A rare freehold bungalow on Claymore Road has changed hands for S$75 million, marking one of the more notable transactions in Orchard’s tightly held landed enclave. The 11 Claymore Road bungalow, long leased to The Schoolhouse by Busy Bees, was sold with its existing tenancy.
While the buyer is understood to be studying the site’s potential for hospitality use, the deal itself highlights both the scarcity of such prime plots and the shifting redevelopment momentum around Orchard Road.
Table of contents
- Rare bungalow at 11 Claymore Road sold for S$75 million
- Orchard’s redevelopment wave gains momentum
- The contrast: Chee Guan Chiang House, frozen in time
Rare bungalow at 11 Claymore Road sold for S$75 million
A stone’s throw from Orchard Road lies a row of three freehold bungalows at 9, 11, and 15 Claymore Road. Among them, one at 11 Claymore Road has just changed hands for S$75 million through a private treaty deal handled by Delasa’s CEO and founder, Karamjit Singh.
Dating back to the 1940s, the bungalow occupies a 17,974 sqft freehold plot and offers a built-up space of 4,796 sqft. Title deeds trace ownership to Kok Kim Chuan, a private company tied to the Kok family, once active in trading and finance. The house originally served as a family residence, but for the past 26 years, it has been leased to The Schoolhouse by Busy Bees (previously Pat’s Schoolhouse).
The property first entered the market in September 2023 via an expression of interest exercise with an asking price of S$95 million, roughly 27% higher than its eventual selling price. The new buyer, while taking over the existing tenancy, is believed to be considering a hospitality redevelopment for the site.
The plot, however, is zoned for residential use under the URA Master Plan, with a 2.8 plot ratio and a maximum height allowance of 36 storeys. Based on Singh’s calculations, once the land betterment charge of about S$30 million is factored in, the land rate for 11 Claymore Road translates to around S$2,100 per sqft per plot ratio (psf ppr).
Given its location opposite the new Pan Pacific Orchard, the potential pivot to a boutique hotel or serviced residence makes strategic sense. Pan Pacific Orchard is a 347-room luxury hotel opened in 2023. It is a redevelopment of the former Negara Hotel by UOL Group.
Orchard’s redevelopment wave gains momentum
The recent 11 Claymore Road bungalow sale and the earlier redevelopment of Negara Hotel are part of a bigger picture. Orchard Road, long regarded as Singapore’s shopping and lifestyle hub, is undergoing a new wave of redevelopment.
City Developments Ltd (CDL), for instance, made headlines in May 2024 when it acquired Delfi Orchard en bloc for S$439 million. With CDL also controlling Orchard Hotel and Claymore Connect through CDL Hospitality Trusts, there’s speculation that the developer could stitch these assets together into a landmark mixed-use development with a gross development value estimated at between S$2 billion and S$3.2 billion.
Momentum is also seen on the residential front. New luxury condominium launches in Orchard have performed strongly despite cautious sentiment elsewhere. UpperHouse at Orchard Boulevard, a 301-unit project by UOL and Singapore Land Group, has sold 63% of its units since mid-July 2025 at an average of S$3,356 psf. Over at River Green by Wing Tai Holdings in District 9, an impressive 88% of units were taken up during its launch weekend at S$3,130 psf.
Closer to the bungalow at 11 Claymore Road, the ultra-luxury segment is also breaking records and showing a strong rebound in demand. At Sculptura Ardmore, a 3,326 sqft 4-bedroom unit sold for S$20 million in July to a Permanent Resident (PR). It translates to S$6,013 psf, the highest on record for the Ardmore Park neighbourhood.
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These transactions, both new launch and resale, underscore the Orchard area’s enduring strength at the luxury end of the market, creating further momentum for fresh development opportunities.
The contrast: Chee Guan Chiang House, frozen in time
Amid this backdrop of soaring land values and shiny new towers lies a stark anomaly: the Chee Guan Chiang House at 25 Grange Road. Just a short stroll from Ngee Ann City, this massive bungalow sits hidden behind iron gates and overgrown greenery. Despite being one of the largest private plots left in Orchard, it is left abandoned, quietly decaying, while Orchard around it continues to evolve.
The scale is staggering: the derelict bungalow sits on 100,000 sqft of freehold land, valued at about S$425 million in 2007. Given the property boom since, estimates today peg its worth at closer to S$500 million. Why, then, has such a valuable piece of land been left untouched?
Legal and conservation issues
Built in the late 1930s for banker Chee Guan Chiang, the house has been effectively trapped by a mix of legal and conservation issues. As far back as 1973, disputes began over an access road shared between the property and neighbouring developments.
Lee Tat Development eventually acquired part of the land and spent more than 40 years in and out of court against Grange Heights condominium over residents’ rights to use the road. The saga finally ended in 2008 when Lee Tat won the case, but by then, the mansion had already been in disrepair for decades.
In 2008, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) granted the property conservation status, a move intended to protect its heritage but one that also complicates redevelopment options. Unlike the Claymore Road bungalow, which can be transformed into a high-rise hospitality asset, Chee Guan Chiang House is locked between its legal baggage, conservation requirements, and sky-high valuation, which makes any transaction prohibitively complex.
Wrapping up
The 11 Claymore Road deal and Chee Guan Chiang House couldn’t be more different, yet they sit just a kilometre apart. One is a 1940s bungalow that’s about to be reborn, likely to catch Orchard’s luxury footfall. The other is a mansion of almost mythical status. Locked up and half-forgotten, but sitting on land that could fetch half a billion dollars if it were ever sold.
That contrast captures what Orchard is right now. On one end, developers and investors are reshaping old plots into new landmarks — your long-known preschool might soon turn into a luxury hotel. On the other end, you have relics like Chee Guan Chiang House, frozen in time with its future as uncertain as ever.
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