This “Affordable Central” Neighbourhood Has Outperformed Singapore’s Condo Market Over The Past Decade

Aljunied, Paya Lebar and Eunos are sub-locations in the Geylang planning area, which makes up part of the Central Region. From a real estate perspective, these three locations are noteworthy areas on the map, namely for the diversity of properties that can be found within such a relatively tight cluster.

As neighbourhoods, Paya Lebar and Eunos share the perception that they are “more central but still east”, while Aljunied has an especially diverse property mix. Each of these locations are known for their unusual overlap of old shophouses, walk-up apartments, 1980s industrial buildings, condos, and new Grade A offices in Paya Lebar Quarter.

This results in a wide-ranging resident population comprising students, migrant workers, retirees, affluent condo owners, and office workers, who can be found within the wider Geylang area.

From the perspective of a property analyst, this makes Geylang a challenging area to examine. Compared to more homogeneous estates, like residential towns and districts, Geylang can change dramatically from one street to the next. The profile of buyers, tenant pool, and even the “feel” of the neighbourhood can shift with a distance of just two blocks.

In this Stacked Pro article, we’ll take a deep dive into this unique area and try to spot the important residential property trends and nuances for buyers in this area.

How have private residential property prices in the Central Region fared to date?

This helps to frame our overall expectations for the private home market in Geylang. Here’s the performance we can see from sub-sale and resale transactions over the decade:

In terms of percentage growth, properties in the Central Region have recorded relatively slower growth. This is attributed to the relatively higher transaction prices that most developments there command, compared to city-fringe or suburban locations.