Toa Payoh is poised to change its image as one of Singapore’s oldest housing estates as more land within the area are earmarked for new homes, reported the media.
While Housing Board flats are among the priciest in the township, its Build-to-Order (BTO) units received overwhelming interest on Friday last week, with 3.9 applicants for every three-room unit and 9.1 applicants for every four-room flat.
According to Mohamed Ismail Gafoor, CEO of PropNex Realty, “In general, Toa Payoh is in a central location and properties will usually benefit from being located there.”
Aside from being the nearest HDB estate to Orchard Road by MRT, the city-fringe town is also home to two stations on the North-South Line.
Moreover, the estate’s Caldecott station will serve as an interchange for the Thomson Line and Circle Line. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has set aside the vacant land near the station for new homes to form part of Toa Payoh.
A parcel of land in Toa Payoh Lorong 6 has been placed on the reserve list of the Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme earlier this year. If triggered for sale, the site could yield 535 housing units.
Meanwhile, consultants noted Toa Payoh is comprised mainly of public flats, with no new condominiums for at least three years.
The number of private homes transacted within the mature estate dropped following last year’s cooling mesures, said R’ST Research Director Ong Kah Seng.
Specifically, transactions fell from about 25 resale units per quarter before 2013 to 15 per quarter now.
Nonetheless, Toa Payoh’s three private condos – Trevista, Trellis Towers and Oleander Towers – still witnessed strong capital value as well as rental yield growth, said consultants.
Average resale prices at these projects ranged from $1,121 to $1,460 psf last year, while monthly rents stood between $3.60 and $4.10 psf.
Ong noted although Toa Payoh residents are mostly served by shops located within the HDB estates, the site of Toa Payoh Secondary School may be rezoned for retail facilities after the school is merged with Bartley Secondary School in 2016.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons/User: Terence
Muneerah Bee, Senior Journalist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email muneerah@propertyguru.com.sg
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