Four-bedder at New Futura linked to money laundering case for sale at $11.38 mil

SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - A four-bedroom unit at New Futura, a freehold luxury condo along Leonie Hill Road, was launched for sale via private treaty on Oct 24 with a guide price of $11.38 million, according to Edmund Tie. A bank sale, the 24th-floor unit measures 2,691 sq ft or $4,229 psf. According to a property title search, the unit is owned by Chen Qingyuan, one of the 10 foreign nationals who were arrested in August last year. In May this year, Chen, a Cambodian national, pleaded guilty to three out of 10 charges against him, and was jailed for 15 months. A URA caveat lodged shows that Chen bought the property at New Futura for $10.15 million ($3,772 psf) in May 2018. With Chen’s arrest, a total of $23.5 million in assets were seized from the 34-year-old Cambodian national. The court ordered about $21.3 million of the assets seized from Chen to be forfeited. On June 15, he was deported to Cambodia and barred from re-entering Singapore. The New Futura unit will be sold with vacant possession and on an “as is where is” basis. It comes with four en suite bedrooms, a helper’s room, and private lift access. The unit has a double-volume ceiling and also boasts views overlooking Orchard Road and the city. There have not been any transactions at the condo this year based on caveats lodged. The last transaction was for a 2,691 sq ft unit on the 24th floor that changed hands for $12.5 million ($4,645 psf) in May 2023. Completed in 2017, New Futura is a luxury freehold condo in prime District 9. Developed by City Developments Ltd, It has 124 units across twin 36-storey towers. Units comprise a mix of two- to four-bedroom apartments of 1,098 sq ft to 2,691 sq ft. There are also two 7,836 sq ft penthouses, one at the top of each tower. The development was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the renowned New York-based architectural firm behind iconic skyscrapers such as the Burj Khalifa and One World Trade Center. The development is about a 10-minute walk to Great World MRT Station on the Thomson-East Coast Line, which is connected to the Great World shopping mall on Kim Seng Promenade. It is also within walking distance of various retail malls on the Orchard Road shopping belt including Ngee Ann City and 313@Somerset. The unit at New Futura is among a number of properties tied to the money laundering case that have been put up for sale in the past few months. In June, a portfolio of four units at Gramercy Park, a luxury freehold condo along Grange Road, was put up for sale at $32 million. These units belonged to four individuals in the money laundering case — Su Baolin, Su Jianhua, Su Lihong and Su Shuiming. Other properties linked to the case that have reportedly been put up on the market include units at South Beach Residences on Beach Road and The Marq on Paterson Hill.