“May the best man wins,” is a line not suitable for a real estate industry. The line must sound like this, “May the richest man wins.”
It took only less than 20 minutes, with the amount of $2.23m, the house who with skeletal was sold.
Around Sembawang Hills Estate, a house with a terrace in two sets of skeletal debris is now under a new ownership.
It was disposed of a very lavish and competitive price which is $2.23 million only to a certain business tycoon contractor over an intense auction which lasted only for approximately 12 minutes, February 27, Friday.
The auction was sponsored by Knight Frank, a real estate agent on behalf the Ministry of Law’s Public Trustee’s department. The abandoned property was taken over and managed by the government in 2015 after discovering in its decomposition state for almost 10 years.
The event must have started at 2:30 pm but it began a bit late for 10 minutes due to a big number of attendees who will participate in the auction, thus, Amara Hotel’s function room couldn’t accommodate everyone in the hall. The event organizer reserved 70 seats but surprisingly there are about 160 people present in the function room. Sharon Lee, a realtor from Knight Frank and an auctioneer, said she was greatly impressed as to the response of the people.
Bidding started at $1.7 million for the 1, 720 sqft property of Jalan Batai, across Upper Thomson Road. The bids slowly went up to $20,000 until it hit the maximum which is $2 million.
The house was about to be under the famous developer, Mr Tan, Alvin, at $2.05 million but it was grabbed by Mr Goh Tee Kia at $2.1 million bid.
But another attendee joined the bid, Mr Goh and the price jumped to $2.15 million, $2.18 million and $2.2 million and when Mr Goh bid the highest which amounted to $2.23 million, automatically, the bidding was closed and considered sold, told auctioneer Ms Lee, winning a loud applause from all people present in the area.
Mr Tan, who ended his bid at $2.05 million, shared to the Strait Times right after the event that the house was not destined to be his, after setting a price cap around $2 million.
Right after Mr Goh’s winning bid, he automatically affixed his signature and endorsed the $223,000 cheque directly to Knight Frank.
As per record of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, it revealed the properties and business owned by Mr Goh such as the property development company, G & C General Contractors and his own landed house around Holland Road. The cheque was both signed by Mr Ken Tan, the general manager of the said company and Mr Goh.
According to Ms Lee, previous month, a small terraced house around, 1, 501sqft at Seraya Crescent was sold with a price of $1.828 million which means $1,218 per sqft in comparison to $1, 297 per sqft of Jalan Batai property which was sold at higher price.
Based on the price paid, Mr Goh declared, “Was overpaid around $500,000,” pointing out to the starting price of the bid which was $1.7 million.
After three months from winning the bid, Mr Goh is expected to take over the auctioned house.
