In 1901, they subdivided the property into 38 plots, ten of which they kept while the remaining twenty-eight lots were sold to various people. One of the persons who bought three lots (Lots 6, 7, 8), was an influential Peranakan named Lim Boon Keng. The builders of houses at Emerald Hill Road were mostly Peranakans or Straits-born Chinese in general; at least fifty-nine out of 112 houses were built in total. The first house in the area was built in 1902. By 1918, 33% of houses have been built.