Piccadilly Grand

Piccadilly Grand is possibly one of the most talked-about residential new launches in 2022.

Honestly, I am excited as well.

At the time of writing this post, Piccadilly Grand is just one week before its official launch.

I was at the 1st weekend of the preview and it was crazy!

Hence, I thought I should just offer my personal and honest opinion of this new launch at Northumberland Road, District 8 of Singapore.

First of all, I’ve been focusing on new launch projects for a (long) while now.

And before 2012, one of the things that stood out for me in District 8 is that these residential projects are usually very small in size.

We tend to call these projects “shoebox” or boutique developments, and you can be sure that I can easily name 8 to 10 of them in less than a minute.

However, since the start of 2012, we began to see a little bit more sizable projects or more condominium developments.

Such projects include Cityscape at Farrer Park, Sturdee Residences, and Uptown at Farrer.

Unlike the earlier projects, Piccadilly Grand is the only private residential project within Farrer Park that is ‘directly connected” to the MRT station.

But does that mean Piccadilly Grand is a good buy?

Let’s quickly look at some details of this new launch at Farrer Park and I’ll give you my personal thoughts and review at the end of this article.

Project Information

Here’s an overview of Piccadilly Grand condominium in a nutshell.

Project Name	Piccadilly Grand
Address	1/3/5 Northumberland Road
Type	Residential with Comercial at 1st Storey
Developer	City Developments Ltd and MCL Land
Tenure	99-year Leasehold
Site area	Approximately 94,000 sq ft
Total number of units	407
Total number of carpark lots	330 parking lots for residents, 14 parking lots for commercial
Number of blocks	3
Number of storey	23-storey each
Expected TOP date	Q3 2026

Piccadilly Grand Developer Background

Piccadilly Grand is a joint venture project between City Developments Ltd and MCL Land.

Both firms acquired the Northumberland Road GLS (government land sale) site back in April 2021.

The land price works out to be $445.88 million, around $1,129 psf ppr.

It’s worth noting that this Northumberland Road site drew interest from 10 different property developers back then.

City Developments Ltd

Traditionally, City Developments Ltd (or CDL) has been pretty a lone ranger when comes to real estate development in Singapore.

But since 2019, the real estate powerhouse has found great success being in joint ventures with other real estate companies.

The most notable partner was CapitaLand. They have both developed the likes of Sengkang Grand Residences and Canninghill Piers (launched in early 2021).

Piccadilly Grand is only the 3rd jointly-ventured real estate project in 3 years by CDL. This time it’s with MCL Land.

CDL is no stranger to District 8 or the Farrer Park precinct.

As a matter of fact, it is possibly the first mega property developer to make its mark in this area – with the development of City Square Residences (launched back in 2005) and City Square Mall.

Hence, you can be sure that CDL knows what kind of residential project will appeal to homebuyers or investors who are looking into this area.

MCL Land

Its partner for Piccadilly Grand, MCL Land is no minnow in the industry as well.

Over the last decade, MCL Land has developed some of the most prominent and talked-about residential projects in Singapore.

They include the likes of J Gateway, Lakeville, and Lake Grande.

Its latest accomplishment has to be Parc Esta – a 1,399-unit condominium project that is situated right across Eunos MRT station.

Since December 2021, that project has been fully sold.

In addition to developing Piccadilly Grand, both CDL and will have 2 more joint-venture residential projects that are due to launch in the 2nd half of 2022 and 1st half of 2023 respectively.

One of them is an executive condominium (EC) project with 639 units, and another at Jalan Tembusu with 640 units.

Piccadilly Grand Location

Piccadilly Grand is located along Northumberland Road, within the District 8 of Singapore.

It’s situated right above Farrer Park MRT Station (NE 8), Exit E.

If you look at the location map above, this brand new launch at Farrer Park is also located diagonally across Connexion, together with Farrer Park Hospital and One Farrer Hotel.

Doorstep access to Farrer Park MRT station

For homebuyers or investors who are only looking at properties next to MRT station, Piccadilly Grand is probably one of the few to look at in today’s market.

Having direct and sheltered access does provide residents seamless access to various parts of Singapore.

And being situated in the city fringe region, commuting to the city center and the financial district would be a breeze.

For instance, it only takes a mere 5-minute train ride to reach shopping areas like Dhoby Ghaut and less than 15 minutes to reach the Central Business District (CBD).

Within close proximity to City Square Mall

Another perk of living at Piccadilly Grand would be its close proximity to a mega shopping mall. In this case, that would be City Square Mall.

It’s literally connected to the mall as residents can enter via Exit E of Farrer Park MRT station to Exit H.

Over at City Square Mall, you will find various F&B outlets, retail, a movie theatre (operated by Golden Village), and a large supermarket (operated by FairPrice).

That is to say, you would not have any problems dealing with bad weather conditions and still get your grocery shopping done.

Piccadilly Grand Floor Plan and Unit Types

Piccadilly Grand consists of a total of 407 exclusive apartment units.

There are 1-Bedroom to 5-Bedroom Premium units and sizes range from 484 sqft to 2,045 sqft.

Here is the Piccadilly Grand floor plan for each unit type.

 

Showflat Location

The location of Piccadilly Grand is along Gloucester Road and it’s open from 10 am to 6 pm daily.

It’s just diagonally across the actual site of the development.

If you are commuting via the MRT, the sales gallery is just above Farrer Park MRT station, via Exit D.

However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, there’s a maximum capacity placed for the number of visitors to be in the showflat.

Hence, if you are keen to make an appointment to view the showflat, do drop me a Whatsapp message or simply fill up the contact form below and I’ll reach out to you.

If you are still rather unsure of whether to make time for the viewing, here are links to the virtual tour of the sales gallery.

Sales Gallery

2-Bedroom + Study

4-Bedroom Dual Key

Price Guide

Here’s a quick guide to Piccadilly Grand price indication for each unit type before its official launch.

Unit Type	Size	Starting Pricing	PSF Price
1-Bedroom	484 sq ft	$1.058 million	$2,186
2-Bedroom	646 sq ft	$1.348 million	$2,087
3-Bedroom	883 sq ft	$1.788 million	$2,025
4-Bedroom Dual-Key	1378 sq ft	$2.738 million	$1,942
5-Bedroom	1679 sq ft	>$3 million	$ ~

Do note that the above pricing is subject to further changes. Hence, do check with me for the latest price guide.

Piccadilly Grand Review

First of all, let me explain why the launch of Piccadilly Grand is an important new launch to watch, and why this project will set the tone for the property market for the next 2 to 3 years.

Not only is this the first large-scale private residential launch in 2022, but it is also the first major launch since the latest property cooling measures were implemented in December 2021.

This personally brings me back to June 2013 when the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) was introduced.

It was probably the most severe cooling measure implemented over the last decade.

Back then, the first private residential launch was The Tembusu – a 337-unit condominium by WingTai Asia.

 

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It was launched in August 2013 and the response was seriously overwhelming. More than 60 percent of the units were sold during the official launch.

As a result, it has given property developers and the market a boost of confidence and has set the tone/benchmark for future new launch project prices.

Expect this project to run HOT

Coming back to Piccadilly Grand, I honestly won’t be surprised if this can achieve 50 to 60 percent of units sold on the first day of launch.

Just based on its excellence in location (that’s what most home buyers or investors look at), this new launch at Farrer Park should be one of the top few projects to be considered.

Apparently, the property market only responds stronger after every cooling measure.

The most recent cooling measure prior to the ones in December 2021 was back in July 2018 when the government raised the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) and lowered Loan-to-Value ratios.

The market experienced a rather short “downtime” but quickly moved on in just 2 to 3 months‘ time.

For instance, residential projects such as Parc Esta (opposite Eunos MRT), Jadescape (at Marymount), and The Tre Ver (at Potong Pasir) have all been fully sold to date.

If you need data for this, just drop me a note and we can have a discussion on that.

Pricing “sweet spot”

Now, let’s talk about the most sensitive topic – price.

Let’s go straight into it and compare the pricing of Piccadilly Grand with other Rest of Central Region (RCR) projects.

The average per square foot (PSF) price is based on transactions that took place from Oct 2021 to April 2022.

Project Name	Tenure	No. Of Units	Percentage Sold (end Apr 22)	Average PSF	Nearest MRT station with 10 mins walk?
Avenue South Residence	99-Year Leasehold	1,074	93.3%	$2,314	Cantonment (upcoming)
Normanton Park	99-Year Leasehold	1,862	96.68%	$1,854	–
The Woodleigh Residences	99-Year Leasehold	667	95.8%	$2,169	Woodleigh
Kent Ridge Hill Residences	99-Year Leasehold	548	99.09%	$1,929	Pasir Panjang
Penrose	99-Year Leasehold	556	100%	$1,701	Aljunied
One Pearl Bank	99-Year Leasehold	774	79.33%	$2,524	Outram
Piccadilly Grand	99-Year Leasehold	407	–	~$2,000 – $2,200	Farrer Park

As you can see, the pricing for Piccadilly Grand is pretty much in line with the current market despite being the newest project among all the rest.

The developers are clearly being realistic and conservative at this point.

And to further prove my point on that, let’s take a look at their breakeven price.

The standard calculation and cost estimate clearly show that the developers’ breakeven price is $1,837.

Therefore, to sell this new launch at Farrer Park for around $2,000 – $2,200 psf is only a mere 19 percent (maximum) profit. That’s really a norm these days.

However, I don’t see such pricing being around for long, especially when the market rebounds in the next 1 to 2 years.

So are you going to be overpaying at this point? I seriously don’t think so.

The “exit” strategy

It’s always easy to enter the market or buy a property – as long as you are financially sound.

The challenge comes when you try to sell or liquidate your property.

Over years, I’ve been advising my friends and clients to plan ahead. When buying a new launch, you should be looking at 4 to 5 years down the road, instead of the present.

So how do we do that? Usually, I will use the “housing demand” in the area as one of the key considerations.

The first thing to look at is the current demand for private homes in the area.

For this instance, I will look at some of the newer completed projects in the area such as Cityscape at Farrer Park and Sturdee Residences.

In my opinion, the demand in the area looks pretty decent.

However, one key thing that you might have noticed as well, is that home buyers/investors in the area are very “quantum sensitive”.

You can see most of the transactions that occurred over the last 1 year (from April 2021 to April 2022) are mostly either the smaller-sized units or units that cost less than $2 million.

I think it’s pretty obvious which unit types will sell well at Piccadilly Grand.

Final word

To sum things up, I personally think Piccadilly Grand is a great buy from an investment standpoint -especially the smaller unit types.

I do believe that’s the safest bet by looking at the existing demand around the area.

You can probably understand why the developers have priced more than 50 percent of the total units at less than $2 million.

Many would ask, why are they not developing bigger-sized homes since there’s somewhat a shortage of larger unit types in the area?

Well, first of all, developing larger homes at a lower quantum is super hard for property developers.

It simply doesn’t make any sense from a business standpoint, especially for Piccadilly Grand when you look at the surrounding demand.

As land prices continue to rise, homes can only get smaller – unless the economy began to outrun the property market by years ahead.

In this case, it works perfectly for this new launch at Farrer Park.

So does that mean you shouldn’t go for the bigger units?

Let’s face it, the Farrer Park precinct isn’t the most popular among many homebuyers.

But if you are already familiar with the area, then I don’t see why not?

Furthermore, the government has a huge plan to increase the public housing supply in Farrer Park.

This is likely to increase housing demand in the Farrer Park precinct in the future.

And we all know what it does to property prices when demand surges.

Overall, I feel that Piccadilly Grand is a good buy in today’s market and is definitely worth considering.

If you look at it from all aspects – quality, convenience, or price, it fulfills almost everything.

However, if you are going for bigger units for short-term profits, then you’re probably better off looking at other projects.

 

92%

Great!

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