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Lau Sok Hiang

Co-Head, Real Estate and Corporate Real Estate

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Practice Areas

Qualifications

  • LL.B. (Hons), National University of Singapore (1995)
  • Admitted to the Singapore Bar (1996)
Overview

Sok Hiang is a Director and the Co-Head of the Real Estate and Corporate Real Estate Practice Group.

Her primary areas of practice include all aspects of real estate work, and banking and finance transactions.  She has extensive real estate and real estate financing experience. 

She has advised major institutional clients, including listed real estate developers, real estate investment trusts (REITS), multi-national corporations (including multinational technology corporations), major investment and property development groups with operations in the Asia Pacific region and beyond, property funds and asset managers, and high net worth individuals, on major real estate and real estate financing transactions, including the disposal (including collective sales), acquisition, leasing and financing of large local plant projects, data centres, large residential and industrial developments, prime commercial real estate, hotels and integrated resorts. 

Sok Hiang is experienced in the structuring of real estate transactions, loans and other financial transactions. She has advised extensively on complex land issues, including issues relating to properties owned by the various statutory boards, such as SLA, JTC and HDB (including advising on the policies relating thereto, which could involve other statutory boards such as the URA and EDB) in relation to a myriad of transactions such as sale and purchase transactions (relating to property or shares), financing transactions, commercial and industrial leasing transactions, and other real estate-related transactions.

She advises major local as well as offshore banks and lending syndicates, finance companies and insurance companies on loan and other debt-related financing, including bilateral and syndicated loans and acquisition financings. 

Sok Hiang is also a member of the Valuation Review Board, a Tax Board/tribunal under the Ministry of Finance, constituted under Section 23 of the Property Tax Act.

She is conversant in both English and Mandarin.

Sok Hiang’s experience includes:

  1. Acting for one of Asia’s largest real estate groups and the largest private property developer in Singapore, in the sale of units in various residential, commercial and mixed developments. 

  2. Advising on the structuring of transactions and documentation relating to integrated resorts and hotels.

  3. Acting for a Singapore-incorporated subsidiary of a US Company (with subsidiaries worldwide), which operates a worldwide digital platform, as Singapore counsel in relation to the grant of credit facilities of up to a few billion US dollars. 

  4. Acting for a Singapore-incorporated subsidiary of a Tokyo-listed company in the lease of its new flagship store and largest retail space in Singapore (a large-format store concept, comprising electronics, IT, furniture and lifestyle concepts, spanning six storeys) in a retail podium of a commercial building in Orchard Road. 

  5. Acting for a leading chemicals producer in ASEAN and an integrated Chlor-Alkali producer in Indonesia with Indonesia as its home base in a mezzanine financing transaction for the purposes of financing an expansion project (polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM)) at the client’s plant in Indonesia.

  6. Acting for an international developer with Indian and Middle Eastern roots in respect of the lease of land, and the development and operation of a school on the leased land, including drafting, reviewing and negotiating on a shareholders’ agreement, and advising and negotiating with the authorities on the documentation relating to the alienation of the land and the related mortgage and financing documentation thereafter. 

  7. Acting for a syndication of banks in the grant of credit facilities to a hospitality real estate investment trust, where the transaction had to be structured to take into account the interests of the various master leases comprised in the various properties.

Chambers Asia-Pacific
Real Estate 2024 – Band 3

“She is an expert in the real estate field with strong client management skills.” 

"She is certainly a very experienced and knowledgeable lawyer and a very interactive person to work with." 

The Legal 500 Asia Pacific
Real Estate 2024 – Leading Individual
Banking & Finance 2024 – Recommended Lawyer for 3 consecutive years
Projects and Energy 2022 – Recommended Lawyer

‘Lau Sok Hiang is very meticulous and careful.’

‘I have been dealing with Ms. Lau Sok Hiang for about 20 years. Excellent work with extremely high professional knowledge and expertise. The service rendered by Sok Hiang to our organisation is always very professional, reliable and prompt.’

‘I worked with Lau Sok Hiang as co-head corporate real estate in several cross borders real estate projects and she has the ability to explain complicated structure or legal issues to the clients in simple manner so that the clients can understand quickly.’

‘Ms Lau Sok Hiang and her team reply swiftly and I find them very creative and productive when handling matters.’

“Excellent work with extremely high professional knowledge and expertise. The service rendered by Sok Hiang is always very professional, reliable and prompt.”

“Lau Sok Hiang has the ability to explain complicated structure or legal issues to the clients in simple manner so that the clients can understand quickly.”

“Lau Sok Hiang and her team from Drew & Napier are responsive and creative. They are attentive to details. The charges are very reasonable.”

“Lau Sok Hiang listens to the client and takes time to explain the issues clearly. She is a joy to work with. Complex negotiations move along better with Sok Hiang around.”

“Lau Sok Hiang is very friendly and provided good legal advice on the matter at hand.”

“Depth of knowledge, customer engagement, and timely updates. Able to explain things clearly.”

IFLR1000
Banking and Finance 2023 – Highly Regarded for 2 consecutive years

"Professional and very hardworking."

Who’s Who Legal
National Leader: Southeast Asia - Banking 2024 – Recommended Lawyer for 2 consecutive years

Asialaw Leading Lawyers 
Real Estate 2023/24 – Notable Practitioner for 2 consecutive years

“She is proactive and provides solutions to difficult issues.”

“Lau Sok Hiang is a very careful and meticulous lawyer. She very much stressed getting the documents right, in the sense that it will not invite queries or challenges.”

“Responsive, going extra miles to help the client, responsible and has a good approach.”

“Ability to communicate the issues well to the client.”

“Creative and attentive to details.”

“Very professional and patient.”

“Very responsive and promptly comes up with problems solving.”

Sok Hiang is commended to be “very responsive and customer-oriented. Able to get things done with little fuss. Knowledgeable about the subject matter.”

“Helping us understand the various possible risks of the loan documents presented for signing, and provided us with recommendations to amend some aspects of the same documents.”

  • Member, Valuation Review Board
  • Member, Law Society of Singapore
  • Member, Singapore Academy of Law