2 Upcoming Interesting New Launch Condos In 2024: An Overview Of The Hill @ One North And Marina View Residences

With 40+ upcoming developments this year, buyers are going to be hit with a rush of options; especially now that we’re past Chinese New Year. On the one hand, you want to move fast since prices rise in later launch phases; on the other, you might want to wait to see a wider range of options. So we’re going to jump the gun a bit and provide an early snapshot for those who are waiting to see. Two new launches are upcoming in the One-North tech hub, and in the prime Marina Bay area: here’s a look at The Hill @ One North, and Marina View Residences:

The Hill @ One North

One-North is a major tech and media hub. It’s home to names like A*Star and Razer, and the nearby JTC LaunchPad houses various start-ups as well as engineering initiatives. The MediaCorp Campus is also within the vicinity of this area, close to Biopolis and Fusionopolis. This is a good catchment area for tenants; and the presence of schools like ESSEC and INSEAD further adds to the demand. 

Key locational advantages

Access to tertiary education institutes, and potential as student lodging, are both obvious standouts. 

The Hill @ One North is just next to One-North Eden and One North Residences, located next to the green space of One North Park. It’s next to NTU, which might appeal to both families, as well as landlords seeking student tenants. On the other side of the park, along Slim Barracks Rise, is ESSEC Business School.

While One North Eden and One North Residences do provide competition, it’s certainly not yet a major drawback. This is because both the projects are quite small (405 units at One North Residences, 165 units at One North Eden), so housing demand may still be trailing demand. Note that The Hill @ One North itself is just as small at 142 units, although the developer has yet to disclose the exact tenant mix (we would expect one or two-bedders to make up a large portion though, given the obvious rental appeal). 

Due to the huge cluster of office spaces, from Biopolis to Fusionopolis to Ayer Rajah Crescent, there should be no shortage of foreign worker tenants either; and given the nature of the industries here, they’re likely a demographic that can afford to rent private condos.

Another advantage is the proximity to Buona Vista and Holland V. From One North MRT station (CCL), it’s just one stop to Buona Vista, and two stops to Holland V. Buona Vista is where you’ll find The Star Vista, a major mall catering to this area, whilst Holland V is a famous lifestyle and expatriate enclave. 

Do note that One North MRT station is connected to Fusionopolis and is within walking distance, and Fusionopolis itself has day-to-day amenities. There’s a supermarket, pharmacy, and food court, as well as numerous eateries. The range of dining options here is also very wide and underrated, and includes places like Timbre+ at One North. 

One potential drawback is that buyers tend to see One North as a tech hub rather than a “true” neighbourhood.

This is partly exacerbated by the lack of Primary and Secondary schools in this area (Fairfield Methodist is the only option at both levels, within one kilometre). And whilst there’s marketing claiming that ACS is near, we’d be careful to double-check the details (we’ll clarify as soon as we can). The Hill appears to be just slightly out of the one-kilometre range. 

There is some truth to the impression that it’s more of a work area, as it can resemble parts of City Hall during weekends (i.e., during weekends everyone leaves to find entertainment elsewhere – probably Holland V or Buona Vista – thus leaving the Fusionopolis/Biopolis stretch feeling quite dead). Still, the ability to easily travel out to the nearby hotspots should make up for this. 

Comparisons to nearby alternatives

We don’t yet have prices for The Hill, but it is widely expected for prices to be upward of $2,400+ psf (a little on the high side, partly because The Hill is also expected to have a lot of smaller units). We’ll clarify this as more information becomes available. 

In the meantime, we looked at nearby two-bedders and their price points for comparison:

Dover Parkview 

2 bedder size approx. 9XX sq. ft.

Last transacted: $1.24 million to $1.29 million ($1,3XX psf)

Rental $4,000-$4,200 

This is a leasehold project dating back to 1997, hence the unit sizes and lower price points. While larger and cheaper, it is notably further away from both One North as well as Buona Vista MRT stations. The large unit sizes may appeal more to families, but the distance from the train stations could make it less attractive to tenants.

Heritage View

Two bedder size approx. 969 sq. ft. onwards, 

Last transacted: $1.345 million to $1.43 million

Rental: $4,000 to $4,500

This project is leasehold and dates back to 2000. As with Dover Parkview, it’s much further from the train station than The Hill @ One North, and would be of more interest to families than landlords. 

One North Residences 

Two bedder size approx.  980 to 1,109 sq. ft.

Last Transacted: $1.4 million to $1.81 million

Rental: $3,750 – $5,000

One of the main alternatives to The Hill, as it’s a neighbouring project. This is a leasehold property completed in 2009, so lease decay is not yet significant. One distinctive quality of One North Residences is that it has units which go up to a four-bedder in size (and you can see even the two-bedders are bigger). As an odd quirk, this project has one-bedders that are over 1,000 sq. ft. 

In general, families who want to live near the Fusionopolis/Biopolis area might prefer this to The Hill, just based on living space. Landlords may find the quantum for such large units unpalatable though.  

Rochester Mall Residences (The Rochester Residences)

Two bedder size approx. 1,200-1, 300 sq ft

Last transacted prices: $1.88 million – $2.18million ($1,975 psf)

Rental: $6,200 – $7,000

This has always been a difficult property to summarise, as it draws very polarised opinions. It sits on top of a mall and is within walking distance to The Star Vista (and hence Buona Vista MRT). However, there are constant arguments about whether the price is too steep, or in fact too low for the excellent Buona Vista area. 

The mall component, by the way, is also quite divisive. Some people will tell you they only go to Starbucks there, while some people love it and say it’s convenient despite the not-very-stellar range of tenants. Overall, this is one of those love-it-or-hate-it developments. Do take a look here for more details, from an actual resident. 

Blossoms by the Park

Two bedder size: 678 – 872 sq ft

Last transacted prices:

$1.969 million to $2.094 million ($2,402 psf)

Blossoms by the Park is still under construction, so it’s a bit early to make useful comparisons, but we can see that the price psf is close to what realtors estimate for The Hill @ One North. We think the same of Blossoms as we do for One North Eden right now, in terms of comparison (see below).

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One North Eden

Two bedder size approx. 797 sq. ft.

Last launch purchase: $1.632 million 

Known listed price: $2.16 million

The other neighbour of The Hill @ One North (next to One North Residences), is also still under construction. It will be finished roughly a year before The Hill @ One North (2025), so landlords here may get a slight edge in speed. As with Blossoms by the Park, it’s a bit early to compare; but with the condos being so close – and both being small projects – it will come down to a close comparison between facilities and layout.

Marina View Residences

Marina View Residences is launching at a difficult time, as recent cooling measures (which raised ABSD to 60 per cent for foreigners) are having an inordinate effect on the Core Central Region. Nonetheless, Marina View Residences appears to be counting on the sheet strength of location.

We probably don’t need to tell you that Marina Bay is both a commercial hub, as well as a major tourist destination; from Marina Bay Financial Centre, to the hotels and high-end designer stores, this is one of the best-known spots for luxury condos. Also for those who didn’t know, there’s a fourth tower in the works for Marina Bay Sands (this was announced in 2019), which will add 1,000+ hotel rooms and a 15,000+ seater auditorium; so in line with Singapore’s attempts to be an entertainment and concert hub, this area still has more to offer.

Locational advantages

This is one of the fanciest parts of the CBD, so Marina View has access to just about any amenity you need (although it tends to be pricier food and entertainment). Marina View also has walking access to five different train lines:

• Shenton Way (TEL)
• Downtown (DTL)
• Tanjong Pagar (EWL)
• Marina Bay (NSL, CCL, TEL)

This makes it one of the most accessible condos ever. It’s also bound to draw attention as a rental asset for affluent tenants, as this is where a lot of major financial institutions have offices; and more or less within the heart of the CBD. 

That being said, Marina Bay is not often considered a family living area. While some extreme urbanites may love it, this is a densely packed area surrounded by roads and other large buildings, and it’s prone to traffic issues. Green spaces also tend to be a bit touristy and manufactured, with a wholly different vibe from neighbourhood parks (e.g. Gardens by the Bay is nice, but not exactly the kind of place you’d go to kick a ball or play catch after school). 

There are also no primary or secondary schools in enrolment distance here, but that could change in the future given that there will be HDB developments nearby. For the immediate term though, we’d look more at one and two-bedroom units, or at most a three-bedder, when details come clear; this may be more of a landlord’s buy. 

Looking at the previous history of the place, most developments here have not been profitable, given that there wasn’t really a clear plan for the area. You can see now though from the URA Master Plan that there’s going to be a lot invested here in the future. So while the recent white site here drew only one bid, which was rejected (and doesn’t quite bode well for developer confidence in the near future), it also speaks of the confidence of the Government to be invested in this region.  

There could be some serious challenges faced by Marina View Residences though

As mentioned above, the recent cooling measures have adversely impacted this region. Besides Marina View Residences, Newport Residences has also postponed its launch, and it seems that both developments are adopting a cat-and-mouse game to see who would take the plunge to launch first. There is also Skywaters Residences in the same vicinity that is yet to launch, but given that will be at an even higher price point we won’t be commenting on that much here.

We do note that IOI (the developer for Marina View) has mainly looked at commercial rather than residential for this area; their two other purchases nearby have been the to-be-redeveloped Shenton House (office), and another commercial plot. They are clearly invested in the area, and they do have the advantage of buying the land more affordably due to the commercial component. Also, this means that they don’t have the issue of ABSD, which makes these properties less of a worry. But it is worth noting that the upcoming Kingsford Marina Gardens is residential, so they will likely price quite aggressively as they have the ABSD timeline.

(IOI also does have a lot of experience with commercial real estate in the CBD though, so they may feel able to navigate these waters) 

Performance-wise, the Marina area hasn’t always shown up best in our previous lists; here, for instance, you can see that several condos in this area, such as Marina Bay Suites, make a few appearances. This is unlikely to look better given the higher ABSD right now, but we’d need to wait for more details because we can do a more concise comparison. The developer will need to do something convincingly different to buck the trend. If priced well accordingly to comparables like the 3-bedder at Marina Bay Residences – at a smaller, yet more efficient layout it could be quite attractive.