Galven Tan, deputy managing director of investment sales and capital markets at Savills Singapore, resigned from the property consultancy with immediate effect on Tuesday (Nov 7) to take up a new post as chief executive officer at rival Knight Frank Singapore.

Knight Frank announced on Tuesday that Tan will be joining the consultancy in February 2024.

He will be taking on a role vacated by Wendy Tang, when she left Knight Frank as group managing director in November 2022.

The consultancy said Tan’s immediate focus will be on strengthening its core service lines and further developing its market presence. He will be supported by a team of “well-established department heads with deep experience across a range of real estate sectors”, it said.

Knight Frank executive chairman Danny Yeo noted that there are “great investment opportunities” in the market for institutional investors and property funds. “I am confident that Galven’s extensive industry experience and knowledge, stellar track record in investment sales and capital markets, and proven leadership capabilities will help Knight Frank to harness these opportunities.”

Tan will be leaving after Savills after four years there. Prior to that, he was executive director of CBRE’s capital markets team, having spent 15 years there. He has handled transactions valued at more than S$15 billion in the past decade.

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Tan said he has “thoroughly enjoyed” his time at Savills, where the team had transacted several high-profile deals “of which (he was) very proud of”. This includes the sale of Tanglin Shopping Centre for S$868 million in February 2022, and Flynn Park condominium for S$371 million in September 2021. In April this year, three floors at Solitaire on Cecil were sold for S$162.8 million or S$4,300 per square foot. 

Jeremy Lake, the consultancy’s managing director of investment sales and capital markets, highlighted that the team at Savills remains “totally committed” to their clients. 

“The team remains very busy working on a number of active projects, with some key collective sales assignments on Orchard Road worth in excess of S$1.3 billion launching imminently,” he said. 

Savills Singapore CEO Marcus Loo added: “It is with deep regret seeing Galven leave... Given that our clients are very familiar with... the rest of the capital markets team, I am confident given the tremendous depth of talent, there will be no disruption in our service delivery and transaction volume.”

Tan is the latest senior level departure at Savills. 

In early July, executive director and head of residential services and international residential sales Jacqueline Wong left, after more than 10 years at the consultancy.

She was replaced by Adrian Lim, who was later joined by Ruben Koh as co-head of the international residential sales team.