,000, so when we moved in to the condo unit, it cost me nothing," he told TNP.

Although the exterior of the apartment looks rather aged, being almost 28 years old, the interior of their home was described as being straight out of a glossy magazine, complete with a walk-in wardrobe and designer furniture.

After the en bloc, the site can be redeveloped into a new condo with a plot ratio of 3.2828. This means the site can be redeveloped into a condo with a gross floor area of more than 670,000 sq ft - sufficient for about 375 units averaging 1,800 sq ft. The break-even cost for a new upmarket condo project on the site is estimated to be about $1,350 psf.