A conservation building at 38 South Bridge Road is on the market at a guide price of $38 million. Located in the Upper Circular Road Conservation Area, the four-storey commercial building sits on a 2,624 sq ft site and has a gross floor area (GFA) of 10,503 sq ft.
The guide price translates to $3,618 psf on the GFA. The property will be sold in an Expression of Interest (EOI) exercise by Knight Frank Singapore, the sole marketing agent.
Positioned along South Bridge Road with a 11.5m wide street level frontage. It overlooks the conserved shophouses of Circular Road and commands views of the Singapore River and city skyline, with the iconic Marina Bay Sands as the backdrop.
Located at the doorstep of Singapore’s CBD, the property enjoys a unique position along the city’s fringe, offering excellent connectivity to Clarke Quay, City Hall, Chinatown, Boat Quay and Raffles Place, while benefiting from immediate access to public parking adjacent to the building.
The property went through voluntary conservation and a comprehensive asset enhancement initiative after it was purchased in 2023. Back then, site investigations established that the building’s original structure columns and floors still existed. The front facade with Shanghai plaster finish was largely intact and hidden by a layer of glass cladding added in the 1980s.
The restoration was recently completed in June this year. Restoration works included extensive upgrading of the building’s mechanical and electrical (M&E) systems, new lift installation, new washroom facilities on all four levels, and enhancements to the firefighting, mechanical ventilation and electrical infrastructure.
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The lift serves all four floors which allows the property to be leased by floor, or in its entirety. Possible tenants who may take up the entire building include family offices or companies setting it up as a corporate headquarters. For owner-occupiers seeking a distinctive corporate presence, the property also offers potential building naming rights.
Designed with efficiency in mind, the property features efficient floor plates and generous floor-to-floor heights of approximately 3.9 meters – specs which are comparable to some Grade A commercial office properties in the city centre.
Levels 1 and 4 have approved F&B use and are fitted with exhaust ducts and grease traps, making them ideal for cafe or light dining concepts that complement the building’s heritage character.
The listing of this conserved commercial property comes after URA loosened its planning stance for selected street blocks within the Upper Circular Road precinct, where accommodation-led uses such as hotels, serviced apartments and backpacker’s hostels may now be considered, subject to approvals. Here’s why some Clarke Quay and Beach Road shophouses are catching the eye of investors as a result.
With the revised policy, which will be tested as a two-year pilot until May 2028, it effectively ends the 12-year ban on new short-term accommodation in the two heritage areas along Upper Circular Road in Clarke Quay and Beach Road.
In line with the revised planning framework, the seller has submitted an outline planning application for the building to be repositioned as a future hotel. If this is approved, it would enhance the property’s long-term repositioning potential and provide investors with greater optionality beyond traditional office, retail and lifestyle uses.
Melvin Chay, Senior Director at Knight Frank Singapore highlights that opportunities to acquire a newly refurbished boutique commercial building of this calibre are exceptionally rare. “This combination of heritage character, modern specifications and operational flexibility to a wide array of uses is increasingly difficult to replicate in today’s market”.
Upon the easing of restrictions on new short-term accommodation in the area, more commercial properties have been entering the market. With a larger pool of potential buyers, so does the growth in opportunities for a more interesting mix of hospitality uses in these heritage districts.
With full commercial zoning and no Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) or Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD), local and foreign investors, corporates and owner-occupiers alike can purchase this property. The EOI for the 38 South Bridge Road property closes on Wednesday, August 19.
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