By KALPANA RASHIWALA

(SINGAPORE) Hong Kong movie superstar Jackie Chan and his good friend singer/songwriter Emil Chau, who were in town recently for last Sunday's Thong Chai Charity Night, also picked up some properties in Singapore.

The duo bought four apartments at Lippo Group's freehold Centennia Suites worth over $10 million last week. The four units are on the mid- to high floors of the 36-storey condominium project, which is being built on the former Kim Seng Plaza site, opposite Great World City and facing the Singapore River.

Mr Chan is said to have picked up three units - two, three, and four-bedroom apartments - making up an entire floor.

Mr Chau, who is now known as Wakin, purchased a three-bedder. The two men visited the Centennia Suites showflat on Friday last week.

The 97-unit District 9 development, which is expected to be completed in 2013, is now almost half sold.

The average price is about $2,000-2,100 per square foot. The range of prices achieved is $1,900 psf to nearly $2,200 psf. Lippo began selling the project last month.

Mr Chan is no stranger to the Singapore property market. In late 2007, he bought the former Jinriksha Station at Neil Road for $11 million.

Lippo and Mr Chan have also had business dealings before. Mr Chan used to own a unit at Grangeford Apartments, which was sold through an en bloc sale to Lippo's listed arm Overseas Union Enterprise a few years ago.

Mr Chau was born in Hong Kong but lives and works in Taiwan. The singer has a loyal fan base in Singapore. He has also acted in a few of Mr Chan's films, such as Mr Nice Guy and Gorgeous.

Last year, international action star Jet Li bought a Good Class Bungalow at Binjai Rise for $19.8 million. The property has a freehold land area of about 22,700 sq ft.

This article was first published in The Business Times.