Upper Thomson Condos set to benefit from North-South Corridor (NSC)

Like it or hate it, the North-South Corridor which aims to link Woodlands to the Financial Center of Marina Bay financial center construction has began and will be completed by 2027. You may read more about it in the article below.

LTA | North-South Corridor

North-South Corridor

Properties on Upper Thomson that may potentially benefit NSC Construction

Braddell View Estate - Blks A, B, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R
Jadescape - Blk 2, 10, 12 and 16
LakeView Estate
Thomson Three
Thomson View
Thomson Grand
Thomson Impressions
Flame Tree
Meadows @ Pierce

Properties on Upper Thomson that may experience Dust and Noise from NSC Construction

Braddell View Estate - Blks C and E
Jadescape - Blks 4, 6 and 8
Thomson 800
Marymount View
Seasons View
Tresalveo
Boonview

Price Comparison of Condos in the Upper Thomson Area

Historical Price Trend in the Upper Thomson Area

With so many condos in the Upper Thomson area which of these condos do you choose to invest or to stay. Basically, I feel it boils down to 2 factors.

Your Budget
Time Horizon

Rentability

What about the rental rates of the Condos in Upper Thomson Area? As you can see from the chart below, the newest kid on the block which is Thomson Impressions has the highest psf of $3.9 psf followed by Thomson Three. One of the reasons that you can attribute to it is that the units in Thomson Impressions are smaller, hence the psf is higher and the overall price is still affordable.

Types of Condos
There are different types of condos with different lease period.**

Freehold - This means the property is yours forever
999 year leasehold - This is similar to Freehold
99 Leasehold - Most of the new condos that Developers purchase under the GLS - Government Sale Programme are leasehold unless the Developer purchases an old condo site of freehold status via an enbloc.

Some of the condos are freehold whilst the others are leasehold.

For condos which are leasehold, there is a time consideration of 99 yrs. Hence the cost of a freehold property is usually 20% to 30% higher for that reason. For leasehold properties that are more than 40 years old, the LTV (Loan To Value) amount may be lesser.

Of course, other factors like the persons income, age needs to be taken into consideration when the loan is dispensed to the applicant.

1. Braddell View Estate

2. Lake View estate

Built by HUDC, this leasehold property has a beautiful scenery of McRitchie Reservoir above level 10. It is served by Marymount MRT which is around 10 minutes walk.

3. Thomson 800

Consist of 390 units of freehold tenure. Believed to be the only 2 projects in the to be given the prestigious title of Freehold tenure. The other condo which has freehold status is Flame Tree Condo.

4. Thomson Three Condo

Like the Thomson View Condo, Thomson Three is just a stone’s throw from the Thomson MRT on the TEL

5. Thomson View

It consists of only 255 unit and was built by HUDC. It is one of the few HUDC left in Singapore. Definitely with older developments, its unit size and land size is significantly larger compared to newer launches. It sits on a hill overlooking the beautiful MacRitchie reservoir and located directly opposite Thomson Plaza within walking distance. It almost went through an enbloc sale to Wee Hur but failed again for the 4th time in 2018. One of the key advantages was that the Thomson MRT station of the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) is at its door step.
Another enbloc attempt was made in 2020 before the Government announced the Property Cooling Measures. Whether it will dampen the enbloc process remains to be seen.
The reason why it is called Thomson View is very clear, it has a 360 degrees view of the Upper Thomson area. At least, that is before the Arrival of Thomson Three.

6. Thomson Grand

Consists of 339 units of leasehold status. When it was first launched, many were skeptical as it was the only leasehold property in that area in the Upper Thomson enclave. Sales were slow in the beginning but it started to pick up eventually. The reason for the slowness in the take up rate is because most of the projects around the area has homes of Freehold status.