| In the book Crazy Rich Asians that was adapted into the hit 2018 movie, a major plot point involves the sprawling Tyersall Park estate, so large it doesn't even have a house number. The real-life version of the plot near Singapore's Botanic Gardens has a historical pedigree to match its fictional counterpart. Despite being little more than overgrown jungle now, the land this week was the center of a deal that represents one of the biggest shakeups of ownership in the parcel's long and strange history. The owner, the eldest son of Malaysia's current king, agreed to swap 13 hectares (32 acres) of his 21.1 hectare estate next to the gardens in exchange for 8.5 hectares of state land of "comparable value" just to the west. No other details have been revealed but one analyst estimate pegs the regent's total land parcel to be worth as much as S$3.8 billion. The patch of forest has long been an anachronism of Singapore's high-priced property market, a big chunk of tangled vegetation in one of the priciest districts, a stone's throw from the US Embassy and sandwiched between luxury condos and the Unesco-listed botanic gardens. The story begins just over 170 years ago, when William Napier, Singapore's first law agent after whom Napier Road is named, built a large house called Tyersall on the plot. Ownership passed to the Sultanate of Johor and eventually to Ismail Ibrahim, the current Regent of Johor, who intends to develop his new landholding. In between, the house, and the subsequent palaces that succeeded it, hosted a glittering array of visiting dignitaries and the island's elite, according to newspaper reports at the time, including Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose assassination precipitated World War I. When the Sultan constructed a new palace toward the end of the 19th century, a report from its grand opening concluded that the Sultan could safely say he has "the best residence in the Malay peninsula."  The former Tyersall Park area in the heart of Singapore. Google Maps The opulent palaces are long gone, torn down or wrecked by fire and decay, and the vast estate has been whittled down over time in deals with the Singapore government. The current Johor royal family — Ismail's billionaire father became Malaysia's monarch last year — has been seeking permission as far back as 2021 to build a cluster of high-end homes on the estate, but planning rules stymied the project. With the new land deal, a large part of the curious patch of jungle may finally succumb to the developers' bulldozers. But there are still hurdles to overcome. Levies to be paid to transform the land from jungle into a rich enclave could amount to hundreds of millions, and any development will be assessed for its environmental impact and to ensure it is sensitive to the surroundings. For now, the family is remaining tight-lipped publicly about any plans. —Low De Wei | 
