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Condominium project Terra Hill, a joint venture between Hoi Hup Realty and Sunway Developments, will get a sneak peek on February 10th. At the very top of Yew Siang Road, in a peaceful residential area, you’ll find Terra Hill, just 350 meters from the Pasir Panjang MRT Station on the Circle Line.
Terra Hill is a low-density development with just 270 apartments in nine five-story blocks, while is situated on a freehold site of 208,445 square feet with a plot ratio of 1.4. All apartments are larger than 100 square meters since the development is located outside the Central Area.
District 5’s Queenstown Planning Area is home to Terra Hill, a luxury residential development. Koon Wai Leong, general manager of Hoi Hup Realty and spokesperson for the joint venture partners, states, “We sought to raise the quality of the project in this market category.” “Despite its District 5 location, the project’s specs and design elements are on par with those of high-end developments in D9, D10, and D11,” the developer said.
Limited Freehold Condo Launch in Vicinity
The Ridge Hill Residences, with 548 units, were the final significant residential project to be introduced to the area in November 2018. Apartments and fifty strata-titled terrace homes share the 99-year leasehold property on South Buona Vista Road. As of November 2022, the whole development has been sold out, with the most recent sale being a $3.266 million ($1,580 psf) strata terraced home. Apartments sold between July 1, 2022, and November 30, 2022, had asking prices between $1,644 and $2,062 per square foot, as shown by reservations.
According to Ken Low, managing partner of SRI, the last freehold construction in the Pasir Panjang district within walking distance of an MRT station was the 120-unit Bijou by Far East Organization in 2014. It is located just across from the Pasir Panjang MRT Station, on Jalan Mat Jambol. The most recent sale at Bijou was a two-bedroom, 775-square-foot flat that went for $1.755 million ($2,265 psf) in late November.
“There are relatively few new freehold developments in the Rest of Central Region (RCR), notably District 5,” adds Low. An additional freehold condo is planned for the higher section of Pasir Panjang Road, with a release date of 3Q2023. The Gloria Mansion has been demolished and replaced with a 59-unit condo complex. In January of 2022, the site was sold in its entirety to a private investment entity managed by Daniel Teo and his brother Teo Teck Weng, together with the collective investment platform of Fraxtor Group, for the sum of $70.3 million.
Unlike Bijou, which was finished in 2018, the most of the condos in the area around Terra Hill date back to the 1980s. This includes the 32-unit Pepys Hill, the 20-unit The Peak and the 72-unit Island View.
The former Flynn Park, built in 1986 as a freehold condominium with 72 units, has been reimagined as Terra Hill. In September of 2021, Hoi Hup and Sunway paid $371 million to acquire the whole property. Hoi Hup’s Koon explains that this was a chance to do something really special.
Terra Hill’s hilly setting allows for the development of two distinct price points to serve various clientele. The Prestige Collection, comprised of three similar blocks, totals only 30 apartments and sits atop the property. The Signature Collection consists of the remaining six buildings and 240 apartments.
Catering to HENRYS
24 of The Prestige Collection’s 30 apartments have four bedrooms, and each one is 1,894 square feet in size. The remaining six apartments are all penthouses with double-volume ceilings and five bedrooms. Homes in The Prestige Collection provide unobstructed views of their surroundings.
According to Koon, the living rooms in the four-bedroom apartments in The Prestige Collection will be 6 meters wide at the front, which is the same as the width of an intermediate terraced home. Additionally, he mentions that the living rooms in the duplex penthouses with five bedrooms include a 9-meter frontage.
The apartments in the Prestige Collection, as befits such a luxurious building, will have complete marble flooring with 800mm x 800mm tiles, a private elevator lobby, en suite bedrooms (including master and junior master suites), and enough storage space.
Appliances from the Swiss company V-Zug are among the luxurious features available in The Prestige Collection’s kitchens. Each unit will also include two refrigerators—a V-Zug integrated fridge in the dry kitchen and a Samsung fridge in the wet kitchen. The bathroom fixtures and sanitaryware are manufactured by renowned European companies including Gessi of Italy and Laufen of Switzerland.
Luxury Living at Terra Hill
Each apartment in Terra Hill will have solar panels on the roof and a ceiling fan in the main living area. As a result of these efforts, Terra Hill was one of the first private residential complexes in Singapore to get the Platinum and Super Low Energy certifications from the Building Construction Authority (BCA).
Two-bedroom apartments at The Signature Collection begin at only 624 square feet in size. From 802 square feet, you may have a two-bedroom with a study. Units with three bedrooms begin at 904 square feet, while those with four bedrooms begin at 1,302 square feet. There are just five 2,120–2,164 square foot duplex penthouses available.
All apartments in The Signature Collection have kitchen equipment from the French company De Dietrich, with the exception of the five-bedroom duplex penthouses. Gessi and Laufen produce the bathroom fixtures and sanitaryware.
Prices for the Signature Collection at Terra Hill start at $1.5 million for a two-bedroom, go up to $2.3 million for a three-bedroom, and exceed $3.4 million for a four-bedroom. Condos with four bedrooms in the Prestige Collection start at over $5 million.
Koon claims that there is a market for “high earners, not wealthy yet” (HENRYs) at the “$5 million to $7 million price bracket.” “These are well-to-do people who like to indulge in life’s finer things,” he adds. As of right now, they may not be able to afford the four- or five-bedroom homes in the premium, freehold districts of 9, 10, and 11, but we feel we can fill that gap with a new product in the $5 million to $7 million price range.
Near Upcoming Greater Southern Waterfront
Huttons Asia CEO Mark Yip describes Terra Hill as “one of the few projects that are near the future Greater Southern Waterfront (GSW) – which might be the largest makeover for Singapore after Marina Bay.” The area of GSW, at 2,000 hectares, is six times that of the Marina Bay commercial sector, which occupies just 360 ha. Since Terra Hill is a freehold development with just 270 units, “owners may enjoy the advantages of GSW for decades to come,” he says.
Terra Hill residents will be able to walk directly to Kent Ridge Park, HortPark, and Southern Ridges, a 10-kilometer nature route that links HortPark, Telok Blangah Hill Park, Kent Ridge Park, Mount Faber Park and Labrador Park, after the project is finished in 2028.
Low of SRI points out that the convenience of Terra Hill’s location near the Pasir Panjang MRT Station is not to be underestimated. He claims that the lack of the three MRT stations at Keppel, Cantonment, and Prince Edward has led to an underestimation of the Circle Line’s worth. The completion of these three MRT stations in 2026 will also improve the value of homes in the Circle Line’s immediate vicinity.
When the Circle Line’s loop is finally closed, commuters from Pasir Panjang will have just seven stations to make before reaching the heart of the city. To accommodate the expanding population in the GSW corridor, “half of the Circle Line stations connect with stations on other lines and sit along the GSW,” as stated by SRI’s Low.
Bustling Rental at District 5 Singapore
District 3 (Alexandra, Tiong Bahru, Bukit Merah) and District 15 (Katong, Amber Road, Joo Chiat) have the highest average rental rates and rental transaction volumes in the RCR, while District 5 (Pasir Panjang, Clementi, Buona Vista, West Coast) is not far behind. Many technological enterprises and the National University of Singapore are situated in the many commercial nodes that surround District 5. These include Mapletree Business City, Alexandra Technopark, one-north, and the Science Parks (NUS). Therefore, the residential projects in the region can maintain their worth.
According to Nicholas Mak, director of research & consulting at ERA Singapore, three further residential complexes are set to open this year in District 5. Both of the additional residential developments, in addition to the one on the site of the former Gloria Mansion on Pasir Panjang Road, are located on government land sale (GLS) properties in the one-northern neighborhood of Slim Barracks Rise. EL Development’s Blossoms By The Park has 275 units, while Kingsford Development’s The Hill @ One-North has 142.
Since they are scheduled to debut in the following months, “these initiatives are unlikely to be in direct rivalry with Terra Hill,” says Mak.
Freehold Condo to command a Premium
The CEO of PropNex, Ismail Gafoor, observes that freehold properties often sell for a 15–20 percent premium over a 99-year leasehold properties in the same area. With 99-year leasehold condos near MRT stations in the OCR going for an average of $2,100 psf right now and 99-year leasehold projects in the RCR going for $2,300 to $2,400 psf, he predicts that freehold buildings near MRT stations in the RCR will be priced in the $2,500 to $2,600 psf area.
Low of SRI thinks so too. According to estimates, the price disparity between Terra Hill’s expected $2,600 psf pricing and the $2,300 to $2,400 psf prices of new leasehold projects in the RCR within walking distance of an MRT station is between 8% and 11.5%. He continues, “The growing potential of the GSW gives ideal exit options when new advancements come along, whether you’re purchasing for your personal use or investment.”
Huttons’ Yip thinks that anybody who acquire Terra Hill now will have an edge because of the proximity to the GSW. He suggests that some of the area’s landed property owners, who may be looking to downsize, would want to consider purchasing a unit for their children or themselves. Since NUS and other nearby commercial nodes, including as Science Park and the Alexandra sector, attract a sizable tenant pool, SP Group is constructing Labrador Tower, a Grade-A office skyscraper expected to be finished in 2024. “It will increase the area’s working population, another incentive for investors,” he says.
According to Gafoor of PropNex, investors are finding solace in the fact that the most recent interest rate boost by the US Federal Reserve was just 25 basis points, in contrast to the four rate hikes of 75 basis points seen last year. Homebuyers should rest easy knowing that interest rates have reached their high and will eventually level out.
