Cheong Hock Chye & Company operates from a corner shophouse.
1896
Knight Frank & Rutley is founded as a valuations, surveying and auctions business. Its first sale takes place at Conduit Street, London.
1940
Cheong Hock Chye & Company is set up as a property consultancy in Singapore, located in a two-storey shophouse at the corner of Chulia Street and Raffles Place. The firm’s six-man team does mainly real estate valuation and auctioneering of chattels and properties. The office relocates to 14 Robinson Road after a bomb lands at its doorstep during World War II.
1955
On behalf of the Government, Cheong Hock Chye & Company conducts an auction to sell 96 terrance houses at Jalan Kolam Ayer.
1970s
The firm’s valuation practice expands as the firms acts for many clients whose properties are compulsorily acquired by the State.
1980s
The firm merges with Knight Frank & Rutley group of UK and Baillieu Real Estate Australia group, with Cheong Hock Chye & Company holding 55 per cent of the new entity, Cheng Hock Chye & Baillieu Pte Ltd. The firm’s appointment as consultant and marketing agent for OUB Centre at 1 Raffles Place marks its first foray into commercial agency work. It enters into retail consultancy with its appoitment as property consultant for Takashimaya and retail marketing agent for Ngee Ann City.
1990s
The decade marks many firsts for the firm: Urban Redevelopment Authority appoints Cheng Hock Chye & Baillieu to conduct their first auction of historic Chinatown shophouses; the firm brokers Singapore’s first collective sale of Cozy Mansion for $24.7 million, and achieves the biggest commercial property leasing deal of the year at Millenia Tower.
In 1996, Knight Frank Pte Ltd replaces Cheng Hock Chye & Baillieu as part of global branding exercise. The firm forms KF Property Network Pte Ltd to better serve clients in the secondary housing market in 1998.
2000s
Knight Frank Estate Management Pte Ltd forms to provide professional property management services. In 2006, the firm is the first property consultancy appointed to manage a shopping centre in Singapore. The firm's multi-disciplinary team engages in significant corporate and national-level projects including strategic planning for Chinatown and Orchand Road, large property portfolio valuation, and consultancy for commercial spaces at Gardens by the Bay and Universtity Town.
2015
Knight Frank Singapore celebrates its 75th anniversary, and continues to shape and influence the local real estate landscape.