An entity linked to Italian aristocrat, financier, property investor and art collector Luca Padulli has sold a pair of freehold shophouses in Neil Road for S$40.88 million.

The amalgamated property, at 136 and 138 Neil Road, is home to the Goethe-Institut in Singapore, a cultural institution of the Federal Republic of Germany that promotes the study of the German language abroad and encourages international cultural exchanges.

The new owner of the property is understood to be a wholly owned subsidiary of Aw & Sons Capital.

The property’s estimated total land area is 3,627 square feet (sq ft).

“The buyer got an extremely good deal,” said a shophouse industry watcher.

The price works out to about S$3,580 per square foot (psf) based on the gross floor area (GFA) of 11,428 sq ft. On the total built-up area of about 13,800 sq ft (including open terrace and five-foot-way space), the price translates to nearly S$3,000 psf.

The price is significantly lower than the guide price of about S$65 million indicated in July last year when the property was put on the market via an expression of interest exercise conducted by Colliers and List Sotheby’s International Realty (List SIR). The guide price translated to about S$5,690 psf on GFA and S$4,710 psf on built-up area.

The property was transacted in February this year via private treaty, with Colliers and List SIR co-broking the deal. The sale has been completed.

The property has dual frontages on Bukit Pasoh Road and Neil Road. It comprises four storeys and a basement. The second and fourth levels include open roof terrace spaces.

Designed by architectural firm Swan & Maclaren, the shophouse pair was completed in 1926.

Extensively restored

The shophouses, which are in the Bukit Pasoh Conservation Area, are on land zoned for commercial use.

Padulli’s Singapore-incorporated vehicle Bidwell paid S$17.5 million for the property in 2011 and undertook extensive restoration works. These included structural reinforcement, widening of staircases and upgrading the fire safety provisions. Market watchers estimate the cost of the refurbishment at S$5 million to S$6 million.

Goethe-Institut Singapore has a master lease on the property and moved into the building in 2014.

It occupies the second, third and fourth levels as well as the basement, and has been subletting the first level space to F&B tenants.

The most recent tenant was The Glasshouse cafe, which stopped operating its restaurant in the building recently.

The directors of the buyer, Aw & Sons Capital, are Aw Chye Wee and his son Josh Hu.

The senior Aw is the chairman of Aw & Sons Group, according to the group’s website. His father, Aw Kim Chen, founded Aw & Sons Group and diversified the original rubber business into a property company.

Who’s this low-profile Italian count?

Padulli, the seller of the Neil Road shophouse pair, is aged 71. Hailing from a Milanese family, he studied economics and moved to London to work in finance; he co-founded the Camomille Associates hedge fund and investment management business, according to UK media reports.

Padulli also founded Infusive Asset Management; the firm’s strategies include a framework to invest in companies that inspire strong emotional bonds and loyalty.

The count is one of the biggest private landowners in Norfolk county, England, regional newspaper Lynn News reported in April 2025.

Across the UK, too, Padulli is one of the biggest landowners. In addition to owning farmland and country estates, his companies own the freehold of about 100,000 properties in the UK, the article stated.

Norfolk is where Padulli has made a home in a 16th-century moated manor and estate in Barton Bendish village.

The count’s impressive art collection was revealed in 2017, when he was identified by the media as the party who had sold an estimated S$100 million of drawings – including by Goya, Degas, Rubens and Michelangelo – to the Getty Museum.