SINGAPORE - Two grandsons of OCBC Bank’s founding father Lee Kong Chian have been buying big-ticket properties recently.

Mr Lee Shih Kwei is acquiring a freehold bungalow in Barker Road for $43.2 million, or $2,737 per square foot (psf) on a land area of 15,783 square feet (sq ft).

Located diagonally opposite

Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road)

Mr Lee Shih Hua himself recently bought two units, one above the other, at the Seven Palms Sentosa Cove condominium for a total price of nearly $23.9 million.

The price works out to $2,717 psf on a total strata area of 8,794 sq ft. The units, which are on the lower levels of the four-storey beachfront condo, were sold by the project’s developer, a subsidiary of SC Global Developments.

The project is on a site with a remaining land tenure of about 81 years.

In October 2025, a ground-floor unit in the development fetched $12.5 million, or $2,714 psf, on the strata area of 4,607 sq ft.

In December 2025, a 7,987 sq ft unit on the sixth floor of Turquoise, a waterway and golf-course facing condominium in Sentosa Cove, sold for $1,502 psf, or a total of $12 million.

Analysts surmised that the Lee siblings will in all likelihood be paying 30 per cent additional buyer’s stamp duty on their respective purchases; this is the rate for Singapore citizens buying their third and subsequent residential properties.

A market watcher said Lee Shih Kwei’s Barker Road bungalow purchase may be strategic, perhaps more for privacy reasons, as it is on higher ground compared with the most immediately adjacent of the four Chancery Road properties h...