HOME buyers have snapped up eight units at Waterfront Key and six at Waterfront Gold in the Bedok Reservoir area in the days since last week’s news that an MRT station will be built nearby.

Developer Frasers Centrepoint Homes said the units have been sold since the Government announced details of Stage 3 of the MRT Downtown Line last Friday.

The firm will also officially launch Waterfront Gold this Saturday.

Waterfront Gold, Waterfront Key and the fully sold Waterfront Waves are near the planned Bedok Reservoir station on the newest stage of the Downtown Line.

Experts say projects near this line should experience stronger demand, as with other projects located near MRT stations.

Stage 3 of the Downtown Line stretches from Singapore Expo in the east to Liang Court in River Valley in the south. A total of 16 stops are planned, including Tampines East, Upper Changi, Kampong Ubi and Kaki Bukit.

Ms Christine Sun, senior manager at Savills Research & Consultancy, noted that quite a number of MRT stations on this line are located within commercial and industrial areas, particularly in the North-east and Eastern regions.

This line will boost transport links to suburban commercial sites in Ubi, Kaki Bukit, MacPherson and Singapore Expo, she said.

The Paya Lebar Industrial Park, where 15ha are to be developed under the Masterplan 2008, will be a definite beneficiary.

Ms Sun said more businesses may relocate their offices from the city fringes and downtown areas to the park, and a positive impact on industrial property prices in these areas can be expected.

Residential properties near the Bedok Reservoir, Tampines, Pasir Ris and Upper Changi areas could see higher demand down the road, she added.

Residents in these areas will be able to transfer to the East-West Line stations via the new Downtown Line instead of using bus transfers, she said.

‘For now, owner-occupiers may show more interest than investors in the projects near the new Downtown Line because these are mostly suburban areas.’

Also, the timeframe for the completion of the Downtown Line may be too long for some investors, she said.

Savills Residential director Phylicia Ang concurred that new and existing residential projects near the upcoming Downtown Line should attract demand but said not all investors will be eager to jump in now.

They will have to wait a few years for the line to be ready in order to reap the benefits, she said.

Price is also a key factor as developers and individual sellers may raise their prices, she said.

Stage 3 of the Downtown Line is scheduled for completion in 2017.

Source: Straits Times, 25 Aug 2010

THE opening of MRT stations along the Downtown Line in Phase 2, which connects Bukit Panjang to Rochor, would result in property prices surging – especially in areas on the outskirts of Singapore, said property agents.

Seven out of 10 property agents my paper spoke to said that the cash-over-valuation (COV) amount for Housing Board flats in Bukit Panjang has increased by at least 10 per cent in the past year, with its MRT station slated to open in 2015. Estate agent Jenny Lee, 33, said COVs have almost doubled in the past year, from $25,000 – an amount similar to those of flats in nearby areas such as Choa Chu Kang – to its current $40,000.

The highest COV request she has recently seen for the area was a staggering $120,000, for a five-room flat.

She said: “Bukit Panjang used to be an area that we would encourage people with a lower budget to consider, as prices were relatively cheaper.

“People used to think it’s out of the way. It has become a hot spot now, with the upcoming MRT station.”

Another property agent, Mr Timothy Goh, 47, said that owners now expect a COV of at least $30,000 and are more insistent on getting it.

He explained: “It is harder to negotiate for a lower COV as owners know that the value of their apartments is going to rise. They are not in a hurry to sell the place.

In fact, some are playing a waiting game up even more.” Mrs Ng Siew Chai, 47, who owns an HDB flat located five minutes’ walk from the upcoming Bukit Panjang MRT station, said she has been receiving flyers from property agents wanting to help sell her home.

She has turned down all of them, and plans to wait for a few more years. “I have no plans to sell the flat but I’ll definitely monitor the market. If the price goes high enough, who knows?” she said.

Prices for properties that will soon have an MRT station nearby have generally gone up, with the most significant hikes found in areas that were previously considered inaccessible to those who rely on public transport, said property agent Sylvia Teo, 37.

For example, she has not noticed an increase in clients asking for private property in places such as Cashew and Hillview, even though the Downtown Line will pass through the vicinity.

In contrast, the Bukit Panjang HDB estate is now a boom town for property agents, buyers and sellers. Madam Teo said she now gets more than 20 clients a month asking for apartments in the area, compared to about five a month in the past.

She added that residents in nearby Bukit Timah usually own cars and do not benefit as much from the construction of a new MRT line. Those eyeing properties in Bukit Panjang are mostly after HDB homes and rely more heavily on public transport, she said.

“That’s probably why those with foresight will try to purchase a property in this ‘up-and-coming’ area, before more people swoop in,” she said.

Source: my paper, 23 Aug 2010

THE Downtown Line will be longer, and is expected to cost more. The Land Transport Authority yesterday announced the alignment of the final phase of the Downtown Line, which will have one more station than originally planned.

The fully underground 21-kilometre stretch, called DTL3, will have 16 stations, between Chinatown station and the Expo. It will pass through residential estates in Bedok and Tampines and industrial estates at Kallang Bahru and Ubi. There will be three interchange stations – at MacPherson, Tampines and the Expo – linking DTL3 to the Circle Line and the East-West Line.

The 16 stations on DTL3 include one at Jalan Besar that was not in the original plan. Transport Minister Raymond Lim said that it was added ‘to meet the needs of workers commuting to and from the nearby industrial estates and other future developments in the area’.

‘Companies operating there, as well as at the nearby Ubi and Kaki Bukit industrial estates, that have to hire buses to ferry workers to and from nearby MRT stations, will be able to save on the cost of hiring private transport when the DTL3 is opened,’ he said.

Mr Lim, who is also Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, said that DTL3 is expected to be completed in 2017 and ‘serve half a million people daily’. The first two phases of the Downtown Line are expected to be completed in 2013 and 2015 respectively.

‘The government remains committed to expanding our public transport infrastructure and will roll out more lines such as the Tuas extension to the East-West line, the Thomson Line and the Eastern Region Line,’ Mr Lim said.

The budget for the entire Downtown Line is expected to exceed the original $12 billion target. However, the final cost will only be known later as tender for Phase 3 will only be called by the end of the year.

Source: Business Times, 21 Aug 2010

It will be in Jalan Besar; Stage 3 serving the east to be completed by 2017

STAGE 3 of the MRT Downtown Line, connecting the eastern suburbs of Changi, Tampines, Bedok and MacPherson to the Marina Bay downtown area, will be 21km long and have 16 stations.

This makes it 2km longer and gives it one station more than originally planned.

Stage 3 of the Downtown Line will offer commuters in parts of the island now unserved by the rail network an alternative transport choice.

‘For instance, a person living in Tampines and working in the Kaki Bukit industrial estate will take half the time to get to work,’ said Transport Minister Raymond Lim yesterday, adding that his 25-minute journey by bus today will be cut down to just 10 minutes by train.

Someone living near Bedok Reservoir heading for Chinatown will need only 35 minutes to get there, compared with 50 minutes today, added Mr Lim as he announced the long-awaited alignment of the third and final stage of the Downtown Line.

Tampines resident Francis Tan, 49, said: ‘This is great. I can go almost anywhere in Singapore.’

The line stretches from Singapore Expo in the east to Liang Court in River Valley in the south. Stops will include Tampines East, Bedok Town Park, Kampong Ubi, Kaki Bukit and Kallang Bahru.

It will wind through some of the busiest parts of the city, including Sungei Road and Bencoolen Street.

The extra station will be in Jalan Besar.

‘This was added to meet the needs of workers commuting to and from the nearby industrial estates and other future developments in the area,’ said Mr Lim during his visit to the soon-to-open one-north station on the Circle Line.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said the original $12 billion budget for the whole Downtown Line – all 42km and 34 stations of it – will be busted, but it would not say by how much.

Stage 1 of the Downtown Line is in the city area; Stage 2 goes to Bukit Panjang, via Bukit Timah.

With Stage 3 now a slightly bigger project, it will take longer to complete – 2017 instead of 2016, said Mr Lim.

Stage 3 will cost more to build as a result, given that construction costs have risen sharply since plans for the Downtown Line were unveiled in 2007.

The later year of completion, however, is still earlier than the 2018 deadline first set three years ago.

Asked whether the longer duration of works will also push back the deadlines of future projects such as the Thomson and Eastern Region lines, the LTA said it has to finish preparatory works and engineering studies for a clearer picture of the completion dates of the other lines.

Downtown Line Stage 3 will have three interchanges: MacPherson station, which connects to the Circle Line, and the Tampines and Expo stations, which connect to the East-West Line.

The Straits Times understands that the River Valley station could be an interchange that hooks up with the Thomson Line, currently slated to be up by 2018.

Tenders for Downtown Line Stage 3 contracts will start going out later this month, and physical works are expected to commence in the middle of next year.

Construction will involve some property acquisitions – a Shell station in Upper Changi Road East, two parking lots in Bencoolen House, part of a food court in Peony Mansion, vacant spaces behind Kaki Bukit Techpark and Techview Building, as well as a vacant plot next to Plaza By The Park.

Fifteen landed houses in Merpati Road and Jalan Anggerek in MacPherson will be acquired; the space, with an adjacent tract of state land, will be redeveloped into high-density housing.

Mr Lim, in an update on the Circle Line, said it is on track to be fully open next year.

The remaining two stages – from Marymount to HarbourFront via Holland Village, one-north and Botanic Gardens – are near completion.

An LTA spokesman said the stations are expected to receive their Temporary Occupation Permits later this year. Testing and commissioning works will start in the following months.

Source: Straits Times, 21 Aug 2010

A day after more details of the Downtown Line were announced, observers are already predicting a hike in property prices in those areas.

Residents of Tampines and Bedok can expect five more stations serving their estates. And Jalan Besar will see a new station as well.

Homes around the Downtown Line linking Singapore Expo in the east to Bukit Panjang in the north-west are likely to see property prices shoot up.

Like many other train stations around Singapore, amenities like malls and shops will soon sprout around the area, serving residents and commuters.

One property expert estimates that HDB flat prices may rise between 5 and 15 per cent over the next seven years, while private condominiums could command a premium of about 10 to 20 per cent.

“Based on past experience, we foresee that the rise may break into two different phases – one is immediately after the announcement which may happen these few days; the other one could be just before the completion of the MRT station,” said Steven Tan, executive director of OrangeTee.

Cash-over-Valuation (COV) for HDB flats could also go up.

“For example, if the average COV is about $30,000 to $40,000, after the announcement, the COV may go up to $50,000 to $60,000 (for the HDB flat around the vicinity),” said Tan.

Existing stores are also looking forward to the new lines.

But they too worry about a spike in rentals.

“(There’ll) be more competition because (there’ll be) a bigger crowd, so business will be boom,” said one retailer at Tampines Central near Tampines MRT.

When completed, the Downtown Line will facilitate direct travel from the northwest and east of Singapore to the Central Business District (CBD) and Marina Bay.

The line is projected to see a daily ridership of more than half a million people when fully operational by 2017.

Source: Channel News Asia, 21 Aug 2010

WORK on the second stage of the Downtown MRT Line will start this month, with the first civil contract going to a Singapore-Korea joint venture.

Hock Lian Seng Infrastructure and Korea’s GS Engineering and Construction have clinched the deal to build the line’s depot near Woodlands for $410.7 million, the Land Transport Authority said yesterday.

The project includes constructing tunnels leading to and from the depot, which is sited on a 21ha plot that was once largely occupied by a Teochew cemetery.

Stage II of the Downtown Line is 16.6km long and has 12 stations. It spans from Gali Batu in Choa Chu Kang in the north to Rochor in the south, where it joins Stage I – a 4.3km loop to Marina.

Stops in Stage II include Bukit Timah’s Sixth Avenue, King Albert Park and Beauty World, as well as the Botanic Gardens and Newton. The line will be completed in 2015.

The final stage of the Downtown Line – a 19.1km project linking the eastern part of Singapore to the city – will be completed in 2016.

Singapore’s rail network expansion does not stop there.

Future projects include the Thomson Line, joining Woodlands to Marina Bay; and the Eastern Region Line, connecting Changi to Marina Bay via Marine Parade.

They are due to be completed in 2018 and 2020 respectively.

The depot for Downtown Line Stage II marks GS Engineering’s first infrastructural project in Singapore. The company is currently building the Seoul Subway Line and Goyang Train Depot in South Korea.

Hock Lian Seng Infrastructure is no stranger to MRT projects. It built the Circle Line’s Kim Chuan Depot – the world’s largest underground depot.

The entire 40km-long Downtown Line is expected to cost $12 billion. So far, about $3.2 billion worth of contracts have been awarded.

Source: Straits Times, 3 Mar 2009