Is Your New Launch Within A Popular Primary School Now? 122 New Projects Updated With The New Home-School Distance Changes
- Ryan J
- September 10, 2021
- 6 min read
- Leave comment
One of the biggest concerns among home buyers is school proximity. Even if you don’t have children yourself, it’s well known that schools are part of the “secret sauce”, when it comes to future appreciation. Now that the Ministry of Education (MOE) has announced changes to the home-school distance (HSD), some condos may be much closer in enrolment range; and some rare few are further. Here’s what you need to know:
What’s the relevance of school proximity?
When enrolling children in a school, those who live within one kilometre have a better chance of success. To oversimplify a little:
First priority of placement goes to children who already have an older sibling, in the same school. If, after this, the school is oversubscribed, then those living within one kilometre will have a greater chance of success.
After this, those living within two kilometers have priority; but the odds of getting in are quite slim at that point.
As such, parents angling for a particular school often pick their property based on this proximity. Likewise, property investors, looking for resale gains, often prefer developments near high-demand schools.
Besides this, living near the school means children waste less time travelling back and forth, can sleep in a little longer, run back desperately to get any homework they forgot during recess, etc.
How is the distance to the school calculated?
This is where the home-school distance comes in. You can use OneMap to check the “official”, recognised distance from a property to the school.
There has, however, been a significant change to the distances of late. The old system of measurement worked by calculating the distance from a development, to a given point (usually the centre) of a school.
This is now being changed, so that the measured distance is from the School Land Boundary (SLB), to the home. The shortest distance from the SLB to the home will be used.
In most cases, this means schools will be closer for home buyers. However, these three schools will actually be further, as their original reference point was outside their SLB:
- Cedar Primary School
- Maris Stella High School
- Marymount Convent School
MOE has said that the previous distance will still apply for these schools, for the 2022 school registration; but this is a one-off event. The affected addresses for these schools can be found here.
New launch projects and the primary schools within 1KM
This table showcases the latest new launches that have registered a sale transaction, as well as their respective postal codes. You can sort or search by postal code to see the primary schools within 1KM.
Note that for the schools above, we have used postal codes for the purposes of the HSD. Some new launch condos may not be reflected, in the event there are no transactions, as their postal codes would not appear for us to determine distance.
What about primary schools by ranking?
We understand that a project near a popular school is a selling point, and so we decided to showcase primary schools by ranking and map out the respective new launches that are within 1km of it:
As popularity is subjective, we decided to follow the rankings done by schlah.com.
Note that within the same development, some blocks are in range while others aren’t
In terms of the HSD, we note that some developments have blocks within a one-kilometre range, whereas other blocks are not. For example:
In Treasure at Tampines, postal codes like 528458 to 528466 are within a one-kilometre radius to Junyuan Primary School, whereas postal code 528457 is not.
For The Woodleigh Residences, postal codes 367804 to 367806 are within range of St. Andrews Junior School, whereas most others are not.
So because this is done by postal code, it will mean that some blocks are close enough to be in the enrolment range, whilst others are not.
This does mean that it could perhaps lead to premium pricing for the stacks in question. It could also represent an issue for postal codes like 266075 to 266076 in Leedon Green, for which there are no schools within a one-kilometre distance (the rest of Leedon Green is mostly within one-kilometre of Nanyang Primary School).
For those interested in the full details, here are the new launches with primary school discrepancies within the development itself:
Project | Postal Code Range | Primary Schools |
Affinity At Serangoon | 554304 to 554340, 555895 to 555902 | Rosyth School Zhonghua Primary School |
Affinity At Serangoon | 554341 to 554342 | Rosyth School Xinmin Primary School Zhonghua Primary School |
Avenue South Residence | 168872 | Cantonment Primary School CHIJ (Kellock) Radin Mas Primary School Zhangde Primary School |
Avenue South Residence | 168873 to 168878 | CHIJ (Kellock) Radin Mas Primary School Zhangde Primary School |
Jadescape | 575746 to 575747 | Ai Tong School Catholic High School |
Jadescape | 575742 to 575745, 575749 | Catholic High School |
Kopar At Newton | 228606 | Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) Farrer Park Primary School St. Joseph’s Institution Junior St. Margaret’s Primary School |
Kopar At Newton | 228607 | Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) Farrer Park Primary School St. Joseph’s Institution Junior |
Leedon Green | 266077 to 266222 | Nanyang Primary School |
Leedon Green | 266075 to 266076 | There are no schools within 1km of this address. |
Park Colonial | 357657 to 357685 | Cedar Primary School Maris Stella High School St. Andrew’s Junior School |
Park Colonial | 357686 to 357688 | Cedar Primary School Maris Stella High School St. Andrew’s Junior School Yangzheng Primary School |
Sengkang Grand Residences | 544567 | Anchor Green Primary School Montfort Junior School Nan Chiau Primary School North Vista Primary School Palm View Primary School Punggol Primary School Yio Chu Kang Primary School |
Sengkang Grand Residences | 544568 to 544574 | Anchor Green Primary School Montfort Junior School Nan Chiau Primary School North Vista Primary School Palm View Primary School Punggol Primary School Seng Kang Primary School Yio Chu Kang Primary School |
Sengkang Grand Residences | 544693 | Montfort Junior School North Vista Primary School Palm View Primary School Punggol Primary School Yio Chu Kang Primary School |
The Florence Residences | 533753 to 533759, 538865 | Holy Innocents’ Primary School Montfort Junior School Xinmin Primary School |
The Florence Residences | 538860 to 538864 | Holy Innocents’ Primary School Montfort Junior School Xinghua Primary School Xinmin Primary School |
The Gazania | 538527 to 538530 | Cedar Primary School Maris Stella High School Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Primary) |
The Gazania | 538533 to 538555 | Maris Stella High School Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Primary) |
The Tre Ver | 358391, 358398 | Pei Chun Public School St. Andrew’s Junior School |
The Tre Ver | 358392 to 358397 | First Toa Payoh Primary School Pei Chun Public School St. Andrew’s Junior School |
The Tre Ver | 358399 | Pei Chun Public School St. Andrew’s Junior School |
The Woodleigh Residences | 367794 to 367796 | Cedar Primary School Maris Stella High School St. Andrew’s Junior School |
The Woodleigh Residences | 367797 to 367798 | Cedar Primary School Maris Stella High School Yangzheng Primary School |
The Woodleigh Residences | 367799 – 367801 | Cedar Primary School Maris Stella High School |
The Woodleigh Residences | 367804 to 367806 | Cedar Primary School Maris Stella High School St. Andrew’s Junior School |
Treasure At Tampines | 528457, 528478 | Changkat Primary School Chongzheng Primary School Tampines Primary School Yumin Primary School |
Treasure At Tampines | 528458 to 528466, 528468 to 528477, 528479 to 528485 | Changkat Primary School Chongzheng Primary School Junyuan Primary School Tampines Primary School Yumin Primary School |
Treasure At Tampines | 528467 | Changkat Primary School Chongzheng Primary School Junyuan Primary School St. Hilda’s Primary School Tampines Primary School Yumin Primary School |
Verdale | 599449, 599460 to 599461 | Bukit Timah Primary School Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School |
Verdale | 599458, 599462 to 599464 | Bukit Timah Primary School |
Do note that developments without any differences in primary school proximities are not included in the table above.
It’s a good time to recheck your shortlisted properties
Some condos will now become more attractive, thanks to schools being (on paper) closer.
Fourth Avenue Residences is a good example: it was previously just outside the priority distance for Raffles Girls School, at about 1.1 kilometres. However, our recent check shows that Raffles Girls School is now considered within the one-kilometre mark. The Jovell, which previously only had East Spring Primary in range, is now also within one-kilometre White Sands Primary.
Of all the new launches, Sengkang Grand Residences currently has the greatest number of schools within priority distance: eight schools, including the popular Nan Chiau Primary.
Treasure at Tampines and Kopar at Newton come next, with five schools in priority distance.
For families who want to be near specific schools, we’d suggest do you a quick recheck of development distances now. If you left out any properties that were just out of range, they may be back in the picture now.
Which new launches still don’t have schools within one-kilometre?
The following new launches haven’t benefitted from revised distances. They have no schools in priority distance:
- The Reef at King’s Dock
- Normanton Park
- Some blocks at Kent Ridge Hill Residences
- Midtown Modern
- Midtown Bay
- The M
- Park Nova
- Boulevard 88
- 3 Cuscaden
- Cuscaden Reserve
- 19 Nassim
- Some blocks at Leedon Green
- Hyll on Holland
- One Holland Village Residences
- Van Holland
- Mooi Residences
- Royal Green
- Meyer Mansion
- One Meyer
- Kandis Residence
- The Essence
Don’t forget to consider real distances, not just distances on paper
Some overlooked aspects are the number of busy roads your children have to cross, or whether your block is deep in and just entails a longer walk. Sometimes, distances on paper don’t match the reality; online routes may include unnecessary diversions, or ignore the distance to a safe crossing.
Short of visiting yourself, we suggest you use Google Street View to manually check the route.
In the meantime, follow us on Stacked, so we can update you as the situation develops. You can also visit Stacked Homes for the most in-depth reviews of new and resale homes, in the Singapore private property market.
If you’d like to get in touch for a more in-depth consultation, you can do so here.