Tan Boon Liat sells for $950 mil in the biggest en bloc since 2018

Kingsford Group has agreed to buy Tan Boon Liat Building, the freehold furniture mall beside Havelock MRT, for $950 million. It is Singapore’s biggest collective sale in eight years, and the way the deal was put together tells you where developers see value right now.

What happened

Marketing agent Cushman & Wakefield announced on July 21 that Tan Boon Liat Building at 315 Outram Road has been sold en bloc to Kingsford Group for $950 million. The deal is conditional: owners still need to give their mandate at an upcoming extraordinary general meeting, where the collective sale committee needs support from owners holding at least 80% of share value, and the sale must then clear the Strata Titles Board.

The price is about 5% below the $1 billion reserve set when the property was launched for tender in February this year. It is the owners’ second attempt: they first asked $1.15 billion in 2025 and found no taker. Two price cuts later, the deal is the largest collective sale in Singapore this year, ahead of Loyang Valley’s $880 million sale in April, and the largest since Pacific Mansion went for $980 million in 2018. Only Farrer Court’s $1.339 billion record from 2007 sits above that.

The owners cut their price twice before the deal was done. Source: Cushman & Wakefield

Why a developer paid condo money for a warehouse

Tan Boon Liat Building is a 15-storey warehouse and showroom block, best known to most Singaporeans as a furniture shopping haunt. What Kingsford is really buying is the land under it: two freehold plots zoned Business 1, with a combined site area of roughly 141,048 sq ft, directly beside Havelock station on the Thomson-East Coast Line.

The value unlock came from planning, not the building. Following a conversion study initiated by Cushman & Wakefield, URA has advised that the site be rezoned to residential with commercial on the first storey, with the plot ratio raised from 3.1 to 4.9. That is a 50% uplift in allowable floor area. URA has also advised that adjoining remnant state land plots totalling about 14,693 sq ft be amalgamated into the site. Within the prescribed height limits, Cushman & Wakefield says the site could support twin towers of up to 48 storeys, with up to 16,146 sq ft of commercial space on the ground floor.

One more quirk worked in the buyer’s favour: because the site is still zoned Business 1, the purchase does not attract Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty, the upfront tax a developer would normally pay on a residential land purchase.

Christina Sim, senior director of capital markets at Cushman & Wakefield, said the repurposing exercise turned an ageing industrial building into a residential opportunity and delivered a substantial uplift in the site’s value for owners. Ashok Melwani, who chairs the collective sale committee, said the committee will brief owners at the coming EGM, since crossing the 80% approval threshold is the critical next step.

Only Farrer Court and Pacific Mansion have sold for more. Source: marketing agent and developer announcements, 2007 to 2026

Kingsford is stacking up sites fast

This is the same developer that sold 54% of Lentor Gardens Residences on its July 18 launch day, a result we covered earlier this week. Kingsford also bought Chuan Park en bloc for $890 million in 2022 with a partner, launched the resulting project, and picked up the first Telok Blangah Road plot on the former Keppel Club site at a state tender last November for $918.4 million. A developer does not keep buying at this pace unless its launches are selling, and so far they are.

What this means for you

• If you are eyeing the city fringe, a major new launch is now in the pipeline next to Havelock MRT, one stop from Orchard by train and walking distance to Tiong Bahru. On freehold land at this location and scale, it will be one of the most closely watched launches when it comes, though completion is years away and the rezoning still has formal steps to clear.
• If you own an older condo or strata property, this deal is the clearest signal yet that the en bloc market has real momentum in 2026. Developers are hungry for well-located sites, but the price journey matters: this one sold only after the asking price came down from $1.15 billion to $950 million. Realistic reserve prices are what get deals done.
• If you are a buyer worried about new supply prices, note what developers are paying for land near MRT stations. Land costs like these set a floor under launch prices in the area, which is also worth remembering when you weigh nearby resale options.