A five-bedroom bungalow on Lakeshore View in Sentosa Cove is available for sale through private treaty for $12.88 million. According to URA records, the owners acquired the property for $14 million in September 2010, meaning they are now listing it at a loss of $1.12 million.
The 99-year leasehold property occupies a land plot spanning 7,400 sq ft. This reflects a land rate of about $1,741 psf. In terms of psf-price, this is the most affordable land rate for a landed home along Lakeshore View since September 2021, when a 2½-storey detached house on an 8,613 sq ft plot was sold for $11.5 million ($1,335 psf).
The property for sale is a Balinese-style home featuring an expansive lap pool on the ground level that separates the main house from two outdoor pavilions. A timber walkway links the structures at ground level, while an overhead bridge connects the second floor of the main house to an open-air veranda on the pavilion’s roof.
The ground floor features an open-concept kitchen, a living area and a wine cellar tucked beneath the stairs. The second and third floors each house two bedrooms, linked by a Jack and Jill bathroom. Occupying the entire top floor, the master bedroom includes an en suite bathroom and a walk-in wardrobe. A private lift serves all four levels.
The owners, who prefer to be known only as “the Sun family”, purchased the property in 2010 after spotting a ‘for sale’ sign while passing by following lunch in the area. They made an offer for the property on the spot, for substantially lower than the original asking price at the time, says Alvin Choo, senior associate district director at PropNex. Later that day, the seller’s agent contacted the family, accepting the offer.
The Sun family lived in the home as their primary residence for over a decade before relocating to mainland Singapore in 2021. Since then, Choo has been leasing the property on the rental market.
The house is situated on Lakeshore View, along a cul-de-sac in Sentosa Cove, home to just 29 landed properties. Of these, seven overlook the hillside, while the remaining 22 face the golf course.
The property on offer is a Balinese-style home featuring a spacious lap pool on the ground level (Photo: PropNex)
Discounting the cost of A&A works
The owners have taken into account the cost of the addition and alteration (A&A) works that prospective buyers might need to do after 15 years of Sentosa weather, says Alvin Choo, senior associate district director at PropNex.
“We explored the A&A possibilities of the property, and with a budget of about $1 million, you would be able to see quite a difference,” he adds. Possible works with the suggested budget include reintegrating the three structures with the main house to maximise the floor area.
Alternatively, incoming buyers could fully rebuild the property as the plot’s maximum permissible gross floor area (GFA) has yet to be maximised. Choo estimates that a full reconstruction, without a basement level, would range between $4 million and $5 million but could take one-and-a-half to two years to complete.
“This provides an attractive opportunity for owner-occupiers to build their dream home in Sentosa for less than $20 million,” adds Choo.
A walkway on the ground floor and second floor connects the house and the pavilions (Photo: PropNex)
Shrinking rental margins
Another key factor driving the Sun family’s decision to sell is the rising property maintenance costs and the decline in rental yields on the resort island in recent years.
“When we lease out the property, we have to contract a cleaning service to the tune of about $50,000 to ready the house for its next occupant,” says Choo. “When our last tenancy expired, the owners spent $75,000 on maintenance, including an overhaul of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, which saw almost constant use in the Sentosa weather.”
Additionally, during the periods between tenancy agreements, the Sun family faced ongoing costs for cleaning, lift servicing and landscaping to maintain the property.“Such costs eat into the long-term rental yield of the property,” adds Choo. He adds that the most recent tenant at the property paid about $30,000 per month (pm) for a year, or a rate of $4.05 psf. This equates to a rental yield of about 2.8% based on the property’s guide price.
“Gone are the days of $50,000 to $80,000 monthly rents in Sentosa,” says Choo. “While properties in Sentosa remain in demand among foreign tenants who appreciate the lifestyle and privacy it affords, rents are no longer artificially inflated by the Chinese and expat markets. They are now more in line with market fundamentals.”
Based on URA rental data, the median rent for detached houses in Sentosa spiked in 2023, from $3.28 psf in 1Q2023 to $7 psf in 2Q2023, marking a 113% q-o-q increase.
The median rent for detached homes remained elevated over three consecutive quarters, ranging from $6 to $8.17 psf between 2Q2023 and 1Q2024. However, it has since declined to between $5.17 and $5.91 psf from 1Q2024 to 1Q2025.
The second and third floors contain two bedrooms each (Photo: PropNex)
Sentosa landlords feel the heat
Falling rents, coupled with the softening of landed property prices, have pressured some Sentosa landlords to sell their rental homes.
URA Realis data shows that Sentosa Cove saw just two landed properties sold in 2024, a noticeable drop compared to 2023’s nine transactions.
As sellers show greater flexibility in their asking prices, the market has seen an increase in landed property transactions since the start of the year. By April 14, Sentosa Cove had already recorded two transactions in 2025, matching the total number of caveats for the entire previous year.
The first was a detached house occupying a 7,316 sq ft plot along Ocean Drive that sold for $12.15 million ($1,661 psf) on Jan 21. The other transaction involved another detached house spanning 7,934 sq ft along Cove Drive that sold for $14.8 million ($1,865 psf) on Feb 10.
Steve Tay, co-founder of Steve Tay Real Estate, knows of three more transactions on Sentosa that occurred without a caveat. “There are likely to be a few more as some buyers prefer to be discreet,” he adds.
“I have started to see a pickup in viewing interests for Sentosa Cove villas from locals, permanent residents (PRs), as well as foreigners from countries exempt from paying ABSD,” adds Tay. “They are increasingly seeing value in buying a luxury property for under $20 million.”
Sean Chen, Sentosa bungalow specialist at SRI, concurs: “I used to get one request for a viewing every three months last year, but that has increased to once a week since the start of the year. After hearing that prices in Sentosa have fallen in the past year, most of them come with an opportunistic mindset.”
Sentosa Cove is the only location in Singapore where foreigners, including permanent residents, are eligible to buy landed property (Photo: PropNex)
More PR buyers could lead to rising rents
“I’ve seen many PRs viewing a property in Sentosa,” says Chen. “Most have been staying in Singapore for quite a while. They could have been renting an apartment or purchased a property before ABSD increased from 30% to 60% in April 2023. This is their only avenue to upgrade to a landed property until they obtain their citizenship.”
Chen adds that PRs may view Sentosa Cove as an interim home until they gain citizenship, a process that can take several years. As more PRs and Singaporean owner-occupiers purchase landed properties in Sentosa, the supply of rental homes could shrink, potentially driving up rents in the area.
Sentosa Cove is the only area in Singapore where
foreigners, including PRs, are permitted to purchase landed properties. However, they may only own one, and solely for personal use, as subletting is not allowed.
“As more homes in the market change hands to PRs who are owner-occupiers, I expect the rents in Sentosa to swing back up as the supply of rental homes drops,” says Chen.
With this in mind, he is confident of selling most of the 16 properties he is marketing in Sentosa over the next “three to six months”. Chen says he has already received offers for three of the properties and is in the middle of negotiations for several more.
Given this momentum, Chen anticipates that rental rates in Sentosa could rise by as much as 30% by the end of the year.
