Knowing that it was developed by Oxley Holdings, Riverfront Residences really caught me by surprise – why?
If memory didn’t fail me, when I first stepped into the real estate industry close to 10 years ago, Oxley Holdings was renowned for building residential apartments a.k.a “shoebox units” or “mickey mouse homes“. Some even gave the group the title of being the “King of Shoebox Apartments”.
The fact is that these types of residential units were very popular during those years and they presented themselves as investments tools that are very lucrative for property investors.
However as the property market shifts towards a less-speculative scene, 2018 is possibly the year that Oxley breaks away from being labeled as a developer who only builds small & tiny homes, and ventures into developing full-fledged condominium projects.
A total of four condo projects will be released in 2018 by Oxley Holdings; one of them is Riverfront Residences at Hougang (on the former site of ex-HUDC Rio Casa).
And honestly, I do like what I saw.
Developer
Oxley Holdings is a homegrown property developer in Singapore and is currently led by group CEO, Mr. Ching Chiat Kwong. Established in 2008, seriously require no further introduction on the wealth of experience the group has in Singapore’s real estate market.
Earlier on, it was mentioned that Oxley Holdings started off by building affordable private homes which target mostly young working professionals.
To date, the group has developed more than 30 properties (residential and commercial) in Singapore and with some of the new launch condo projects this year, Oxley is looking set to propelled its brand towards families and homebuyers who require more than just a tiny apartment with minimal facilities.
Over the last couple of years, Oxley Holdings have also expanded its portfolio by venturing overseas – into countries such as the United Kingdom, Cambodia, Japan, and Myanmar, etc and listed on SGX Mainboard in February 2013.
Riverfront Residences Location
Riverfront Residences is located along the stretch of Hougang Avenue 7 – next to Sungei Serangoon. It’s one of the oldest matured estates in Singapore, which means that residents are situated close to a wide range of amenities that can be found around the area.
With transportation and convenience being almost the top priority for most homebuyers today, Riverfront Residences is situated approximately 800 meters away from Hougang MRT station and Hougang Mall – where you’ll find major retail brands, dining outlets, and of course, Fairprice Supermarket.
Other than the train service at Hougang MRT station, several bus services are also located along Hougang Avenue 7 and the Upper Serangoon Road stretch, which can take residents to various areas in Singapore.
For drivers, it would be an even more direct route as they are just a mere 2-minute drive to the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway, which can lead them directly to the city center or central business district in less than 20 minutes.
For parents of school-going kids, the condominium is within close proximity to some of the more popular educational institutions in the area such as CHIJ (Our Lady of the Nativity), Montfort Junior & Secondary School, Holy Innocents’ High School, and Serangoon Junior College.
The location also sees Riverfront Residences situated at the edge of the North Coast Innovation Corridor – which extends from the Woodlands Regional Centre, Sembawang and the upcoming Seletar Regional Centre to Punggol’s innovative cluster and learning corridor.
This is an area that is set to become a fascinating business proposition for boosting economic development and activities, aiming to bring businesses closer to the population centers within the next couple of decades.
At first glance, you might think that Riverfront Residences is just another condominium in a matured estate – served by good amenities, transport services by the riverside. But there’s more to come and I will cover them later on in the review section.
Riverfront Residences Condo – Riverside Living at its Best
If you do not have the spirit of adventure to explore the outdoor nature, Riverfront Residences actually offers a total of 101 condo facilities within the development itself. It will definitely meet the leisure needs of every resident and of course, family!
Beyond the offering of full-fledged condominium facilities, Riverfront Residences has a total of 3 clubhouses – all being themed differently. Each clubhouse will be catered for specific needs.
One of them is being crafted like a co-working space, in favor of those who want to sort out some work stuff or focus on a school project, while another is a 2-storey clubhouse which is catered for residents who are planning to house larger groups for some leisure activities – which includes a dedicated karaoke/movie room, a comprehensive gymnasium and a dining room for throwing parties.
The third clubhouse will help fulfill residents’ ambition to show off their culinary skills as it comes with a kitchen that is fully equipped.
Engaging renowned architects, ADDP Architects is probably one of the best decisions made by Oxley when it comes to designing Riverfront Residences as a whole.
The condo will comprise of 3 uniquely themed coves as well – the Botanic Cove, the Lifestyle cove, and the Resort Cove.
For residents who enjoy some aquatic activity, they are either utilize the 50-meter Mangrove Pool or the River Pool (which is 75 meters long). For young kids, there is a 25-meter Kids Pool.
If you require some privacy, you can relax away in one of the 3 holiday-style resting pavilions which come with their own private pools each, giving you the peace and serenity you need away from the frantic crowd.
Floor Plan and Unit Types
Spreading across a land area of around 396,234 square feet, Riverfront Residences at Hougang comprises of 9 residential blocks (17-storey each) and 21 strata landed units – with a total of 1,472 residential units and 6 commercial shops within the entire condominium. The expected TOP date is 31 December 2024.
The above site plan shows the unit spread and orientation around the development.
Here’s the Riverfront Residences floor plan and sizes for each residential unit type:
- 1-Bedroom (463 to 581 sq ft)
- 1-Bedroom + Study (517 to 635 sq ft)
- 2-Bedroom (603 to 689 sq ft)
- 2-Bedroom Premium (721 to 861 sq ft)
- 3-Bedroom (872 to 1,087 sq ft)
- 3-Bedroom Premium (1,066 to 1,292 sq ft)
- 4-Bedroom (1,410 to 1,625 sq ft)
- 4-Bedroom Premium with private lift (1,485 to 1,711 sq ft)
- 5-Bedroom Premium with private lift (1,679 to 1,905 sqft)
- 4-Bedroom Strata Landed House (2,109 sq ft)
Riverfront Residences Price Guide
As of 11 October 2021, this is the price guide from the developer. All unit types have been fully sold, expected for the 4-Bedroom type that only has 6 units left.
For the most recent updates on the Riverfront Residences price and availability, please contact me at (+65) 9786-3707 or fill up the form below and we’ll get back to you!
| Unit Type | Starting Price | PSF Price |
| 1-Bedroom | Fully Sold | – |
| 1-Bedroom + Study | Fully Sold | – |
| 2-Bedroom | Fully Sold | – |
| 3-Bedroom | Fully Sold | – |
| 4-Bedroom | $1.935m | $1,373 psf |
| 5-Bedroom | Fully Sold | – |
| 4-Bedroom Strata House | Fully Sold | – |
Riverfront Residences Showflat
The showflat is located along Upper Serangoon Crescent and at the junction of Upper Serangoon Road, – just next to the HDB flat of 473D Upper Serangoon Crescent.
At the Riverfront Residences showflat, you will get to see most of available unit types which the condo has. Here are some pictures of the showflat. (Photo credit: SRI)
For showflat opening hours or if you are keen to schedule a viewing, you can give us a call at (+65) 6631-8384 or drop us a note using the form below (so that we can advise you better in advance).
Riverfront Residences Review
It’s been more than 3 years since we last saw a new launch condo project being introduced in the Hougang precinct and market watchers were eagerly anticipating the launch of Riverfront Residences.
The responses were indeed overwhelming as more than 7,000 prospective buyers turned up on the first weekend of the preview during late June 2018.
It’s even more well-received than Oxley Holding’s earlier launch in the same district, Affinity at Serangoon.
As of 19 October 2018, Riverfront Residences has sold a whopping total of 730 units at an average per square foot (psf) price of $1,310 – that’s around 50% of the entire development being sold.
So, is Riverfront Residences a good buy? Well, here are my thoughts.
To be completely honest here, I have always been in disapproval whenever my friends and clients told me that they were interested in one of the residential projects by Oxley Holdings in the past.
Units were small; layouts were inefficient and not practical; quality was poor and prices didn’t really justify. Thus, my initial impression and thoughts made me believe that Riverfront Residences would more or less be the same as some of Oxley’s earlier projects. The only difference is that this new Hougang project is a condominium and of a much larger scale.
However, to my relief, things are surprisingly different at Riverfront Residences. It has displayed Oxley’s excessive attention to detail and constructed something that is really appealing to the market. They are definitely trying to break away from their tradition of being a shoebox developer (well, perhaps not entirely).
Apparently, more than 50% of the whole project comprises of units which are less than 70 square meters. Although these are not really considered as “shoebox” units, I personally don’t’ think that a 614 square feet 2–bedroom apartment is decent-sized. But then again, it’s really up to an individual.
What really impressed me were the bigger sized units (from 3-Bedroom Premium and above). By looking at the floor plan, everything seems very functional and practical – from squarish living hall and bedrooms to a proper kitchen with yard space and windows too.
No extra balconies, large aircon ledges or any obvious wastage of internal space – perfect!
Other than being located within close proximity to the North Coast Innovation Corridor, Seletar Aerospace Park (which has tremendous amount of potential) and the Punggol Creative Cluster and Learning Corridor – which would probably help with the price gain for private properties in Hougang, I believe we should take a look at the estate itself in order to find out what are the direct potential upsides for Riverfront Residences.
The Introduction of the Cross-Island Line
Being claimed as the “most ambitious” MRT line project, the future 50 km Cross Island Line (or CRL) is expected to complete by the year 2030 – traveling across residential areas in Singapore such as Clementi, Sin Ming, Ang Mo Kio, and Hougang.
As a result, it’s been confirmed that the Hougang MRT station, being the nearest MRT station to Riverfront Residences will turn out to an interchange station. Some of the other Cross Island Line stations have been announced on 25 January 2019.
Currently, the Hougang MRT station is situated along the North-East line which offers residents in the north-eastern region a direct route to areas in the city such as Dhoby Ghaut, Clarke Quay, Chinatown, and Harbourfront.
In future, the connectivity of the Hougang station itself will be improved greatly by providing an alternative rail route to the western region of Singapore.
Based on statistics from the Land Transport Authority (LTA), this will help travelers save up to 50% of their current traveling time on the MRT.
You might be thinking – how is this going to help the value at Riverfront Residences to appreciate?
Well, I obviously can’t guarantee anyone the possibility of a price gain. But if you were to study properties which are located near an interchange station (such as Jurong, Serangoon, Bishan, Dhoby Ghaut and Paya Lebar etc) as compared to those that are just near an “ordinary” MRT station, you will see that they tend to have a higher price point as compared to the latter. In general, demand drives prices.
For instance, just do a comparison between property prices in Bishan and Ang Mo Kio, or Serangoon and Kovan.
You will see that properties in Bishan & Serangoon do have a slight edge in terms of price and demand when compared to their neighboring estates.
And did you realize that at these interchange MRT stations, there will always be a mega shopping mall sitting next to or above the train stations? This leads me to my next point.
Hougang Central Hub (a future government land sale)
The URA Master Plan is perhaps the most important source of information for any property buyer or investor to study because it will tell you what are the future plans which the government has installed for the nation – at least 10 to 15 years ahead.
Unfortunately, not many actually know the existence of this piece of information. Here’s what we know about Hougang through the Master Plan.
If you were to compare the plans for Hougang Central between 2008 and 2014, you will notice an obvious amendment to the plot at the intersection of Hougang Central and Hougang Avenue 10 – from a full residential plot to a residential cum commercial plot.
Initially, there was already a residential & commercial plot being zoned next to this subject site.
Now it seems like the government will merge the 2 plots together into one.
With a land area this huge, the only possible future development that I can think of is an integrated project with a mega shopping mall together private homes – similar to North Park Residences & Northpoint City, Hillion Residences and Hillion Mall, Watertown and Waterway Point etc.
Such developments won’t come cheap and knowing that such sites are extremely rare in Singapore, you can be sure that property developers will throw in their bids aggressively and some are even willing to pay a premium when this site at Hougang Central is being released under the Government Land Sales programme.
As we all know, such cost will eventually translate to the purchase price which a property buyer has to pay and one thing is quite certain – it won’t be priced lower than Riverfront Residences.
Price advantage compared to new condos around
When it comes to buying a property, you will need to know the level of risk involved.
What I meant by that is to find out what is your entry price and knowing that you are not paying the highest or overpaying for Riverfront Residences. So in order to find out if the price at Riverfront Residences is “safe“, let us do a quick comparison with other new launch condo projects or those that are completed recently in the same district.
| PROJECT | TENURE | COMPLETION | AVERAGE PSF (S$) – last 6 months/last 10 transactions |
| Kingsford Waterbay | 99-Year | 2018 | 1,361 |
| The Garden Residences | 99-Year | 2024 | 1,632 |
| Jewel at Buangkok | 99-Year | 2016 | 1,303 |
| Stars of Kovan | 99-Year | 2020 | 1,552 |
| Riverfront Residences | 99-Year | 2024 | 1,310 |
From the table above, Riverfront Residences is definitely not over-priced and it’s rather fair in my opinion.
If you were to look at the price guide for Sengkang Grand Residences, you will feel the same as well.
By knowing that units at the nearest Kingsford Waterbay condo are being transacted at an average $1,361 psf, I will feel more assured going ahead with Riverfront Residences – simply based on the fact that Oxley Holdings has more experience in the local property market (the ability to deliver more quality) and the condo location is much closer to Hougang Central.
Final word
Unless you are not a big fan of the northeastern region of Singapore, I seriously can’t find much to dislike about Riverfront Residences – other than the high-density living and smaller apartments within the condo.
For this development, I actually see more pros compared to cons. It may have missed a few things which some property buyers want, but if you are looking at new full-fledged condo projects in District 19, Riverfront Residences is certainly worth considering.
If you are keen to view or have a chat over Riverfront Residences feel free to contact me directly at (+65) 6631-8384, or just fill up the form before and I’ll get in touch with you soon!