Kenny's Take
The clearest read today is a split between land and resale. Hong Leong and TID just paid $1,755 psf ppr for the Orchard Boulevard site — 8.5% above the $1,617 psf ppr UOL and SingLand paid for the UpperHouse plot right next door back in 2024, and the third-highest rate for a pure residential CCR site since 2018. Five parties bid, which tells you this wasn't one developer overreaching alone. Underneath that, the resale market is more mixed: Tomlinson Heights and The Draycott both posted strong long-hold gains, but a second Mon Jervois penthouse is heading to auction after its sibling unit failed to sell in September at a similar guide price. If you're holding prime-district freehold or near-freehold stock bought pre-2015, today's prints are useful comps for what buyers will still pay — but the Mon Jervois auction is a reminder that not every unit in a good project clears at the top of the range right now.
🏙️ Hong Leong-TID Pay $1,755 Psf Ppr For Orchard Boulevard GLS Site — 8.5% Above The 2024 Benchmark Next Door
- Hong Leong Holdings and TID's joint venture submitted the top bid of $181.86 million ($1,755 psf ppr) for the 37,006 sq ft Orchard Boulevard site, which sits at the corner of Orchard Road and Tomlinson Road and can yield roughly 110 units across about 103,624 sq ft of GFA on a 99-year lease. Five bids came in, ranging from $1,350 to $1,755 psf ppr, with the winning bid beating runner-up Global Resource Construction's $167.85 million ($1,620 psf ppr) by 8.3%.
- The result lands 8.5% above the $1,617 psf ppr that UOL Group and Singapore Land Group paid for the adjacent UpperHouse site back in 2024, and analysts are calling it the third-highest land rate for a pure residential Core Central Region GLS plot since 2018. For anyone tracking where new-launch CCR pricing is headed, this is the freshest and most direct signal — developers don't bid this confidently unless they expect to sell well above today's comps.
📊 Tomlinson Heights Duplex Resells For $14.8 Mil — A $3.58 Million Profit After 15 Years
- A 4,047 sq ft five-bedroom duplex at Tomlinson Heights changed hands for $14.8 million ($3,657 psf) on 15 October, after the seller bought it for $11.22 million ($2,773 psf) back in May 2011. That's a $3.58 million gain (31.9%) over roughly 15 years, working out to an annualised return of about 1.8% a year — a reminder that prime-district paper gains can look large in absolute terms while compounding modestly year to year.
- It was the single most profitable condo resale logged in the week of 13–20 October, though it still falls short of the project's own 2022 high, when a larger duplex penthouse sold for a $4.7 million gain. Useful benchmark for anyone holding Tomlinson Heights stock or comparable District 10 duplexes bought in the early 2010s.
🏢 The Draycott Hits A New $2,801 Psf High, Capping A Decade Of Steady Freehold Gains
- A 2,637 sq ft three-bedder at The Draycott, a freehold District 10 project completed in 1980, sold for $7.39 million ($2,801 psf) on 16 October — a new high for the project, above the previous $2,723 psf mark set just three months earlier on 28 July. Resale psf at the project has climbed from around $1,731 in October 2016 to roughly $2,345 by October 2026, before this latest transaction pushed it further.
- There's no new launch anchoring this pricing — it's pure secondary-market demand for an older freehold address in a tight location. Worth noting for clients who assume ageing freehold stock caps out: the right District 9/10 postcode can keep setting records decades after TOP.
🔨 A Second Mon Jervois Penthouse Heads To Auction After Its Sibling Unit Failed To Sell
- A 2,368 sq ft three-bedroom duplex penthouse at Mon Jervois goes under the hammer with SRI on a $4.38 million ($1,850 psf) guide price — barely above the $4.36 million ($1,841 psf) the owner paid for it in September 2022. It's the second Mon Jervois penthouse to hit auction this year: a larger 2,626 sq ft unit was offered by Knight Frank in September at a $4.83 million guide and didn't sell, and remains on the market by private treaty at $4.6 million.
- Two similar units from the same project struggling to clear at auction in the same year is a data point worth watching if you're pricing penthouse or large-format stock for a quick sale — guide prices close to cost basis aren't automatically clearing in this segment right now.
🔭 What I'm Watching
- Thomson Reserve's VIP booking opened today for developer staff and past buyers, with the general public booking day tomorrow, 31 October — the real test of whether yesterday's ~3,200 cheques (2.5x subscribed) convert into firm sales.
- Whether the Orchard Boulevard result pulls more developers back into bidding up Core Central Region GLS sites, or turns out to be an isolated case — only one of five bidders was willing to go above $1,620 psf ppr.