The problem with media in Singapore isn't that journalists aren't free to write what they want but that they're just a bunch of lazy hacks who don't know how to do basic fact-finding.
And the city-state makes it pretty easy to find relevant information on the internet.
So, I've decided to answer a couple of questions about the ministerial rentals:
- How big are their houses and plots of land?
- What could they have been expected to pay?
As for no. 1, there's been a lot of brouhaha about plot size, which in total – according to media reports – exceeded 500,000 sqft. for all properties.
Now, this is as per SLA data reportedly. Meanwhile, URA lists considerably smaller sizes of approximately 350,000 sqft. in total.
However, in both cases the property rented by min. Shanmugam at Ridout Rd. 26 is sharing the same plot of land with another house, at Ridout Rd. 24.
As such, the claim that it's for his sole use appears to be incorrect.
All in all, it seems that both ministers live in houses approx. 9000 sqft. in size on plots of land of 100,000 to 125,000 sqft. Still very large, of course, but let's maintain a sense of proportion here.
Now, the house size is by Gross Floor Area, which includes all covered areas and could include some uncovered ones, as well as guard posts etc.
As for the second question – the one that keeps everybody on edge – HOW MUCH ARE THEY PAYING!?!?!?!?
Well, as it was said, SLA holds only the records of bidding results for the past six months, so ministerial rentals are not there.
But somehow nobody appears to have asked – OK, but what are the most recent large property rentals that SLA has closed over those past six months?
So I went and looked – you can see the results here:
I list houses that are as close to the Ridout properties as possible and, with exception of 120 King's Avenue (which is in Sembawang) other three are all in central areas.
All closed between Nov. 2022 and April 2023.
None of them are quite as big, but they're close, with the BW bungalow at Mt. Rosie the closest with the plot size of over 80,000 sqft. and 7862 sqft. of GFA, rented for $28,650.
Now, mind you, these are the prices in the current hot property market, after a year of record inflation. In other words, one could reasonably expect you could have gotten more for your money 5 years ago – about as much as the ministers have got.
So, their rental first obtained in 2018 and then renewed in 2021, is likely to be in a comparable range of about $25,000 to $35,000 that today is paid for a bit smaller properties (depending on the condition of the buildings).
It's all public information.
