Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam rented a state property at Ridout Road after deciding to put his Good Class Bungalow family home up for sale, Parliament heard on Monday .
“I was advised that it would be wiser not to have most of your savings in one asset. So I decided to put [it] for sale.”“I also do not regret having forgone my previous earnings as a Senior Counsel. It’s a privilege to be in public service.‘I liked black-and-white bungalows’: Shanmugam The minister added that he initially offered $25,000 after his agent advised that it would be “fair”.‘Net deficit’ when paying for 26 Ridout Road rent
“I am in essence, using my previous lawyer’s income to pay for the rental of 26 Ridout Road,” Shanmugam said.Adding that he spent more than $500,000 of his own money on improvements to the black-and-white house, Shanmugam shared that he “knew that he would not benefit from them” once the lease was over.Shanmugam ‘happy’ to give up additional land
The minister said that his concerns “are not theoretical”, highlighting a past incident where a woman died after a tree – previously inspected and assessed to be healthy – fell on her at the Botanic Gardens in 2017.