Copen Grand sold 73% on preview day.

On the first day of sales booking on October 22, a total of 465 out of a total of 639 units, or 72.8%, were purchased at Copen Grand, which is Singapore’s first executive condominium (EC) located in Tengah Town, the country’s first smart and sustainable zone.

The launch price was around $1,300 per square foot on average, with an extra 3% added for those who choose the delayed payment system (DPS).

The joint developers of Copen Grand, City Developments Ltd and MCL Land released a statement on October 23 stating that all unit types were warmly accepted by purchasers, with the exception of the four-bedroom luxury flats, which were completely sold out.

Prices start at 1.08 million dollars for a two-bedroom with study unit, and go up to 1.48 million dollars for a premium four-bedroom unit. The premium homes with four bedrooms were priced starting at $1.58 million, while the premium units with five bedrooms were priced starting at $1.88 million or above. The smallest apartment is a two-bedroom with study, which is 807 square feet, while the largest unit is a premium five-bedroom penthouse, which is 1,722 square feet.

The conversion percentage for the first day of sales at Copen Grand was 20.3%, based on the 2,300 electronic applications that were received between October 7 and October 17 in the lead-up to the launch.

The results have made Copen Grand “the top-selling executive condo in terms of the number of units and % sold in Rivercove Residences back in 2018,” according to Mark Yip, the CEO of Huttons. ”

Rivercove Residences is an executive condominium (EC) development located at Anchorvale Lane in Sengkang. On the first day of introduction in April 2018, approximately 80% of the apartments in the development were purchased. The number of apartments sold at Copen Grand has exceeded the 414 that were purchased on the first day of opening for Parc Central Residences in Tampines in January 2021.

Much more surprising is the fact that the sales feat was accomplished just three weeks after the most recent set of property cooling measures went into effect on September 30. This makes the accomplishment even more remarkable.

“The cooling measures does not really have an effect on the sales of the ECs because they were not intended to bring down the market but rather to address the higher interest rate and to caution property buyers to exercise greater financial prudence,” says Ismail Gafoor, the CEO of PropNex.

Desmond Lee, Minister for National Development, confirmed this in Parliament on October 4 and said that the steps were taken “to moderate demand in the HDB resale market and to ensure that HDB flats continue to stay affordable.”

According to Gafoor of PropNex, the strength of the sales at Copen Grand demonstrated that these homebuyers “have the financial means to bridge the gap” despite the interest rate being raised from 3.5% to 4% for banks in assessing mortgage repayment risk assessment for residential property. This was the case despite the fact that the interest rate floor had previously been set at 3.5%. This applies to both the total debt servicing ratio (TDSR) for private property, which was lowered to 55% in December of last year, and the mortgage servicing ratio (MSR), which has been restricted at 30% for HDB flats and ECs.

According to Huttons’ Yip, the distinctive feature of ECs is that eligible homeowners “may select for the deferred payment arrangement and utilize the building time to build up their funds.” This is one of the advantages of purchasing an EC.

According to the calculations provided by Huttons, a married couple with a combined monthly household income of $14,000 who decide to take out a 75% loan over a period of 30 years will need to make contributions to the Ordinary Account of the Central Provident Fund for 3.1 years in order to make up for the lower loan amount. According to Yip, “electing the delayed payment arrangement enables purchasers of ECs to weather the present high interest rate environment.”

According to Sherman Kwek, the group CEO of CDL Group, Copen Grand has the potential to become “a future symbol for Tengah Town.” Tengah, Hong Kah, and Tengah Plantation are the names of the forthcoming MRT stations that will be part of the Jurong Regional Line. When this development is finished in 2027, it will be within walking distance of all of these stations, as well as a bus interchange. It has excellent connections to the Choa Chu Kang, Boon Lay, and Jurong East MRT stations that are already in operation.

Kwek believes that this project represents the pinnacle of sustainable and innovative ways of living. “Copen Grand residents will love living in such a precinct since this magnificently master-planned neighborhood is going to have forward-thinking infrastructure as well as extensive facilities coming up in the near future.”

“We are keen to see our buyers’ benefitting from first-mover advantage come to fruition as Tengah Town, Singapore’s first smart and sustainable precinct matures and flourishes with Copen Grand at its center,” says Rob Garman, CEO of MCL Land.

According to Doris Ong of ERA Singapore, Copen Grand was “extremely enticing” to homeowners since it was the first executive condominium (EC) in Tengah, which was Singapore’s first car-free town center.
According to Ong, the vast majority of the people who purchased homes in the Copen Grand development were residents of the west, but there were also purchasers who came from other parts of the country, including the east. “First-time homebuyers are more mobile, as opposed to most couples with children of school-going age who are unwilling to disrupt their education by moving too far away from their existing or preferred schools,” the author writes. “First-time homebuyers are more mobile than most couples with children of school-going age.”

According to Gafoor of PropNex, there was tremendous demand from first-time homeowners as well as second-time homebuyers, and the 30% quota that was provided for second-time purchasers was entirely picked up by yesterday at 2:00 pm. “This demonstrates that there is a great deal of additional second-timers who are interested in purchasing a home in Tengah but were unable to do so yesterday,” he continues. “Yet, yesterday, all of the available units were purchased by first-time buyers.”

According to Gafoor, the fact that demand from repeat customers and those looking to upgrade is so high is not unexpected at all. Prices per square foot for recently released suburban condominiums with 99-year leaseholds ranged from $2,100 to $2,110 in recent releases. Prices for newly constructed homes are now in the range of $1,300 to $1,330 per square foot. According to Gafoor, the price differential between ECs and suburban condominiums is around $780 to $800, or 58% to 60%. These people who are upgrading their homes have “came to the realization that if they desire the lifestyle of a condominium with amenities, a private condo may be beyond of their grasp, but ECs give a value proposition.”

According to ERA’s Ong, second-time buyers do not have to pay an extra buyer’s stamp duty, and they do not have to sell their previous houses until they get the keys to their new executive condominiums. Even in that case, she explains, they have up to six months to sell the apartment they now occupy. They do not have to go through the trouble of looking for a rental home to use as a stopgap and the inconvenience of relocating again.

According to CDL, the period of time for electronic applications from second-time purchasers will be from November 17 to November 23, and sales booking will begin on November 26.

The larger Jurong Master Plan incorporates the newly planned community of Tengah as one of its components. It is located in close proximity to important employment hubs in the west, such as the Jurong Innovation District, the Jurong Lake District, and Tuas Port. Gafoor, from PropNex, believes that this will encourage people to purchase homes. “Based on the quantity and percentage of units sold, it should convey confidence to the market,” which was my expectation for the success of the Copen Grand project.
According to Yip, who works for Huttons, the fact that sales were successful at Copen Grand would give developers more confidence when they are competing for EC land parcels.