Cleared Sentosa Cove Waterfront Plot Seeks S$23.65 Million

A cleared 18,740 sq ft waterfront plot at 143 and 145 Cove Drive has entered the market with a S$23.65 million guide price. The 99-year leasehold site, formerly occupied by two bungalows registered to Su Haijin, is now one vacant, amalgamated parcel rather than two finished homes.

Su is a Cypriot national who was convicted of resisting lawful apprehension and two money-laundering offences on 4 April 2024. He was sentenced to 14 months’ jail, making this sale part of the continuing disposal of property connected to one of Singapore’s largest anti-money-laundering cases.

How the land came to market

The State Court ordered more than S$165 million in assets seized from Su, his wife and his companies to be forfeited. These included cash, properties, vehicles, liquor and other assets.

The former Cove Drive bungalows have since been demolished. That physical change is important: the eventual buyer will be paying for waterfront land and taking responsibility for designing, obtaining approval for and building a new home.

Three standing bungalows connected to two other convicted individuals are being marketed in the same exercise. This creates an unusual side-by-side choice between vacant land and existing houses, although the properties differ in location, size and physical condition.

Four addresses, but three offerings

The properties have been grouped into three sale propositions:

• 143 and 145 Cove Drive: One cleared, amalgamated plot measuring 18,740 sq ft, guided at S$23.65 million.
• 38 and 40 Ocean Drive: Two standing waterfront bungalows on a reported combined 15,798 sq ft site, guided together at S$22.8 million.
• 13 Pearl Island: One standing bungalow guided at S$15.68 million, within a 19-bungalow waterfront enclave with private berths.

They are being marketed through expressions of interest, or EOIs. This process invites prospective buyers to submit offers by a deadline; it does not mean the properties have been sold at their guide prices. Offers for the Cove Drive land are due by 3pm on 12 November 2026.

A rough land-rate calculation helps show why the asking figures cannot be compared in isolation. Cove Drive’s guide works out to about S$1,262 per sq ft of land, while the Ocean Drive pair works out to around S$1,443 psf based on its reported area and guide.

These are Landed Navigator calculations, not valuations. Ocean Drive’s price includes two standing houses, while Cove Drive has no building at all. A meaningful comparison would also account for the homes’ condition, waterfront position, remaining lease and the cost and time needed to create the buyer’s preferred house.

A former two-house site is not automatically a two-house opportunity

The two old Cove Drive addresses may tempt a bidder to imagine rebuilding two homes. But street numbers and former buildings do not establish what can now be approved on an amalgamated parcel.

URA’s prevailing baseline controls for detached houses include a 400 sq m minimum plot area, a 10m minimum plot width and maximum overall site coverage of 50%. Setbacks, height limits and other planning requirements also shape the space available for a house.

These published controls are only a starting point. The applicable landed-housing area, street-block plan and site conditions must still be checked before a buyer treats the full land area as a design entitlement.

URA’s new-erection process generally contemplates one landed dwelling house on every legal lot within a development plot and retention of the same landed housing type. A Qualified Person—usually a registered architect or professional engineer—must make the planning submission, while proposals that depart from the applicable requirements need separate clearance.

The title and survey documents therefore matter as much as the marketing brochure. A buyer needs to establish whether the amalgamated land is now one legal lot, which controls apply and what can realistically be approved before attaching value to any subdivision or multi-house plan.

Tenure also changes the rebuilding calculation. Because Cove Drive is leasehold, time spent on design, approval and construction comes out of a finite lease. By contrast, the standing Ocean Drive and Pearl Island homes give their buyers an immediate retain-versus-renovate choice, subject to the buildings’ actual condition.

Foreign buyers face approval and tax separately

Foreign interest in Sentosa Cove landed property comes with an additional ownership step. A foreign person, including a Singapore permanent resident, requires Singapore Land Authority approval to purchase landed residential property there.

That approval is separate from stamp duty. Foreigners buying residential property generally face 60% Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty, or ABSD, although specified reliefs or different treatment may apply, including for qualifying nationals covered by certain free-trade agreements.

For the Cove Drive buyer, the attraction and the burden are the same: it is a large cleared waterfront canvas. Unlike the three standing bungalows, however, nearly every part of the next home—from its approved footprint to the day it becomes usable—still lies ahead.