23-07-2025
Hotel Miramar Singapore close to sealing sale at under S$200 million
[SINGAPORE] A deal is said to be in advanced stages of negotiations for a sale of Hotel Miramar Singapore at 401 Havelock Road, near the Singapore River.
The pricing for the 344-room hotel, on a site with a balance leasehold tenure of about 41.5 years, is expected to be below S$200 million. The hotel has significant value-add potential, including an opportunity to tap some 100,000 square feet (sq ft) of unutilised gross floor area (GFA), and repositioning the asset to a more upscale product.
The Business Times understands that the prospective buyer is Aravest, a carve-out of the private funds business of ARA Asset Management unveiled last year. Aravest is owned by Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing (SMFL) Company units SMFL Mirai Partners (Singapore) and Kenedix.
Industry players said Aravest will be teaming up with co-investors for the Hotel Miramar acquisition in Singapore. Aravest is expected to appoint an international hotel chain to manage and rebrand the property.
Hotel Miramar Singapore is owned and operated by an eponymous company set up in 1968; its biggest shareholder is a company named Lim Tjhun Seng, which is controlled by two low-profile individuals with the surname Lim.
Other shareholders of Hotel Miramar (Singapore) Limited include a few families from Singapore and Indonesia.
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Savills Singapore executive director of investment sales and capital markets Yap Hui Yee marketed the hotel via a private expression of interest exercise which closed in March.
According to industry players, a drawback of the property is that the authorities have turned down a request to top up the site's lease to 99 years.
The 16-storey Hotel Miramar is on a 100,528 sq ft site; this is one of three hotel sites along the stretch of Havelock Road sold by the state about 57 years ago on 99-year leasehold tenures starting from February 1968. On the other two neighbouring plots stand Copthorne King's Hotel and Furama Riverfront Singapore (formerly known as Novotel Apollo and Apollo Hotel).
The Urban Redevelopment Authority has retained the hotel zoning for the three sites under the Draft Master Plan 2025 unveiled last month.
Also left untouched is the 3.5 plot ratio – which refers to the ratio of maximum GFA to site area – for the trio of sites.
Industry observers said the authorities probably prefer to maintain flexibility on future plans for the stretch.
Private-sector hotel deals on sites with short balance land tenures are not unheard of in Singapore in recent years; typically, buyers would be looking for an attractive yield and/or value-adding opportunities.
Last year, Frasers Property sold the 313-room Capri by Fraser Changi City, near the Expo interchange MRT station, for S$171.8 million to a consortium comprising family office Atelier Capital Partners Singapore, TPG Angelo Gordon, Heeton Holdings and Far East Consortium International.
The hotel, which has been rebranded Dorsett Changi City Singapore, is part of an integrated project on a site with a balance term of about 45 years at the time. The new owners have begun asset enhancement works to create additional hotel rooms by subdividing some rooms, while still maintaining some of the larger rooms popular with staycationers. Some underutilised space in public areas including the lobby will be converted into revenue-generating space such as restaurants.
In late 2023, Viva Land – linked to convicted Vietnamese businesswoman Truong My Lan – sold the former SO/Singapore hotel on a site at 35 Robinson Road with about 47.5 years' balance lease. The property was bought by a consortium that included the Tan family behind Sunray Woodcraft Construction and Mini Environment Service. Mingtiandi reported the price at around S$170 million to S$180 million.
Hotel Miramar's guest rooms have an average room size of 26 square metres (about 280 sq ft); the rooms are on levels five to 16 in two towers.
The hotel rooms are above a four-storey commercial podium which includes the hotel lobby as well as office and food and beverage/retail units for lease. Behind the commercial podium and two towers is a four-storey carpark block with nearly 200 car parking spaces. The carpark is connected to the hotel towers.
The incoming owner is expected to embark on asset enhancement works such as upgrading existing rooms. There is potential to increase the room inventory by tapping around 100,000 sq ft of unutilised GFA to build a new hotel wing – which could be located where the multi-storey carpark is – subject to approvals by the relevant authorities. Another way to increase the room count would be to subdivide some of the existing rooms in the two towers.
An industry player said there is scope to uplift the ambience of the hotel by injecting more greenery and having a biophilic design. Appointing an international hotel management chain to rebrand and operate the hotel should improve operational efficiency and revenues.
In March last year, ESR Group announced the sale of ARA Asset Management's private funds business in Australia, Singapore, South Korea and the US to the two SMFL units. The consideration was based at an enterprise value of US$270 million.
The divestment came two years after ESR completed its buyout of Singapore-based ARA Asset Management, co-founded by Singaporean John Lim and backed by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing.
Additional reporting by Chong Xin Wei
