Billionaire Kuok Khoon Hong and Perennial Holdings drops S$350M land plot for GCBs after setbacks

SINGAPORE: Developer Perennial Holdings and its non-executive director, palm oil billionaire Kuok Khoon Hong, are seeking to sell a vacant 752,014-sq-ft site in Singapore’s Caldecott Hill enclave, as the company said it is recalibrating its resources to its healthcare business instead of its original plan to redevelop the site to build large Good Class Bungalows (GCBs).

Bloomberg News reported the company’s plans for the site repeatedly hit regulatory hurdles.

Last year, Perennial sought to build a senior and assisted-living facility with a park, but the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) rejected the proposal. A previous attempt by the site’s former owner to build a 550-unit condominium in 2015 was also refused, as authorities said that they would only support developing two-storey bungalows on the land.

Last month, another plan for the site was rejected by authorities, which proposed developing two-storey bungalow plots with at least a land area of 8,611 sq ft. Savills noted the site could accommodate more than 60 such bungalows.

Perennial did not comment on the rejected plans.

According to Bloomberg, corporate filings show Perennial Holdings holds a 40.2% stake, with Kuok controlling half of Perennial and the rest held by Perpetual Capital VCC, backed by a Southeast Asian sovereign wealth fund. Mr Kuok and Wilmar International Ltd, which he chairs, hold almost half of Perennial’s shares.

The site, which the developer acquired from Mediacorp for S$280.9 million in 2020, has a guide price of S$350 million. Delasa and Savills are the appointed agents for the sale through an Expression of Interest (EOI) until January 15, 2026.

Currently, the site is a “blank canvas” following the Mediacorp Caldecott Broadcast Centre’s (CBC’s) demolition, as described by Savills Singapore managing director of investment sales and capital markets, Jeremy Lake.

At the beginning of the year, Perennial saw an opportunity in China’s elderly care market, targeting wealthy Chinese retirees, as Perennial chairman and CEO Pua Seck Guan described the Chinese market as a pie so big, there’s so much room to grow. /TISG

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