The Scent – The Search Began

I did a search on the property from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). Believe me, it wasn’t easy. Firstly there wasn’t a House number, postal number or Lot number that I could use. No information existed at that time that could help me find who the owners is.

But by ingenuity and the nose borrowed from Sherlock Holmes, I did manage to locate the Hillview House address. And for the first time, here are the facts as I can reveal them:

The land which Hillview House stands on is a leasehold property with a 999 years lease with effect from 1885 / expiring 11/10/2884

The terrace houses (Hillview Court) opposite Hillview Mansion was built only after 1981. The land deed indicated that the land which the Hillview Mansion stood was approved in 1980, together with Jalan Dermawan slope), and it stood on a piece of land size of 9173, big enough to build a condo.

It was bought at $7,405,500 at $807.30 / sqm. (Nearby land bought in 1996 at average $3.8K sqm)

The Hillview Mansion was bought by V.P. in May 1990.

The property was bought from another real estate agent, Peaktop Property P L (formed in 1987), who had since ceased operation.

There wasn’t any mention of Cycle & Carriage. I was stumped where I should look next.

The Scent Get Hotter

It was around the same time that I pondered over these thoughts that a further revelation came to me. In 2003 I received an email from someone with a email address belonging to Cycle & Carriage. The writer was enquiring about some other issues, but I had to ask… “Did ever the C&C Chairman stayed at the House on top of Dermawan Road ?”

Her reply went it came, was like light rain falling down on my face on a hot summer day:

“…….. yes the house was formerly owned by the Co’s chairman, and in Hillview once stood Cycle & Carriage’s first building.  …… The stories were told by my colleagues who’s been rendering their services for C&C for more than 30yrs….AS for the bungalow, I roughly know where it is located….The History of the bungalow went back as far as early 1970s….  The House belonged to the founder of Cycle & Carriage – the Chua Brothers…. If I’m not wrong, they were from Penang …..Way back in the 70s, when there we insufficient lamp posts along the cotton tree lined street of Hillview Ave. …  It was during that time that Hillview’s prominent landmark was ehem…  Cycle & Carriage Service Ctr & Assembly Plant..

Hillview at that time was just factories, forests, and the only bus service served the main road in front of Standard Chartered Bank…..  So, just imagine how far my colleagues had to walk to catch their bus….”

So I was again pointed in the direction that it was formerly owned by C&C.

But the year 1970 did not tally with my assumption that the Hillview Mansion was built after 1980. 

A check with newspapers archives showed that most of Hillview Estate houses were built in the late 1970s, in different phases. Phase I was completed by 1961. Phase II was completed in March 1968.

The 3rd Phase, which included the land of Hillview Mansion, was launched in 1972, & showed the land of Hillview Court & Hillview Mansion as listed under ‘FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT’.  Phase III was completed in 1977.

Thus my assumption that Hillview Mansion was built after 1980 is still valid.

This also, however, showed that the land which the Hillview Mansion stood, belonged to Popular Estates P L, and not Cycle & Carriage.

Then something happened that threw me off the track and almost made me threw all my investigative works to the wind.             
 

Different Scent – The Confusion

I happened to search through the on-line archives of the Building Construction Authority website at www.bca.gov.sg . There, they keep a list of Building Plan Approvals for the year before. I found this:
  
   

It wrote that on lot(S) 1865 MK10 at Jalan Dermawan, there was going to be a proposed construction of 3 units of 2 storey detached dwelling house and a pair of 2 storey semi-detached dwelling house.

A further check on BCA also reveals that the developer was FTN Development Pte Ltd.

FTN Development? This wasn’t the name of the current owner in my search with the SLA .

When I visited its website then, it listed the Dermawan project as a ongoing project. There was a phone number listed there.

I had to make the call.

The speaker on the other line replied to my query and said that:

“Yes, We are going to build houses there. It’s at the hilltop, right at the end of Jalan Dermawan. We had just demolish the house there”.   

Demolish the House?? !!

You can imagine my anguish and fear as I drove up Jalan Dermawan. There wasn’t that many houses in Hillview Estate that you could go around demolishing without the notice of someone who had a bird’s eye of the whole place (none, in fact). But when I reached there, I was relieved. The gate still stands.

So it wasn’t the Hillview Mansion he was talking about, though the description fit pretty closely.

Armed with information available I once again visited SLA and procured the following information: Lot(S) 1865 MK10 was formerly a number of properties bought over by F.T.N. They were 140, 142, 139, 141, and 143 of Jalan Dermawan. They were all brought over in 1996 at an average price of $3.8k per sqm.

Now I had the house numbers. I located the gate easily. It wasn’t the gate I was interested in.
  
             

Pic above: Proposed erection of houses behind this gate threw me off-scent for a while. Behind the gate in the distance is Hillview Court , a row of terrace houses right opposite Hillview House gate.
 
The houses were not built yet, and F.T.N. had taken the houses’ proposed erection off its Current Project List, probably due to the poor real estate development outlook in Singapore at that time.