A conservation bungalow at 781 Mountbatten Road is going under the hammer on June 29 with an indicative price of $10 million.

A conservation bungalow at 781 Mountbatten Road is going under the hammer on June 29 with an indicative price of $10 million.

The freehold property has a land area of 20,222 square feet and the single-level bungalow with an outbuilding has a total floor area of 3,444 sq ft.

The main building has five bedrooms, while the outbuilding has two bedrooms.

‘The existing bungalow has to be restored but there’s sufficient vacant land for the new owner to build additional residential buildings,’ said Knight Frank auctioneer Mary Sai, who is handling the sale of the property that has been offered by the administrator of the estate of Teo Koh Seng, also known as Teo Keng Seng.

Ms Sai drew a parallel between 781 Mountbatten Road and Simon Cheong’s ‘5 Legends of Mountbatten’ development.

Mr Cheong bought the 55,000 sq ft sprawling grounds on which Chansville - the former home of the late champion swimming trainer Chan Ah Kow - was located, at 745 Mountbatten Road, for $11.05 million in 2004.

He restored Chansville and built four more new bungalows on vacant space on the property.

All five bungalows have been sold. Chansville, with a 22,979 sq ft land area, fetched $13 million or $566 psf. The other four bungalows fetched between $5.1 million and $6.3 million, or $619 to $965 psf.

Chansville was sold this year while most of the other four houses were sold last year. All five bungalows are two-storeys high, have roof terraces and come with pools in lush landscaping.

The project was designed by award-winning architect Mok Wei Wei of W Architect.

781 Mountbatten Road is classified as an ‘Early Bungalow’ characterised by a simple facade and a building constructed on brick piers.

The property, like Chansville, is one of just 15 bungalows along Mountbatten Road gazetted for conservation by the Urban Redevelopment Authority in 1993.

Knight Frank could not confirm just how old 781 Mountbatten Road is but an index of lands register shows that the earliest entry for the property, at the time with an address of 785 Grove Road, was in 1927.

Names of parties registered include Charles James Lacey, Robert Dunman, Meyer-Hyeem Sassoon, and Richard Lake.

Sometime in the 1950s, ownership of the bungalow passed into the hands of Mr Teo. The property is currently being sold by the administrator of his estate. Knight Frank’s June 29 auction at Carlton Hotel begins at 2.30 pm.

Source: The Business Times, 21 June 2007