A restored three-storey shophouse at the corner of Trengganu and Temple streets, often featured as an icon of Singapore’s Chinatown area

A restored three-storey shophouse at the corner of Trengganu and Temple streets, often featured as an icon of Singapore’s Chinatown area, has been put up for auction.

The owner’s indicative price is $3 million for the property, which is on a site with a remaining lease of 65 years. This works out to $4,274 per square foot based on the property’s 702 sq ft land area.

That sounds steep, considering that No 20 Trengganu Street nearby, comprising seven shophouses also with a remaining lease of 65 years, was sold earlier this year for $18 million, or $1,722 psf of land area, to Asok Kumar of Royal Brothers Group.

That property has a total land area of about 10,450 sq ft and a total lettable area of nearly 24,000 sq ft.

However, Knight Frank’s auctions director Mary Sai, whose firm is offering 15 Trengganu Street at its auction at Carlton Hotel on Nov 22, points to the property’s aesthetic appeal, with intricate arches and columns, and its historical background - it was an opera house in the 1930s/1940s.

‘It also has dual frontage along Trengganu Street and Temple Street,’ Ms Sai says.

The property is being put up for sale by its owner, a local businessman active in the Chinatown circle.

He occupies the building’s upper floors, according to Ms Sai. He will vacate the property for the new owner, although he has leased out the ground floor to a tenant until September 2008.

The property has about 2,200 sq ft of floor area.

Knight Frank is also offering at the same auction a two-storey pre-war intermediate terrace house at Lorong 40 Geylang. The freehold property has been put up for auction by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore to recover outstanding property taxes.

The property has the address Nos 17 and 17A Lorong 40 Geylang. No 17A is the second storey, which is served by a separate external staircase.

The property’s land area is 1,392 sq ft.

Knight Frank, which points out that the property is not part of the Geylang red light district, says the indicative price is $700,000 to $750,000. Surrounding uses include residential and associations.

IRAS auctions off properties only as a last resort to recover property tax - after the owner repeatedly fails to pay or defaults on his payment despite many reminders. IRAS will return any balance on the sum received to the owner, after recovering outstanding tax, penalty payment, interest, and the cost of recovery.

Source : Business Times - 6 Nov 2007