Dunearn House is the first private residential launch inside the Bukit Timah Turf City transformation — the first new project on this stretch of Dunearn Road in 33 years — and it sold more than half its 380 units within days of its 25 July booking day. Most of what you will read about it is either brochure enthusiasm or generic caution. This review is neither. I will show you why I rate the corridor green and the entry price amber-red at the same time, and why that combination — a genuinely strong location bought at a premium to its own resale comparables — makes this the classic first-mover trade: right for a specific buyer with a specific holding period, and wrong for several buyer types who are being marketed to anyway. Figures are as at end July 2026; verify the latest before committing.
The Facts First
Dunearn House is a 380-unit, 99-year leasehold project across five blocks of 10 to 19 storeys at Dunearn Road, developed by a Frasers Property, CSC Land and Sekisui House joint venture. (You will see "360 units" circulating in some reviews — the correct count from the sales system is 380.) Expected TOP is around end-2030. Sixth Avenue MRT on the Downtown Line is 297 metres away — a genuine five-minute walk, measured, not brochure-measured. Raffles Girls' Primary is within the 1km priority band, with Nanyang Primary and Methodist Girls' in the 1–2km ring and the Hwa Chong / National Junior College belt down the road. Launch pricing started at $1.475M for 2-bedders ($2,799 psf), $2.597M for 3-bedders ($2,978 psf) and $3.588M for 4-bedders ($3,030 psf). As at end July, roughly 55% is sold with about 169 units remaining.
Notice Something Odd in Those PSFs?
In most launches, the smallest units carry the highest per-square-foot price. Dunearn House inverts that: the 4-bedroom is priced at a higher psf than the 3-bedroom, which is higher than the 2-bedroom. That inversion is a message from the developer's pricing desk: they know the deepest, most motivated demand here is the school-belt family, and they are charging that family a premium for the privilege. The 2-bedroom — roughly 45% of the project — is the volume product priced to move. Understanding this tells you where the negotiating tension sits in each unit class, and why the "cheap" headline psf belongs to the unit type most buyers in this corridor need least.
The Land Story — Cheapest CCR Land of the Cycle
The developers paid $1,410 psf per plot ratio for this site in the first half of 2025. Every comparable central-region site sold since has gone for more: the site literally next door — awarded just months later — went for $1,625 (+15%), River Valley Green for $1,730 (+23%), Bukit Timah Road for $1,820 (+29%), and Peck Hay Road in Newton for $1,865 (+32%). This is the same margin-of-safety logic I walked through in my Thomson Reserve review: the first project out of a repricing corridor carries the cheapest land, and every later launch is mathematically forced to ask more. When the next-door site launches — likely 2027 — its pricing will make Dunearn House's look conservative. That is the entire first-mover thesis in one sentence.
Now the Uncomfortable Number
Here is what the marketing will not show you. Take the 2-bedroom entry at $2,799 psf, add buyer's stamp duty, estimated construction-period interest and selling costs, and your true break-even on exit is roughly $3,020 psf. The nearest freehold comparable — Royalgreen, 400 metres away, TOP 2023 — has transacted at an average of about $2,745 psf over the last twelve months. Read that again: your break-even on a 99-year leasehold is around 10% above what the freehold next door actually trades at today. The counterpoint is real — D11's new-sale median is already around $2,917 psf, so Dunearn House is priced within its new-launch market — but the gap to resale comps means this purchase only works if the Turf City re-rating actually happens. You are not buying a discount. You are buying the cheapest ticket to a corridor repricing story, and you should hold it for at least seven years to let that story play out. Anyone who tells you this is a "cheap entry" is doing you a disservice.
Demand, Supply and the Moat
Like Bright Hill, this precinct has a confirmed supply vacuum: no completed large-scale condo within 500 metres built after 2000. The corridor is Good Class Bungalow territory and boutique freeholds — Royalgreen at 285 units, Sixth Avenue Residences at about 175. When Dunearn House hits the resale market, it will be the modern full-facility option in its own catchment. My demand-supply scoring puts all three unit classes in "good" territory (7.5–8 out of 10), with the 3-bedroom strongest — though I will flag honestly that the proxy data here is thinner than I would like, resting heavily on The Cascadia a kilometre away.
The Exit — and the One Timing Trap
Future buyers are easy to name in this corridor: young central-region couples and legacy purchases for the 2-bedders; school-belt families for the 3-bedders (the deepest pool — RGPS's 1km priority comes with an occupancy lock-in that forces exactly the multi-year hold this thesis needs); cash-rich landed rightsizers from the Bukit Timah belt for the 4-bedders. The timing trap is the next-door site: around 330 units on land bought 15% higher, likely launching 2027 and reaching TOP around 2031 — squarely inside the typical five-year exit window. The play is to exit early into their launch marketing (their higher pricing re-rates yours) or extend past 2033 into precinct maturity. What you do not want is to be selling in the exact year their keys are handed over and their sub-sale units compete with yours.
Who Should Buy — and Who Shouldn't
The five-star fit is the school-belt family buying the compact 3-bedroom for own stay: the 1km priority, the MRT walk, and a seven-plus-year natural holding period that matches the corridor thesis perfectly. Strong fits: the Bukit Timah landed rightsizer taking a 4-bedroom or premium 3-bedroom, and the legacy buyer parking a 2-bedroom for the next generation — classic D11 behaviour. Conditional fit: the first-mover investor taking a 2-bedroom at $1.475M as the cheapest central-region entry of the 2026 pipeline — but only if you genuinely underwrite the Turf City story with a seven-year horizon. Poor fits, and I will say this plainly: HDB upgraders who can get twice the space in RCR or OCR for the same money unless the address and schools are the whole point, and yield investors — D11 rental yields are thin and this is a capital-appreciation project, full stop. If you are buying for rental income, screen yourself out now.
Which Units
My sweet spot is the compact 3-bedroom (872 sqft, from $2.597M) on a low-to-mid floor facing the landed housing — full capture of the school-MRT-corridor story at a psf close to the 2-bedroom band, with the deepest future buyer pool and genuine scarcity. Second pick is the 2-bedroom-plus-study on a high floor, landed-facing, for legacy and investor money. The stacks over the height-protected GCB belt have structurally permanent low-rise views — a premium that cannot be built away, which is the only kind of view premium worth paying for. The Dunearn Road and PIE-facing stacks carry traffic noise; they should come with a visible discount, and if they don't, walk.
My Verdict
Green corridor, red entry gap — both things are true. Dunearn House holds the cheapest central-region land of this cycle in a corridor with a 33-year supply drought, a measured five-minute MRT walk, and a school belt that guarantees its future buyer pool. It is also priced roughly 10% above its nearest freehold resale comparable on a break-even basis, which makes it a conviction purchase on the Turf City transformation, not a bargain. If you fit the buyer profiles above and can hold seven years, the first-mover maths favour you — especially with roughly 169 units left and the sweet-spot 3-bedroom stacks thinning. If you want to check whether your numbers, timeline and unit shortlist actually clear the framework — including the stack-level facing and pricing detail that never makes it into reviews — message me on WhatsApp and I will walk you through the working.
This review reflects analysis and live sales data as at 30 July 2026. Availability and pricing change quickly post-launch — verify current figures before making any decision. This is general information, not financial advice.