No room for luxury: Only one bungalow sold in Sentosa Cove in 1H14, reveals report

It still went for a whopping $17m.

Even billionaires are shying away from trophy homes in the luxurious Sentosa Cove. Housing transactions have grinded to a halt in the area, where only one bungalow was sold for the first six months of the year.

According to a report by CBRE, the sole transaction in H1 2014 was a bungalow on Treasure
Island, which was sold for S$17.00 million (S$1,506 psf). The same property was last transacted in H1 2010 for S$17.80 million.

There were 18 bungalows sold in the same period last year, and CBRE notes that the stalemate might be due to the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) of 15% imposed on foreign buyers as well as the
uncertainty in obtaining the LDAU (Land Dealings (Approval) Unit) approval to buy.

“Research expects sales activity in Sentosa Cove to pick up in H2 2014. The developer of Pearl Island has stepped up its efforts to sell the remaining 12 bungalows on the island. Completed two years ago, the bungalows are priced between S$14 million and S$25 million each. Similar to the GCB market, there are only 317 bungalows in Sentosa Cove and the resort-like waterfront living is not replicated elsewhere in Singapore. There will be interest among HNWIs to own a trophy home here," noted CBRE.