ADRIA (Review)

District: 11
Location: Novena
Address: 12 Derbyshire Road
Developer: Far East Organization
Tenure: Freehold

The wife and I decided to drop by at ADRIA yesterday.


The sales gallery/showflats for this Far East project (yes, the words "highly priced" came straight to mind but what the heck!) is located at River valley Road (next to AA), but the actual site of the project is at Derbyshire Road off Novena. The sales person attending to us kept emphasizing that Novena is going to be the next Orchard Road (the government said so...rite!) so we will be buying into a good location once the project is completed in 2015. (*yawn*)


The name ADRIA is supposedly inspired by the charm and ambience of the Adriatic coast in Italy. This freehold project consists of 105 units of one to four bedrooms apartments located on 22 floors. The averge sizes of the apartments range from 538 - 581 sq ft for a 1-bedroom unit, to 1407 - 1485 sq ft for the 4-bedders.


The apartments are build elevated, i.e. the lowest stack of apartments actually start from 5th floor onwards, with the carparks located on the 3rd and 4th levels  - so no worries about cars turning into submarines should Derbyshire Road be flooded. The standard one carpark lot per unit applies, with another 12 visitors (quite generous compared to many other new projects of this size that we have seen) and 3 handicapped lots.


There are 2 showflats on display - a 2-bedroom and a 4-bedroom unit. All comes with 2.9 metres ceiling height, large marble slabs for the living room flooring, rain shower and long/sunken bath (option) in the master bedroom toilet. The developer has also thrown in Bosch fridge/washing machine cum dryer/oven/stove & hood and even a kitchen utensils drying rack for good measures. All fittings (bathroom, wardrobes) provided looked to be of good quality and are aesthetically pleasing.


Now, down to our likes/dislikes:


We like

• The layout of the apartments are very regular, i.e. no funny corners that waste space.
• The bedrooms are quite neatly tucked to one side of the apartment.
• Usable balcony space - we especially like the long balcony of the 1,485 sq ft 4-bedroom unit. The space is ample enough for a 8-seater long dining table, so you can have the option of moving your dining room to the balcony and thereby conserving space for a larger living room.
• The shower and toilet cubicle for the "guest toilet" are separately partitioned in the 4-bedroom unit, aka what you get in the rooms of high-end hotels. This allows both cubicles to be used by separate person at the same time, which is especially useful when you have 3 bedrooms + guests sharing the same set of facilities. This is the first apartment that we have seen with this feature - something that other projects with "toilet"constraints should really adopt.
• The good use of space by the interior designers for the showflats. Unlike most other showflats whereby developers give a false impression of "space" by using "mickey mouse" beds and having the huge 6-seater sofa straddles between the balcony and living room, the interior designers for ADRIA have made very good use of all bay window ledges so as to fit proper single/queen sized beds into each room, or to convert these ledges into study tables. This provides a better representation of the kind of "space"one can expect in each room, in addition to useful tips on how to maximize the use of the window ledges.

We dislike

• No proper "clothes drying area"especially for the 4-bedder. Although the floorplan says "wet kitchen/yard', there is really not much of a yard space to speak of. The configuration means that drying rods have to be installed within the wet kitchen area itself. So unless you like smelling like the curry you had for dinner the day before, the only other option is to rely solely on the washer/dryer provided.
• High monthly maintenance of $70/share. This adds up to almost $500 per month on your monthly maintenance for a 4-bedder (7 shares). We feel that the monthly maintenance is very high compared to some of the 4-bedder in other projects, especially when ADRIA does not really provide full facilities - e.g. tennis courts?
• And finally, the price. At $1,700/sq ft ($1,582/sq ft after 11% discount), we feel that the price is very much on the high side. Although the location of ADRIA is supposedly in the Novena area, it is actually (IOHO - in our humble opinions) situated in the less "glamorous" side of Novena. There is the Thomson/Novena area where VIVA sits, and then there is the Derbyshire/Novena area where ADRIA is located. Although the two projects are supposedly just across the road from each other, the general perception of "quality of location" between the two can be quite different.

In summary, we think that there will still be good demand at the ADRIA especially with the investor buyers. This is in view of its location, proximity to the Novena MRT and amenities (Novena Sq, United Sq, TTSH, CDC etc). We do question somewhat the upside potential but rental rates should be decent. ADRIA will also likely to attract single yuppies who want to have their own pads, DINKs and small local/expat families. So it is no wonder that the smaller units (1 and 2 bedrooms) are moving quicker than the bigger ones.


Photos of ADRIA can be found here: http://www.fareast.com.sg/FEOCorp.Web/index.aspx?page=home-prop-info&prop=205&gclid=CIWQlJawxJ4CFQEwpAodDkblqA