Singapore developers still on buying spree

They are snapping up houses that are located just outside the state’s heritage enclave as these properties are not accorded heritage protection by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), according to George Town Heritage Action.
The biggest buyer appears to be World Class Land (WCL), which is building the tallest residential skyscraper in the Southern Hemisphere. Called Australia 108 because of its 108 storeys, the Melbourne development is expected to be completed in 2019.
WCL has since December 2013 reportedly snapped up 236 houses in Penang built before World War II, totalling more than 23,225 square metres – the equivalent of 26 soccer fields.
Recently, it applied to build a 46-storey condominium tower in Gurdwara Road, just 200 metres from the Komtar Tower, Penang’s tallest building, after buying 37 pre-war properties in that area.
Its latest block buy appears to be 26 pre-war houses on Penang Road and Bertam Lane, also across from Komtar.
The properties were owned by six descendants of Tunku Kudin (1835-1909), the great-grand-uncle of the late Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, the first prime minister of Malaysia, for nearly 100 years.
The offer from WCL was about 980 ringgit per square foot (10,550 ringgit per square metre), totalling 21 million ringgit (Bt177 million).
Tengku Abdullah Tengku Mahadi, 61, who collected the monthly rent from the tenants on behalf of his 92-year-old father, said the deal was sealed in Thailand through one of the six heirs who spoke for all of them.
“All the heirs are in their late 80s and 90s. It will cost too much to develop the land ourselves.
“We didn’t really feel like selling. We know the new owner will change the whole place but we are all old and don’t want to stand in the way of development,” he told The Star.
He said the heirs only earned about 50 ringgit per month from each unit when the Rent Control Act was in force.
After it was repealed in 1997, they raised the rent to about 600 ringgit and it had stayed the same since.
WCL lawyers have sent eviction notices to the 60-odd tenants, who have until end November to move out.
A subsidiary of Aspial Corporation, WCL has completed many projects in Singapore and Australia.
Aspial chief executive officer Koh Wee Seng is listed by Forbes this year as the 43rd-richest man in Singapore.
George Town Heritage Action has been vociferously against the Penang state government’s apparent lack of control over the alleged WCL buying sprees.
“This company’s business model is to buy the properties, evict the tenants, renovate or rebuild, and then drastically increase rentals,” said its co-founder, Mark Lay.