Reserved for purchase only by Singapore citizens, bungalows within the 39 gazetted Good Class Bungalow (GCB) Areas are Singapore’s most prestigious form of landed housing. Image: A GCB on Gallop Road via Google Street View
The son of Haidilao hotpot chain co-founder Zhang Yong has been granted an option to purchase a bungalow at Gallop Road for $42 million, reported The Business Times (BT).
The price works out to $1,940 per sq ft (psf) based on the freehold site’s area of 21,647 sq ft.
Market watchers noted that the $1,940 psf on land alone reflects the price hike in Good Class Bungalow (GCB) Areas.
In fact, it is much higher compared to the $1,700 psf that the family paid for a bungalow located right next to the site. Dubbed the Winged House, the bungalow was designed by K2LD Architects and occupies a 15,884 sq ft freehold site. It was around four years old when the family acquired it in 2016.
Recommended article: 10 Landed Property Homes Under 2 Million (P.S. Some Are Freehold!)
Ranked as Singapore’s richest by Forbes, Zhang and his wife, Shu Ping, has an estimated net worth of US$19 billion (S$25 billion) as at August 2020.
He is chairman and executive director, while Shu is non-executive director and also co-founder at Haidilao International Holding. The couple and their son, who is in his early-20s, are all Singapore citizens, said BT.
Bungalows within the 39 gazetted GCB Areas are Singapore’s most prestigious form of landed housing. They come with strict planning conditions to preserve their low-rise character and exclusivity.
Although anyone can purchase a non-landed private home in the city-state, only Singapore citizens are allowed to buy a landed property within a GCB Area.
Suggested read: 4 Landed Property Projects in Singapore That Are 4 Million and Below
The GCB market has witnessed brisk activity, buoyed by acquisitions by naturalised Singapore citizens and wealthy local families who continue to buy GCBs for their children as well as their grandchildren.
GCB buyers also include the newly rich whose businesses benefitted from the current crisis, said market watchers.
Other recent transactions within the GCB Areas include a Cluny Hill bungalow, which was transacted for $38.6 million or $2,315 psf, showed URA Realis data. A bungalow at Lermit Road was sold for $34.75 million or $2,000 psf and another in Mount Echo Park was transacted for $32 million or $1,712 psf, said BT.
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Wartime is a good test of financial resilience. The notorious “Red Horse and Red Sheep Calamity” (赤马红羊劫) comes every 60 years. It is infamous to bring along fire, volatility, riots and warfare. Coincidentally, it falls in the years 2026 and 2027. While we were still celebrating Chinese New Year, the United States and Israel couldn’t... [read more]
Best Luxury Developer: Allgreen Properties Limited
Luxury in Singapore’s property landscape has spent years in an arms race: bigger amenity decks, flashier branding, more elaborate façades. Yet as the market matures, the definition of luxury has begun to shift. Buyers in the high-end segment now look for longevity rather than novelty, clarity over spectacle, and spaces that feel calm in a dense city.
Allgreen Properties Limited has been building this form of luxury long before it became a trend. Its Best Luxury Developer win at the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards (Singapore) 2025 reflects a philosophy grounded in restraint, discipline and long-term value.
Founded in 1986, Allgreen has spent close to four decades developing homes in some of Singapore’s most prized districts. Its portfolio is marked less by extravagance than by refinement: clean lines, generous planting, strong site selection and layouts that prioritise comfort and privacy. These qualities, understated yet enduring, have shaped its reputation among buyers who value clarity in design and stability in investment.
In many of its developments, luxury is felt in quiet details: the arrival sequence softened by greenery, the view corridor opened by a well-positioned block, the sense of calm created by proportion and an understated palette.
This approach has defined Allgreen’s recent projects. Fourth Avenue Residences, completed in 2022 along the Rail Corridor, balances architectural restraint with prime district access. The development’s linear forms and landscaped buffers create a sense of order and airiness, while its proximity to top schools and Bukit Timah’s green spine reinforces the idea that luxury rests as much on context as on construction.
Royalgreen, delivered in 2021, offers a different, more intimate version of the same ethos. Set within a low-rise enclave in Bukit Timah, its design language draws on symmetry, greenery and modest scale. The effect is residential calm, a development that feels rooted in its neighbourhood rather than imposed upon it. It reflects a growing preference among affluent buyers for “quiet luxury”: spaces that age gracefully and provide a sense of retreat without overtly calling attention to themselves.
Juniper Hill, completed in 2022, distils that philosophy even further. With only 115 units, it leans on thoughtful detailing and a concierge-style approach to daily living. Its compact scale creates a sense of intimacy rarely found in new launches, while its service offering gives it a subtle hospitality quality. It suggests that luxury can be personal, not just polished.
Pasir Ris 8 demonstrates Allgreen’s ability to reinterpret luxury in a suburban context. As an integrated development anchored by transport connectivity and retail convenience, its premium lies in proximity and ease of movement. The project shows that luxury today is increasingly defined by the flow of daily life, especially the ability to transition smoothly from home to transport, and from local amenities to green spaces. Allgreen reads these shifts well, offering a form of luxury anchored in practicality and future resilience.
Beyond completed projects, the company’s successful tender for the Promenade Peak site signals its next chapter. A rare riverfront parcel in a highly competitive bidding landscape, the site demands architectural sensitivity and long-term conviction. Its acquisition underlines Allgreen’s confidence in shaping Singapore’s evolving city-fringe luxury segment, and its willingness to take on complex, strategically located projects that will influence the wider precinct.
What distinguishes Allgreen within the luxury category is its clarity of intent. Where some developers chase visual statements, Allgreen builds for the long arc of value. Coherent plans, controlled density, intuitive circulation, privacy without isolation. It designs with an understanding that true luxury in Singapore is as much about quiet, well-proportioned space as it is about finishes. The company’s projects tend to attract buyers who prefer solidity over showmanship: families, long-term homeowners, and investors who trust that an Allgreen development will hold its value through multiple cycles.
This sense of discipline also shapes its future pipeline. The company’s successful tender for the Promenade Peak site signals its next chapter and will test how the brand reinterprets luxury for a new, highly visible riverfront context. As Singapore’s planning priorities pivot towards walkability, greenery and the lived experience of space, Allgreen’s steady reading of luxury — calm, intentional and enduring — feels increasingly aligned with the city’s trajectory.
The Best Luxury Developer award recognises this distinct identity. Allgreen Properties Limited has crafted a form of luxury defined not by excess but by clarity, homes that prioritise proportion, comfort and permanence. In a market shaped by constant reinvention, it is this quiet confidence that continues to set the company apart.
Co-living in Singapore has evolved far beyond its early improvisations. The sector today is defined less by trend and more by structure, shaped by formal rules, clearer service benchmarks and residents who value reliability as much as flexibility.
Not all early operators made that transition. What began as a lifestyle experiment for travelling professionals and short-stay residents has matured into a regulated, credible segment with rising expectations around safety, consistency and service. Many early entrants consolidated, downsized or shifted focus as the demands of the market sharpened.
The Assembly Place (TAP), however, has become one of the few to evolve with the sector, pairing scale with operational discipline and showing that co-living can function as a reliable urban housing model. Its Best Co-Living Operator award at the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards (Singapore) 2025 highlights a company that has helped redefine what shared living means in a dense, mobile city.
Founded in 2019, TAP has grown into a platform that straddles hospitality, real estate operations and community management. Today it oversees a broad portfolio spanning co-living units, purpose-built student accommodation, mixed-use spaces and mall management across Singapore, with a growing pipeline of properties under management.
That surge is matched by a professional operating model built around clear standards: structured onboarding, fast maintenance turnaround, safety compliance, resident support and a consistent service promise regardless of property type. In a segment where quality varies widely, TAP’s ability to deliver the same experience across neighbourhoods is one of its defining strengths.
The past year has been especially important. TAP secured a major tender from MOHH to provide accommodation for healthcare professionals, a milestone that signals trust at an institutional level. Healthcare workforce housing requires reliability, predictability and strict compliance, qualities that only a handful of co-living operators can credibly offer. The award represents more than a single contract; it is recognition that TAP’s systems have matured to a point where essential workforce housing can be anchored by co-living without compromise.
That confidence is reflected in its expansion into mixed-use asset management, including Hafary House and Serene Centre. TAP has also moved into adjacent sectors, with the launch of Social on Outram — its new boutique hotel — and the Springleaf Collection, a design-led landed housing development. Together, these properties show how co-living operators can evolve into broader placemaking and asset-management roles, shaping environments where residents, guests and tenants interact with retail, dining and lifestyle offerings as part of their everyday routines. TAP’s willingness to take on these spaces signals a broader shift: co-living is becoming part of how buildings and districts function, not simply a category of rental housing.
Community-building remains central to TAP’s identity. But unlike many operators that rely heavily on ad-hoc social programming, TAP structures community to support the resident journey: clear house rules, onboarding sessions, curated events, and informal support networks for international tenants who may be navigating Singapore for the first time. This intentional approach helps reduce turnover, strengthen resident satisfaction and foster meaningful social connection, important in a segment where stays are often fluid.
Its flagship, Campus by The Assembly Place, brings these principles together at a scale rarely seen in co-living. The 426-bed student residence, created through the adaptive reuse of existing buildings, operates more like a small university campus than a housing block. Study lounges, fitness spaces, wellness zones, landscaped courtyards and communal kitchens are arranged through a careful zoning strategy that separates quiet areas from social spaces. Privacy is built into room design; community is embedded in circulation and amenity planning. It is a model that demonstrates TAP’s ability to operate co-living at institutional size without losing sensitivity to how residents live and learn.
Across its portfolio, TAP serves a broad demographic: international students, young professionals, talent relocators, and now healthcare workers. On the landlord side, owners increasingly turn to TAP for asset enhancement and stabilisation, relying on its ability to improve occupancy, manage compliance and create long-term value. As regulations surrounding shared accommodation continue to evolve, TAP’s structured operating model provides reassurance to both residents and property owners that standards will be upheld.
Looking ahead, The Assembly Place is well positioned to shape the next phase of co-living in Singapore. Flexible housing demand is rising alongside global mobility, hybrid work patterns and a growing student population. Mixed-use assets are becoming more central to how districts function. And the city’s rental landscape is shifting toward professionally managed accommodation rather than ad-hoc shared living. TAP’s combination of operational discipline, community-led design and cross-asset expertise gives it a clear role in that trajectory.
The Best Co-Living Operator award recognises maturity as much as scale. TAP has shown that co-living succeeds when it balances community with structure, hospitality with real estate discipline, and flexibility with safety and consistency. In doing so, it has helped establish co-living as a viable, long-term part of Singapore’s housing ecosystem and set a benchmark for what the sector can become.