Many of you would have heard of Canberra, one of the up-and-coming locations in between Yishun and Sembawang - with its MRT station opened in 2019, many exciting developments have been taking place in the vicinity. This is why The Watergardens came at the right time, with an affordable psf entry that will entice many. Read on to see our analysis on whether The Watergardens is a worthwhile investment!
Attractive price point: Why you might never see this price again
A key factor to unit price would be the land cost, and we are pleased to share that The Watergardens at Canberra was bought by the developer at $650psfppr, making it the 2nd lowest in the last 3 years.
The first position in lowest land cost is currently held by The Commodore, which we may add that it is a smaller landscape, which hence translates into a smaller development as well.
A quick look at the successful tenders above in recent years shows that even the site in Yishun that is not near the MRT station was sold even higher than The Watergardens, even when it was sold 2 years ago. If we take The Watergardens’ proximity to Canberra MRT station, (i.e. 350m away, a quick 5 minutes walk) this strongly shows the price advantage of The Watergardens.
What about the developments near MRT stations? From the table above, we can clearly see that The Watergardens’ land cost is significantly lower than other developments near MRT stations in the last 3 years. In fact, the last land parcel won near an MRT was the recent Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 site, which was closed at $1,118psfppr. This means a whopping $468psfppr higher than The Watergardens, giving The Watergardens a strong competitive edge in terms of price.
Even when we compare to ECs, which have their affordable price as their selling point, The Watergardens still stands out. We see recent EC sites closing at a record high of $400m, which translates to a $603psfppr. In comparison to The Watergardens, there is only a slight difference in price, which is definitely impressive given that The Watergardens is a full-fledged condominium developed by 3 impressive names - UOL, Singapore Land, and Kheng Leong. These developers have brought about amazing projects such as Avenue South Residences, Meyer House, and Clavon, just to name a few.
And we see a clear direction of prices rising steeply for sites near MRT stations - take a look at Tanah Merah Kechil, which was recently awarded at $930psfppr. Or at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 that was awarded this year at $1,180psfppr - which is almost twice the land price of The Watergardens!
Clearly, it will be extremely difficult for any of the future projects to meet the same land price as The Watergardens. With its low land price, we are expecting The Watergardens to have an attractive price of just $1,3xx - $1,4xx psf. At $1,4xx psf, it is already priced well below existing OCR units that are not even near MRT stations.
If we look at the price of projects in the OCR region, we can see that the average transacted psf ranges from $1,643 to $1,970psf for Midwood Residences, Sengkang Grand Residences and The Antares. These are all well above The Watergardens, which is expected to be within the $1,4xx psf range. We can clearly see how this is a good opportunity to tap on.
Unbeatable exit strategy: Why this is a safe investment
Many of you would know that a strong exit strategy is important when considering a unit. When the government releases master plans, the area usually performs strongly in value as the developments around the area flourish.
The transformation of the North area has been a long-developing plan, where the Woodlands Regional Centre is in the works to become the largest economic hub in Singapore’s North Region. We can expect new spaces for business, industry, research & development to be introduced over the next 15 years across the 100 hectares of developable land.
Another exciting update would be the Punggol Digital District (PDD), touted as Singapore’s first truly smart district. Commencing conceptualizing and development in 2014, PDD aims to be open by 2023 to transform the business and urban landscape of Singapore. PDD will house the campus of Singapore Institute of Technology and JTC’s Business Park, creating a one-stop spot for our developing digital economy encompassing cybersecurity and digital technology.
PDD isn’t just for work and technology development as well - in fact, it has 6 main features that you can anticipate for. It will consist of a Business Park, an area for Residence, an all-encompassing Market Village, a Heritage Trail for enjoyment, a Campus Boulevard, and finally, a site for the Singapore Institute of Technology.
Finally, and most importantly, we want to talk about the blooming new Canberra Town - Canberra has been a hot spot for BTO unit development, with over 1,400 BTO units planned in addition to the existing BTOs at Canberra. In the last 7 years, there are close to 5,800 new BTO units within the region.
What does this mean? With a huge pool of BTO units, it means that there will be numerous young couples looking to upgrade their homes once their BTO hits the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP). Naturally, they will look at the nearby resale condo units, which makes them much more likely to be interested in The Watergardens.
Here are some of the HDB projects within a 5km distance:
Given that we only have 448 units at The Watergardens, we are looking at 6 or 7 times more potential demand!
We would also like to mention that there are 3 immediate potential private plots nearby, including a white site. There are also huge parcels of land that are zoned residential in Canberra, awaiting future development. With the rising construction and land site costs, we can definitely expect the surrounding high prices to increase the value of The Watergardens.
Location Analysis Case study: High Park Residence (TOP: 2019)
To illustrate this better, we look at the case study of High Park Residences. High Park Residences was scheduled for TOP in 2019, where nearby HDBs were all reaching their MOP soon. From the image below, you can see that the HDBs included Fernvale Palms, Punggol Spring, Fernvale Crest, and more, which were all reaching their MOP between 2017 - 2018.
As such, we saw next that High Park Residences had a 33.67% increase in avg psf over the years of 2018 to September 2021, driven by the high demand from the area. Most of them came from HDB MOP flats and were indeed homebuyers that were interested in upgrading their living space from HDB to private units.
Still unsure and have questions on the property? If you would like property guidance that is tailored to your needs and preferences, reach out to our team of agents that is well equipped with the latest property news and updates.
The above is written by Kaeden Ong. To know more, contact him at +65 9048 0660.
The information provided is for generation information purposes only and does not have regard to specific investment objectives, financial situation and the particular needs of any recipient hereof. No information here should be used as legal, taxation, or investment advice.
Comments