Two separate transactions landed in the same week — a freehold Sembawang site testing the collective sale market at S$130m, and a completed S$578m acquisition on Thomson Lane that'll bring a new condo to the Novena/Toa Payoh area. Neither is directly related, but both tell you something about where redevelopment appetite is right now.
Two unrelated but noteworthy deals surfaced this week. Hong Heng Garden, a freehold 27-unit development at 33 Sembawang Road, has been launched for collective sale at a S$130 million reserve price — its first attempt at a sale. Separately, a joint venture led by Sustained Land has completed a S$578 million purchase of 8 Thomson Lane, with in-principle approval from URA to redevelop the site into a large residential project near Novena.
Hong Heng Garden, a freehold residential site at 33 Sembawang Road, has been put on the market with a reserve price of S$130 million. Completed in 1987, the development comprises 27 residential units plus four retail units on the ground floor, sitting on an 87,545 sq ft site zoned for residential use under the URA's 2025 Master Plan, with a gross plot ratio of 1.4 and an estimated total gross floor area of about 122,563 sq ft.
Marketing agent ETC of Realion Group put the land rate at S$1,128 per square foot per plot ratio, a figure that includes a 7% bonus gross floor area allowance and a land betterment charge of around S$18 million. Based on an average unit size of 85 square metres, the site is estimated to yield up to 133 new private homes — nearly five times its current unit count. Individual owners stand to receive between S$2.1 million and S$14.7 million, depending on the size of their unit.
Swee Shou Fern, ETC's head of investment advisory, called the timing "opportune," pointing to strong demand for suburban homes from both owner-occupiers and upgraders — citing the nearby Springleaf Residence, which sold 92% of its 941 units at an average of S$2,175 psf over its launch weekend in August 2025. She also noted that reasonably-sized freehold sites remain scarce in Singapore, making 33 Sembawang Road a comparatively rare opportunity for developers looking to replenish their landbank.
Worth noting: caveats data shows just six residential transactions at Hong Heng Garden over the past decade — a thin trading history, with the most recent being a 2,067 sq ft unit sold for S$1.8 million (S$856 psf) back in September 2022. In the broader Upper Thomson and Springleaf area, new non-landed private homes have recorded a median price of S$2,356 psf year-to-date, alongside S$1,499 psf for resale transactions and S$2,413 psf for sub-sales — all of which the agent's pitch will likely lean on to justify the reserve price.
Separately, a joint venture led by developer Sustained Land is buying a site at 8 Thomson Lane for S$578 million from an entity linked to the family of the late OCBC founding father Lee Kong Chian. According to a caveat lodged on 11 August, the site was sold with a 105-year leasehold tenure carved out of the freehold title on the land.
The site spans 203,000 sq ft and is currently zoned for hotel use under the URA's 2025 Master Plan, with a base gross plot ratio of 2.1. Sustained Land has already received in-principle approval from URA to redevelop the site for residential use at a gross plot ratio of up to 3.5 — a significant uplift. With the higher plot ratio plus a 10% bonus gross floor area allowance, the site could potentially yield about 781,800 sq ft of GFA, or more than 770 residential units.
A land betterment charge estimated at S$436 million brings the total cost of the acquisition to more than S$1 billion, or roughly S$1,293 per square foot per plot ratio. Sustained Land is undertaking the purchase with construction group Kay Lim Realty, and holds the majority stake in the joint venture. The developer's other recent projects include Tanjong Pagar and The Sen, a 347-unit condominium in Upper Bukit Timah that launched in late 2025.
8 Thomson Lane has a genuinely colourful past for a Singapore property site. A colonial-style bungalow dating back to at least the 1940s once stood there, serving as an early base for Redemptorist priests before becoming the Chequers Hotel — a venue that enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s and 60s before eventually closing in 1985. It was later transformed into the Celebrities Resort Club, a venture started by former actor Lin Yisheng and two partners that was billed as an ambitious hot spot for local celebrities but never quite took off.
In 2014, EtonHouse International School opened a campus at the site, operating there for about nine years until its closure in 2023. Plans submitted in 2025 for a commercial development — comprising a four-storey podium and a 28-storey office tower with medical suites — were rejected by URA, as the proposed use didn't align with the site's predominantly residential planning intention, which is presumably how it ended up back on the market for residential redevelopment instead.
Interesting coincidence: both deals in this piece trace back to the same historic family. Hong Heng Garden's article doesn't name a seller family, but our earlier Kallang Distripark piece involved entities linked to Lee Rubber Company — founded by Lee Kong Chian — and 8 Thomson Lane was bought from an entity linked to the same Lee family's OCBC lineage. A reminder that a lot of Singapore's older, well-located private land still traces back to a small number of historic family holdings now gradually being unlocked for redevelopment.
8 Thomson Lane sits in District 11, tucked between Novena and Toa Payoh, close to Singapore Polo Club, SJI International, and CHIJ Secondary Toa Payoh, and within walking distance of the future Mount Pleasant MRT station. It's also near the upcoming Mount Pleasant housing estate — a 33-hectare site expected to yield about 6,000 public housing units across four BTO projects — meaning this pocket of District 11 is set for a genuine wave of new residents over the coming years, not just this one condo.
Hong Heng Garden's location plays into the broader Upper Thomson / Springleaf corridor's ongoing transformation from an older, lower-density suburb into a more actively developed private housing belt — a trend Springleaf Residence's strong launch weekend last year already signalled.
Neither of these deals is a "must-watch" for the average buyer today — Hong Heng Garden is only just starting its sale process, and 8 Thomson Lane won't see a launch for a while yet given the scale of the redevelopment involved. But together they're a useful signal: freehold sites, even smaller ones like Hong Heng Garden's 27 units, are attracting real marketing effort right now, and developers are clearly willing to pay a meaningful premium (that S$1,293 psf ppr land cost at Thomson Lane isn't cheap) for well-located sites with upside potential.
If you own in either area: for Upper Thomson/Springleaf, Hong Heng Garden's attempt is worth watching purely as a market signal — if it succeeds, similar smaller freehold developments nearby may see renewed interest. For District 11 near Novena/Toa Payoh, the combination of Thomson Lane's future condo and the Mount Pleasant BTO wave is a genuinely supportive medium-term backdrop for the area, even though nothing here launches imminently.
Own property near either of these sites, or want a read on what redevelopment activity nearby could mean for your own plans?
WhatsApp Bryan → More guides →Sources: The Business Times, "Freehold Sembawang apartments up for collective sale at S$130m" by Ry-Anne Lim, published 18 August 2026; The Business Times, "Sustained Land buys Thomson Lane plot for S$578m, plans condo project on prime site" by Chong Xin Wei, published 18 August 2026. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or legal advice. Figures cited are as reported by the sources and are subject to change as each transaction progresses.
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