Beverly Hills of Singapore? Take a stroll down the Lion City’s exclusive Nassim Road and its intriguing mix of mansions and estates
- Rumour has it that Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin bought the most expensive home ever sold on Nassim Road for US$170 million
- The road’s ultra-wealthy residents live in ‘good class bungalows’, the most coveted type of residence, and land there can be ‘passed down for generations’
Nassim Road, a quiet, tree-lined street that’s less than 2km (one mile) long, is the most exclusive and expensive street in Singapore, where some of the world’s wealthiest and most influential people call home.
“Nassim has become a brand name on its own,” Bruce Lye, the co-founder and managing partner at Singapore Realtors Inc., told me. “The Nassim address itself commands a big premium … If you have the opportunity to own a piece of land there, it’s something that can be passed down for generations to come.”
Of the handful of good class bungalows publicly listed on Nassim Road right now, the cheapest is about US$45 million and the priciest is roughly US$72 million.
Nassim Road’s exclusivity stems from its secluded locations, large lots and the fact that it’s a short street with a limited number of home sites.
“A piece of regular land in Nassim is like fine art or wine,” Lye said in March, adding that the prices of such properties “keep reaching new highs all the time”.
I recently took a walk up Nassim Road, starting from where it meets Tanglin Road and Orchard Road – Singapore’s famous shopping street – all the way to its end point at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Here’s what I saw.
After the hustle and bustle of the Orchard Road area, stepping onto Nassim Road felt like stepping into a quiet, lush garden. The road was lined with trees, which muffled the noise of the city.