Look inside a Singapore supermarket billionaire's $50 million mansion, which combines a historic bungalow with an ultra-modern house and has a 100-foot swimming pool

singapore billionaire bungalow Lim Hock Chee — The home is a "good class bungalow," Singapore's most rare and coveted type of real estate.
TA.LE Architects

Singapore billionaire Lim Hock Leng lives in a $50 million historic bungalow combined with a modern mansion.
Lim, who co-owns Singapore's 3rd-largest supermarket chain with his two brothers, has amassed a fortune of $1.2 billion with his brothers.
The mansion features a swimming pool that starts indoors and extends outside.
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On a secluded, leafy street in Singapore, supermarket billionaire Lim Hock Leng lives in a $50 million bungalow.

Lim is the co-owner and managing director of Singapore's third-largest supermarket chain, Sheng Siong, which operates more than 60 stores in the city-state.

Lim's older brother, Lim Hock Chee, is Sheng Siong's CEO, while the eldest brother, Lim Hock Eng, is executive chairman. Together, the three brothers own a majority stake in the company, putting their combined net worth at $1.2 billion, according to Forbes.

Lim's home is a "good class bungalow," Singapore's most rare and coveted type of real estate.

The city-state has a limited number of good class bungalows, making them a status symbol reserved for the ultra-wealthy.

The design of Lim's home combines a historic Singapore bungalow with an ultra-modern home.

"From the front, it looks very unassuming," one local real-estate agent, who has visited the home and wished to remain anonymous, told Insider. "But if you look from the back it's a monstrous house that towers over the whole neighborhood."

The back of the home shows off the modern addition that was designed as "as a series of stepped terraces with green roofs," according to the architecture firm.

Singapore-based architecture firm Ta.le Architects oversaw the restoration of the colonial bungalow and designed the new bungalow.

Lim paid 35 million Singapore dollars - or about $26.2 million - for the land and the historic colonial bungalow in 2015, a spokesperson for his company confirmed to Insider.

The executive then spent roughly SG$30 million ($22.4 million) to restore the bungalow and build the attached modern bungalow, which was completed in 2018, the spokesperson said.

That brings Lim's total investment in the property to nearly $50 million.

The architecture firm, Ta.le Architects, dubbed the finished property "Hidden House."

Source: Ta.le Architects

The home has three courtyards, one of which features a grassy lawn and sits between the historic bungalow and the modern bungalow.

Source: Ta.le Architects

Another courtyard separates the living room and the dining room of the new bungalow and brings light and air into the center of the house.

Source: Ta.le Architects

The third courtyard on the lowest level of the home is where you'll find the 98-foot swimming pool, which extends from indoors to outside of the house.

Above the pool is a staircase designed to "glow in the night," according to the architects.

Indeed, the entire rear facade of the home does appear to glow at nighttime.

Source: Ta.le Architects

The bungalow sprawls across 33,700 square feet.

Source: Ta.le Architects

Rather than going for pure opulence, the architects said they designed the home to create a "minimalistic luxurious experience."

Source: Ta.le Architects

Last month, Lim gave a tour of his home to the South China Morning Post and told the publication that he shares his home with different generations of his family.

Source: South China Morning Post

The architects therefore designed large bedrooms - almost like independent apartments - to accommodate Lim's four children and his parents.

Source: Ta.le Architects

The bungalow's formal dining area can accommodate at least 15 people.

Source: Ta.le Architects

Many of the home's common areas appear to open up to the grassy terraces.

Source: Ta.le Architects

Photos of the home show lavish marble bathrooms.

Source: Ta.le Architects

There's also a massive walk-in closet.

Source: Ta.le Architects

The spacious office seems appropriate for the managing director of a major supermarket group.

Source: Ta.le Architects

The home's amenities include a fitness center, a sauna and squash court, a pool table, and a home theater with 14 seats.

Source: Ta.le Architects

When he set out to build the house, Lim said he told the architects, "'You are building this house for my neighbors, not me.'"

"When you build a house, that house has to become scenery for your neighbors," Lim told the Post during the tour.

Lim told the Post that he considers spending so much money on a house to be a bit "extravagant."

But for Lim, the cost was justified. His father always wanted the whole family to live together but couldn't afford a large enough home, Lim said, so he sees the house as realizing his father's dream.

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