http://www.straitstimes.com/Money/St...ry_823008.html

Former crocodile farm site put up for sale

Published on Jul 17, 2012

By MELISSA TAN


THE family home and farm of the late tycoon Tan Gna Chua - best known for his crocodile farm - have been put up for sale by his estate.

The freehold site in Upper Serangoon consists of two adjacent plots. One is a 20,228 sq ft site at 1 Surin Avenue with a vacant two-storey detached house.

The other is a 22,618 sq ft site at 790 Upper Serangoon Road, formerly the Singapore Crocodile Farm which Mr Tan, also known as Tan Kiam Poh, founded in 1945.

Mr Tan died in 2000 at the age of 85. A dispute over his estate ended in late 2009 with it being split between his second wife and his seven children (six from first wife).

The bid price for the site could be around $40 million plus a $6.1 million development charge, or $934 psf, according to Ms Tang Wei Leng, executive director of investment services at Colliers International, which launched the sale. It is zoned for mixed landed housing. This means developers can build any form of landed housing such as bungalows, and semi-detached and terrace houses. Townhouses, strata bungalows and cluster houses are also permitted.

The site could accommodate 26 units of cluster terrace houses of between 3,500 and 5,000 sq ft each, said Ms Tang.

She added that new cluster developments can typically get rental yields from 4 per cent to 5 per cent, compared with 3 per cent for conventional landed housing.

The site is near the Kovan and Serangoon MRT stations and shopping centres such as Heartland Mall and nex in Serangoon.

Another freehold site, Kismis Lodge in Bukit Timah, is up for collective sale. This is the first time the 70,283 sq ft site off Toh Tuck Road has been put up for sale. It is zoned for three-storey mixed landed housing.

It could be redeveloped into as many as 43 strata terrace houses or 32 strata semi-detached houses, said Ms Yong Choon Fah, executive director of Credo Real Estate, the marketing agent. 'Responses to such large mixed landed housing sites have generally been good as they are not easily available in the market,' she added.

The owners of the 64 units of walk-up apartments at Kismis Lodge expect bids from around $1,281 psf to $1,352 psf, Credo Real Estate said, which would reap each owner from $1.4 million to $1.48 million.

Nearby amenities include the upcoming Beauty World MRT station, expected to be operational in 2015, and shopping centres such as Bukit Timah Plaza.

Tenders for both sites close on Aug 15.

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