Analysis

Freehold Doesn’t Always Mean It’s Better: A Case Study Between Jardin And Gardenvista

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Sean

Sean has a writing experience of 3 years and is currently with Stacked Homes focused on general property research, helping to pen articles focused on condos. In his free time, he enjoys photography and coffee tasting.

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caseyaff
caseyaff
3 years ago

Jardin is a terrible property. Its long and narrow, with weirdo layouts as you pointed out. It’s like the Linear in UBT road. Rather unlivable. Gardenvista isn’t great either, since it’s right next to the humongous flyover. Skip mayfair modern too, psf too high and dodgy developer. Go for Blossomvale. Best buy there.

jalan
jalan
3 years ago

have a friend who bought garden vista. his unit faces the huge flyover and the traffic noise is annoying if the windows are open. on top of that, it has west sun from living to bedrooms. double whammy. facilities wise, they are bit old and dated but the pool is huge and nice.

Stacked Homes
Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  jalan

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this!

Peter Foo
Peter Foo
3 years ago

I lived in one of those. My 2 cents.

Jardin is a very nice development and feels much higher end than GV. The view from the rooftop swimming pool goes all the way to MBS. However, the issue is that most larger units are facing GV, with no view. The ones with a view of rifle range road are smaller (one or two bedder), which are not popular (too large for a one/two bedder). The non-loft units are located at the junction of the flyover and dunearn road and roadworks and noise have been persistent. ALL the units face the west sun. In other words, it is hard to find a good stack at the development.

GV is much better in terms of space. The pool is huge and located far from the units, offering privacy (for both swimmers and residents). Everyone in the pool has their own space. The rooftop tennis courts offer a view of Bukit Timah hill, which is great (except in the evenings where bats would swoop around the courts). Compared to the condos in the area, GV is (in my opinion) is the nicest in terms of layout, public spaces, and maintainence.
However, the freeholder of GV is Far East. Residents may have difficulty a collective sales in future.

Stacked Homes
Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  Peter Foo

Wow thanks for sharing your thoughts on this Peter! Really detailed. I hope more readers would see your comment!

Concerned Buyer
Concerned Buyer
3 years ago

In 2003 master plan, Jardin and GV plots were actually one plot.

I believe FEO owns the freehold title of GV. If that’s really the case, then GV will definitely have issue to go enbloc in my own opinion as the “landlord” of the land to top up the lease will theoretically be FEO.

So with that in mind; this 2 plots owners are actually both FEO, so the price strategy and future of GV actually still lies with FEO as the decaying lease may be to the advantage of FEOz

xp chang
xp chang
2 years ago

FEO do not own the FH rights to Gardenvista. The plot is a regular 99 years plot.
Jardin and Garden both sits on former YHS land. The land had a mix of freehold and lease hold plot in different locations.
A private landswop deal was done to carve out a freehold portion and a leasehold portion. it makes development easier.
Garden was developed by YHS before it was acquired by FEO.

To find out owner of the land, you can head to SLA to buy the information for a few dollars. Especially if you want to avoid buying ‘carved out’ leasehold plots from FH land holders

Disclosure, i own a unit in Jardin(1st owner), but am renting a smaller unit in Gardenvista since i’m staying alone. Points raised in the post are valid, but with PSF of mayfair already in the low 2000 range, i’m confident Jardin will catch up in the future.
If not, i’ll just keep it for the rental.

My concerns are not with the unprofitable transactions for Jardin at the moment, i’m more concerned about future redevelopment for Garden if it goes enbloc. I’m going to be wedge between the road and a construction site. 1BR sizes in garden now is close to 870 sqft. it’s huge. Some of the newer developments are cramping 3BR into 900 ish. I can’t imagine how many more units the new developer will cramp into the current garden plot.

Anyway, it’s unlikely that will happen within the decade. i’m confident i can offload and cashout with a small profit by then.

Traffic noises are still bearable with the doors and windows closed in Jardin, i’ve never had issues sleeping nor have i been woken up by traffic before. The convenient location more than make up for the negatives highlighted.

The only bug bear i have is the car access. The main road went from 2 way, to 1 way, and now back to 2 way again, and i still have to make a loop down Jalan anak bukit to access Jardin.

Sean the writer
Sean the writer
2 years ago

Ever since this article has been published, price of Jardin continues to be suppressed. However, for potential tenants looking to rent an apartment in the area, most of them will choose Jardin and pay an even higher rent. This is because the units do look more Arthas then the rest. So for anyone looking for a slightly better rental yield, Jardin may be a potential choice especially since it is freehold and does not depreciates like GV or the other units nearby.

Stacked Homes
Admin
2 years ago

Jardin has been suppressed for quite some time now, and prices have not yet recovered since the highs of 2012/13. It could be a case that this development is considered “undervalued” since it is FH and prices have been pretty stagnant for some time while the market has picked up. It’s just a matter of whether the secondary market comes to accept that this property is priced below what it’s really worth.

Kiro
Kiro
2 years ago
Reply to  Stacked Homes

Just a thought- given that the price of Jardin has been “oppressed” while the value of surrounding properties have been going up, is it currently at a normalised stage where the current value of Jardin reflects the true market value as compared to surrounding?
In this case, would Jardin’s value be rising in tandem with the rest of the surrounding properties or continue to be stagnant?

winnie
winnie
2 years ago

Is Gardenvista a state land? ie after 99 years, it goes back to gov or it belongs to Fareast?

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