Homes in area prove resilient to recent cooling measures
RESIDENTIAL property in the Holland and Bukit Timah neighbourhoods has proved resilient in the face of January's cooling measures.
Both rents and sale prices in these areas are on the rise, even as the cooling measures have so far led to slower sales in other prime city neighbourhoods such as Leonie Hill.
ECG Property says it has seen a 4 per cent to 7 per cent rise in the number of people renting homes in the Holland/Bukit Timah area, compared with last year.
"One reason could be that many of these tenants are expats and are renting instead of buying due to job uncertainty stemming from the shaky global economic outlook. More of the clients that we meet are also asking for shorter leases of one year instead of the usual two," said Chris International director Chris Koh.
But sale prices are doing well too. Data compiled by SLP International shows that in the past 16 months, some projects in the Holland area have shown sale price increases of up to 8 per cent.
Homes in Pandan Valley, a freehold residential project in Ulu Pandan Road, saw an average sale price of $951 per square foot (psf) for the eight-month period between November 2011 and June last year.
Over the next eight months, the average sale price rose almost 8per cent to $1,027 psf.
Mr Koh said districts 9, 10 and 11 are perennial property favourites, especially among tenants seeking the vibrancy of city living without the hassle of travelling too far or paying too much in Electronic Road Pricing.
Several newly completed projects have recently added more homes to the Holland/Bukit Timah property market.
Units at the recently completed Trizon project in the Mount Sinai neighbourhood are being rented out for between $6,500 and $7,000 a month for a three-bedroom unit.
Sizes for those apartments start from 1,500 sq ft.
At neighbouring Ridgewood Condominium, a 1,615 sq ft apartment was being offered for lease at $5,000 a month. The condominium was completed in 1981.
Market experts said the rents offered for units at the freehold Trizon project will no doubt be higher than those in surrounding neighbourhoods because of the newer facilities and finishings in the apartments.
They said these newly completed and upcoming projects will also lift the neighbourhood by pushing up the area's overall rents and selling prices.
Ms Jackie Lee, a real estate agent who deals in rental properties in districts 9, 10 and 11, cited a 1,500 sq ft apartment in Devonshire Road as an example, saying it would have gone for $8,000 a month last year.
But since the completion of the One Devonshire project, a similar-sized unit along the same stretch can now fetch $9,000 a month, she said.
The introduction of an upcoming residential project at the site of the former Henry Park Apartments is expected to further boost buying and leasing interest in the Holland/Bukit Timah area.
Far East Organization bought the mixed-use development in a $175.9 million en bloc deal in December 2011 - the largest collective sale for that year.
The 999-year leasehold site is off Holland Road, directly opposite Henry Park Primary School.
While no firm details about the upcoming project have been announced, construction is expected to start in the first half of this year.
