Wife of Sea billionaire Forrest Li to buy good class bungalow near Botanic Gardens for $42.5m

[The_King]

SINGAPORE – The wife of tech billionaire Forrest Li is set to acquire a mansion in one of Singapore’s most coveted residential areas, even as the luxury property market remains in a lull.

Ms Ma Liqian filed an option in April to buy a so-called good class bungalow (GCB) in Gallop Road for $42.5 million, according to documents seen by Bloomberg News. The house sits on a 1,552 sq m plot of land.

Mr Li, the founder and chief executive of Sea Limited, owns a 1,403 sq m land parcel next to the mansion, near the Singapore Botanic Gardens, which is a World Heritage Site. This was acquired in 2019, property records show.

 

A Sea spokesperson declined to comment.

GCBs are prized for their rarity and size. The sector has cooled down after Singapore’s biggest money laundering scandal and high interest rates weighed on the market.

The sale, by a family surnamed Ku, adds to a handful of transactions recently. This includes a $36 million sale in Cornwall Gardens and a separate mansion in Ford Avenue being bought for $39.5 million by a scion of the Wee family, Singapore’s richest banking dynasty.

 

 

China-born Mr Li’s fortune is primarily derived from his stake in Sea, South-east Asia’s largest internet company, which owns online shopping platform Shopee and video game developer and publisher Garena. His wealth took a dive during a recent tech downturn, but recovered slightly after his company recorded its first full-year profit since listing.

 

 

Once Singapore’s richest person, Mr Li now has a net worth of US$3.8 billion (S$5.18 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. BLOOMBERG