Portfolio of 32 strata office units at Manhattan House sold for $14.79 mil
Located in the CBD fringe, Manhattan House is inside walking range of the Chinatown MRT Interchange Station on the Downtown and North East Lines. It is likewise beside Pearl’s Hill City Park.
Manhattan House has an overall of 269 strata office units. The 99-year leasehold structure was completed in 1976. It was first sold for collective sale in September 2019 for $300 million. In January 2023, a second cumulative sale attempt was made at a reserve price of $280 million with JLL as the advertising company. Nevertheless, there were no takers at the time.
Swee Shou Fern, head of investment advisory at ETC, that realtored the sale, says that the 32 strata office units were acquired “for financial investment”. Nevertheless, she declined to discuss the purchaser.
A portfolio of 32 strata office units on the 3rd floor of Manhattan House, a 16-storey commercial building on Chin Swee Road. Based on warnings lodged, the 32 units were sold for a sum total of $14.793 million or a typical price of $783 psf, based on caveats lodged as of August 5.
The commercial building has a 99-year contract with effect from 1969. Hence, it has 43 standing years. Based on latest postings, every month asking rents for units vary from $3.16 psf to $4.02 psf.
The units are part of a portfolio of 33 strata office units that were launched for sale last October by outstanding marketing agency ETC. The overview rate was after that $24.5 million. The units sold variety from 323 sq ft to 850 sq ft. Based upon the overall strata area of 19,547 sq ft, the guide cost worked out to $1,250 psf.
The purchasers are most likely to be investors, hoping to take a placement in the event of an effective en bloc sale of the property later on. The units on the 3rd floor manage 9% of the complete strata area of the establishment, and 13% of the total share worth.
Under the 2019 Master Plan, the 4167.7 sq m (44,861 sq ft) site is zoned “commercial” with a gross plot ratio of 4.7. However, URA has indicated that the site might be rezoned to “non commercial with retail at first storey”, with a significant part of the site allowed for a residential tower of approximately 30 storeys with an optimum gross floor location of around 21,000 sq m (226,044 sq ft).
The office units seem to have been offered in two sets, with 16 settled for a total of $7.531 million on June 27, and an additional 16 units on July 4 for $7.262 million.
Based upon real property title searches, the buyer of the strata units is Abwin (HP) Pte Ltd, an entity associated to among the leading secondhand car suppliers in Singapore, which also offers motor financing and hire purchase.
