Serangoon Garden continues to charm buyers

Serangoon Garden is one of Singapore's oldest housing estates, yet it has held its own despite the many new towns that have surfaced over the years.

The upper middle-class enclave, built to house British soldiers, keeps pulling in buyers with its wide choice of landed homes and lifestyle amenities.

Residents are mostly Singaporeans, but more expatriate families are moving in, due to several international schools in the area. Gains in home prices are also typically higher than the national average, say experts.

Terrace home prices in Serangoon Garden have risen by 44 per cent in the past two years while semi-detached values have climbed 50 per cent.

Islandwide, terrace prices have gone up 36 per cent in that period and semi-detached home prices have risen 30 per cent, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority's data on prices.

Rental yields of landed homes range from 2 to 3.5 per cent in Serangoon Garden, with Farleigh Avenue, Conway Circle and Tavistock Avenue popular with tenants. But compared with landed homes in nearby Braddell, Serangoon Garden rents are lower.

Homes in Braddell estate, especially in areas such as Dunsfold Drive and Cotswold Close, are closer to the Australian International School and Stamford American International School and so more appealing to expat tenants. Rents here are about 5 to 10 per cent higher.

The estate is also self-sufficient, with amenities like the myVillage mall and popular hawker centre Chomp Chomp.

Most buyers are also owner-occupiers keen on capital appreciation rather than rental yields in land-scarce Singapore.

However, the popularity of the area has led to plenty of parking problems.

But the outlook remains fairly positive, with a recent 99-year leasehold landed housing project, Haus@Serangoon Gardens, enjoying healthy take-up rates and fetching prices close to $1,500 per sq ft.

Other recent launches include Cardiff Residence and Verdana Villas.

Rents in Serangoon Garden are likely to keep stable in the long-term.

Rents in prime areas are expected to continue to soften over the next six to nine months, especially on the back of a weaker global economy. This could exert some downside pressure on rents in outlying areas to keep the rental gap between prime and non- prime markets stable.

Source: The Straits Times – 4 August 2012