New Condo At Hillview Rise To Ease OCR Supply Crunch

By Wong Siew Ying/Jean Choo

The serene neighbourhood of Hillview looks set to welcome another new private residential project, following the sell-out of the nearby new launch condo project Midwood as of May 2022.

A public tender for a 1.03-ha site in Hillview Rise attracted 4 bidders, with the joint venture between Far East Civil Engineering (Pte.) Limited and Sekisui House submitting the top bid of $320.8 million. This works out to a land rate of $1,024 psf per plot ratio. The 99-year leasehold site can potentially yield 335 residential units, offering more housing options amid the fairly limited supply of new non-landed private homes in the area.

Tucked within a private residential enclave of low-rise landed housing on one side and private condos in the surrounding areas, the Hillview Rise project will enjoy a measure of exclusivity. However, exclusive as it may be, the area is not devoid of amenities.

Daily necessities within easy reach
Residents can hop across the street to Hillv2 mall for daily necessities and F&B options. A 10-minute walk from the project takes residents to The Rail Mall, a quaint retail strip featuring shops, cafes and pubs which offer a charming and laidback retail experience. For more retail offerings, there is Hillion Mall in Bukit Panjang just two stops from the nearby Hillview MRT station.

A short 6-minute drive out will open up even more F&B, lifestyle and retail options in Beauty World including Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, Beauty World Centre, Beauty World Plaza, and eateries along Cheong Chin Nam Road. In the years to come, there will be additional commercial offerings at the upcoming integrated development at Jalan Anak Bukit and The Linq@Beauty World.

Meanwhile, schools in the vicinity include CHIJ Our Lady Queen of Peace, Bukit Panjang Primary School, St. Anthony’s Primary, Assumption English School, Hillgrove Secondary School, Bukit View Secondary School, Jurong Pioneer Junior College, Millennia Institute, ITE College West, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore University of Social Sciences, and the German European School Singapore.

Rest and relax
The Hillview Community Club next door will provide residents with opportunities to participate in a range of leisure and sporting programmes.

For nature lovers, the Hillview Rise site is within close proximity to two attractions. One being the Bukit Batok Town Park which is home to the Little Guilin – imposing granite rock set in the middle of a lake – as well as the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve where the Bukit Timah Hill can be found. The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve has one of the richest and most diverse ecological systems.

Residents can also take in the greenery and heritage along the Rail Corridor nature trail near Hillview which includes restored truss bridges and the Singapore Quarry Bridge.

Joggers and cyclists will be glad to know that the Hillview Park Connector is near the project. It extends from Bukit Batok Nature Park to Dairy Farm Nature Reserves and forms part of the Western Adventure Loop that runs downwards to Jurong and all the way up to Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Panjang.

Connectivity
The Hillview Rise project will be located just 7 minutes’ walk from the Hillview MRT station on the Downtown Line (DTL), which will take commuters to the Downtown station in the Marina Bay financial district in about 30 minutes.

In addition, the Hillview MRT station is two stops from the future King Albert Park MRT interchange station that connects the DTL to the upcoming Cross Island Line (CRL) Phase 2 development. This will offer improved accessibility and time savings for commuters traveling to and from the western parts of Singapore. The CRL Phase 2 stations are slated to open by 2032.

The DTL also offers direct access to numerous popular schools in the Bukit Timah area such as Nanyang Girls’ High School, Hwa Chong Institution, and National Junior College. Within a few stops, residents can also transfer to several other MRT lines – Circle Line at Botanic Gardens station, the upcoming Thomson-East Coast Line at Stevens station, the North-South Line at Newton station, and the North-East Line at Little India station – that provide seamless connectivity to various parts of Singapore.

Attractive suburban home pricing
The Outside Central Region (OCR) has seen a number of new launches in 2022 with higher benchmark prices that have crossed the $2,000-psf mark. Projects such as AMO Residences, Lentor Modern, and Sky Eden @ Bedok have all achieved average selling unit prices of about $2,100 psf during their launch in Q3 2022.

We can expect the launch prices of the Hillview Rise site to be comparable to new projects in the vicinity and in the rest of OCR. Based on recent new sales transactions in the area (see Table 1), units at Verdale, Midwood, and Dairy Farm Residences have been trading at prices well above $1,900 psf.

Table 1: Recent Nearby New Launch Transactions

Source: PropNex Research, URA Realis (retrieved on 4 November 2022)

About the developer
Far East Organization is the largest private property developer in Singapore. Since its establishment in 1960, Far East Organization has developed over 780 developments in the residential, hospitality, retail, commercial, and industrial sectors, including 55,000 private homes in Singapore. Some of its projects in Singapore include Woodsquare, The Village Hotel Sentosa, The Outpost Hotel, The Barracks Hotel, One Holland Village Residences and the upcoming integrated development project, The Reserve.

Sekisui House is one of Japan's largest residential developers. Founded in 1960, it is currently headquartered in Osaka. Building on its chemical manufacturing roots, the firm has since evolved into a corporation with several key business activities in property investment, real estate development, engineering and infrastructure. The firm has also ventured overseas to markets such as Australia, Russia, China and the US. Some of its local developments include Woods Square, Seaside Residences, Hillsta among others. This is not the firm’s first partnership with Far East Organization, they are currently developing One Holland Village Residences with its sister firm, Sino Group.