Picking a Condo – Cheap, Good Location, New, Nice View, Amenities – Can we really have it all?

Note: This is not financial or investment advice.

If you are one of those who benefited from the from the “BTO lottery” (netting a cool 6 figures profit) or simply have saved up enough moolah, you would probably be looking for a Condo for your next upgrade. And like any Singaporean, you would probably want the best that you can buy within you budget. If this resonates with you, read on.

There are a large number of factors that potential condo buyers would consider when upgrading from their HDB. A condo is a big expense, and it should be far superior than the HDB you moved on from in every way.

I have been researching my upgrade, and it had been extremely difficult to find a place that checks all the boxes without being overly expensive.

Until I stumbled upon a well-positioned development – Gem Residences in Toa Payoh. Gem Residences managed the rare feat of fitting into all the criteria I have set out for my house hunt.

Below, I break down why Gem Residences is actually one of the best choice for a condo upgrade and why you should consider renting or buying a place at Gem Residences.

Proximity to the Rest of Singapore

This is where you ask yourself, do you need to bring passport, drive more than 30 minutes, or take public transport for more than 40 minutes to get to work or to visit town or city area? If yes, then you are better off not staying there.

Situated in Toa Payoh, travelling out to places of interest in Singapore takes barely 15 minutes by car. Bugis? Just 15 minutes away. National stadium? 15 minutes too. Orchard? 12 minutes on lucky days. Suntec City? 15 minutes too. If you are heading to City Hall or MBFC area, you will not spend more than 20 minutes.

Toa Payoh is surrounded by PIE and CTE, allowing you to go anywhere fast.

Even if you do not own a car, Gem Residences is just a few minutes walk from Braddell Mrt. And from Braddell, it is just 4 stops to Orchard, or 7 stops to City Hall, making your MRT travel under 30 minutes. You can literally pop over to Orchard for lunch and be back home under 2 hours without a car.

Proximity to Amenities and Heartland

While being near to the city, I wanted to stay in a place full of heartland amenities. This can help to drastically lower the day-to-day living expenses, while having the convenience of everything you need right at your doorstep.

Toa Payoh is unique in the sense that it is overwhelming in heartland amenities, such as hawker centres and town centres. Just look at the map below, yellow blocks denotes amenities/non-residential areas.

Every clustering of yellow blocks and/or hawker centre denotes a mini town centre complete with market, food stalls, and all kinds of neighbourhood shops where you can find anything you need. There are no other towns planned quite like this in Singapore.

FOOD! YUMMY FOOD!

At Toa Payoh, you will be spoilt for choice when it comes to quality hawker food. With 5 hawker centres and countless coffee shops and eateries, some of the most famous stalls have all setup shop in Toa Payoh. With just 5 to 10 minutes walk, you can access all the food that Toa Payoh has to offer.

This is not a food review post, so I will not be going into detail on what is good in Toa Payoh.

But you can check out the excellent Toa Payoh Makan Places Facebook Group to find anything you need.

Far From Air & Noise Pollution

One of the worst thing you can do is to pick a place subjected to pollution.

I used to stay near Paya Lebar Air Base, and the noise of fighter jets had been one of the most annoying things I had to put up with. There are many Air Bases in Singapore, with a pre-determined flight path or zone allocated to each of them. Toa Payoh is one of the rare few neighbourhoods where military planes are usually not permitted to fly through as part of their routine training (except for special occasions such as emergencies and national day). Therefore, Gem Residences is spared from all the noise and dins.

Air pollution is another major factor.

There is an entire Pasir Guiding petrochemical plant area up north where many of the more pollutive processes were carried out. I will not go into detail here, but you can check out the excellent 99.co article about pollutions coming from Pasir Gudang here: https://www.99.co/singapore/insider/hdb-punggol-pasir-gudang/.

Our own petrochemical plants are located on the south west parts of Singapore.

This leaves Toa Payoh being suitably far from such areas.

Price & Age

I discuss price and age together because these two are correlated. Older condominiums are generally cheaper. However, they come with their problems, such as aging infrastructure, higher maintenance cost, and older design, so I was looking at newer places, something not older than 2019 or 2020.

Without naming specific developments, most new developments in the last 2 to 3 years have been selling above $2,000 PSF for RCR and OCR regions, which was unbelievable in 2018.

Even if we focus on just nearby developments, Sky Habitat and Sky Vue in Bishop (which is further from town, has less heartland amenities, older, and further from expressway access) are priced at around $2,000 PSF for a 3 bedder. Meanwhile, 3 bedders at Gem Residences are priced at $1,700 PSF to $1,900 PSF, making this, in my opinion, a value buy.

View

Another key aspect of Condo living is that we all want to have a nice view when we look out of the window. However, most condos have obstructed views due to nearby HDB flats, or simply due to the close proximity of other buildings within the same development as developers try to squeeze the buildings within a small plot of land.

I wanted something that could give me a nice, unobstructed view of Singapore landscape, and Gem Residences, being built to 39 storeys on already elevated land, doesn’t fail to deliver.

Combing photos of property listings for Gem Residences reveals stunning photos of views that residents enjoy on a daily basis.

Good Schools

I’ll make this section short as this is rather straight forward. For Primary Schools, the popular Keng Cheng School and Pei Chun Public School are within 1km. You also have CHIJ (Toa Payoh) Primary School nearby. For Secondary Schools, you have Raffles Girls’ School in Toa Payoh and Raffles Institution in Bishop, on the other side of Braddell road.

Closing Thoughts

Gem Residences checks all my criteria, from proximity to town, heartland amenities, to nice view, lack of pollution and price. Again, I have viewed and researched so many different developments during my search, and Gem Residences is one of the rare gems (pardon the pun) that checks all the box.

If you are interested, consider it, do your own research and make your own decision if you share the same house hunting criteria as me.

It is important that this is not financial or investment advice, just sharing of my house hunting criteria and the joy in finding a place that checks all the boxes.