OASIS @ELIAS (Review)

District: 18
Location: Pasir Ris
Address: 60 – 72 Elias Road
Developer: CEL Development Pte Ltd (subsidiary of Chip Eng Seng Corp. Ltd)
Tenure: 99-year from 17th March 2008

Given the “crazy” prices seen at new property launches these days, you might think the wife and I have gone bonkers if we say that you can actually buy a 2,000+sqft penthouse in a brand new project for less than $1.65million. Well, at OASIS@ELIAS you can.

OASIS@ELIAS is a 388-unit leasehold condo project comprising of 6 tower blocks of 18-storey each and a carpark podium. It sits on a 152,000sqft plot along Elias Road, next to Elias Mall. The current expected TOP is Dec 2012.


The sales gallery is located off-site – at the junction of Elias Road and Pasir Ris Drive 3 – as construction work for OASIS@ELIAS is already in full swing. The wife and I were at the sales gallery last weekend to check out the project and showflat. We were told by the marketing agent from Knight Frank that they are currently marketing Phase 2 of this project, after selling out all units in Phase 1.

OASIS@ELIAS is developed by Chip Eng Seng, a contractor turned developer that is responsible for projects like Bishan Loft Executive Condo (Bishan), One Fort (Tanjong Rhu), the “almost TOP” Parc Condominium (West Coast Road) and Grange Infinite (Grange Road).

Despite being a mid-size project, the type of units available (four) is comparatively fewer than other similar sized projects that were launched recently. There are no 1-bedder units at OASIS@ELIAS, and buckling the trend of new projects with mostly smaller units, OASIS@ELIAS has more than twice the number of 3-bedders compared to 2-bedders.

• 2-Bedrooms (95 units): 947 – 1206sqft
• 3-Bedrooms (211 units): 1195 – 1539sqft
• 4-Bedrooms (73 units): 1410 – 1496sqft
• Penthouses (9 units): 2217 – 2659sqft

For those seeking a sea view, the wife and I understand that the “outward-facing”, higher-floor units (9th floor and above) in Blocks 66, 68, 70 and probably 72 will overlook the Straits of Johor.


OASIS@ELIAS is a “full facilities” condo that centres on its 40-metre lap pool and the 5-senses gardens. It also comes with a tennis court (located on the rooftop of the carpark podium) and even an elderly fitness corner.


There are a total of 399 parking spaces (inclusive of 4 handicapped & 7 visitor’s lot – which effectively means only 1 lot per unit) spread over one basement carpark level (2/3 of the total spaces) and a 4-storey carpark podium block (1/3 of the total spaces).

There is only one showflat in the sales gallery – a 1496sqft, 4-Bedroom unit (Type C2). You walk through a rather long corridor as you entered the front door and into the rectangular-shaped living/dining area. The wife and I were surprised at how tiny the living/dining area is – you probably need to push the dining table out to the balcony (like they did in the showflat) if you intend to have a proper “living room” with a decent-size sofa and TV cabinet. Either that or you have to sacrifice the bedroom adjacent to the living/dining area to create more space. The living/dining area comes with 60cm x 60cm homogenous tiles (not marble, sorry) and 2.75m ceiling.

The rectangular balcony is huge and very functional– we reckoned almost 200sqft – which explained why you can fit a 6-seater long dining table here quite comfortably. The only problem we have with the balcony is the ugly railings, which looked like something you will find in a HDB flat (no offence).

Just before you enter into the wet kitchen area, there is a strip of what the wife and I can only term as a pathetic excuse for a dry kitchen - what the developer calls a dry kitchen, we call it a short table-top with cabinets below. The wet kitchen is a long rectangular strip, and comes with 90cm x 30cm homogenous tiles and “EF” brand hob/hood/oven. Unfortunately, we cannot identify the brand of sink/faucets that is provided. Overall, the wife and I are not impressed by the look and quality of the kitchen appliances, while the L-shaped top and bottom-tier kitchen cabinets and solid surfaced worktop also looked distinctly ordinary.

The bomb shelter aka Utility aka maid’s room is located within the wet kitchen itself opposite to the cooking area – a layout that we really dislike – and it has little/no ventilation. The small strip of a yard is at the end of the wet kitchen – you will have to use one of those “2 in 1” washer/dryer or pile one on top of the other if you have separate washer and dryer. And because the yard is just an extension of the wet kitchen, your hanging laundry will probably smell like the meal you cook. A toilet is found in the yard area.

The common bathroom is rather good size. The wife and I both loved the 60cm x 30cm black textured homogenous floor tiles, which looked very nice for a change. The other thing that we liked about the bathroom is the white & green mosaic “featured wall” in the standing shower stall, but disappointed with the fact that the shower stall has no rain shower. You get “Hansa”/”Roca” bathroom and toilet fittings, as well as a toilet cover that will go ‘ka bong” every time you forget to put it down gently.

The 2 common bedrooms are regular-shaped and of acceptable size. You can probably fit a “Queen” bed in here but you will be left with little space for anything else. You get timber-strip floors and the wardrobe space is as per what you normally expect with new projects these days (read: hardly sufficient). We find the quality of flooring and wardrobe extremely “so-so”.

The junior suite is not much bigger than the common bedroom, while the attached bathroom is almost an exact copy of the common bathroom.

The master bedroom is good size though, and comes with a planter area that is accessible via a set of sliding glass doors. The wardrobe space is bigger than what you get in the other bedrooms, but not by very much. The master bathroom is also good-sized and comes with 60cm x 30cm grey textured homogenous floor tiles, which we also liked. You get a bath tub with an adjacent standing shower stall, but again no rain shower.


Price wise, we were told that OASIS @ELIAS has one of the lowest psf among all the newly launched projects:  a 1475sqft, 4-Bedroom unit (Block 70, #09-17 – sea facing) is priced at $1.12 million or $759psf

And now for the sweetest deal:  a 2217sqft, 4-Bedroom, 2-level penthouse (Block 66, #17/18-09 – sea facing) will only cost you $1.636 million after a 10% discount, or $738psf

The maintenance fee for the 4-bedder is a low $210/month, while for the penthouse is only $230/month. We also understand that for the initial 2-year period after TOP, there will be a shuttle-bus service that operates from the condo to Pasir Ris MRT Station, which is about a couple of bus stops away.

What we like:
• The price - $1.12 million for a 1475sqft 4-bedder and better yet, less than $1.65 million for a 2200+sqft penthouse? And both units actually come with sea view too?? Such prices for newly launched projects are almost unheard of these days.

• The floors tiles in the bathrooms as well as the “mosaic wall” in the standing shower stall of the common and junior suite bathroom, which are probably the only two sets of furnishing we liked.


• Two co-ed primary schools within 1-km of OASIS @ELIAS – Elias and Parkview Primary. These should give parents with primary school-going kids one fewer headaches, especially if they are not overly particular about the pedigree of the school their children go to.

What we dislike:
• Other than the toilet floor tiles and “mosaic wall” that we have heaped praises about, the wife and I are rather disappointed with the quality of furnishing and fittings in the showflat. Remember the ugly railings we talked about earlier? That’s just one of several examples we can cite.

• The unit layout also leaves a lot to be desired – the long corridor from the main door to the living/dining area is a very inefficient use of space (although you can technically build storage on one side of the wall, as the walkway is wide enough), while more space could certainly be allocated to the pathetically small living/dining area. And to have the bomb shelter in the kitchen right opposite the cooking area, what was the architect thinking?

• The plot of land that OASIS @ELIAS sits on is actually quite small. For comparison, Green Lodge (the condo in Toh Tuck that was recently a subject of much en-bloc discussions) also resides on 150,00sqft of land but only has 80 apartments! So the wife and I cannot help but wonder if the 6 tower blocks will be too close for comfort to each other and thus somewhat claustrophobic.

• Speaking of claustrophobia, OASIA @ELIAS is surrounded by HDB blocks on all sides except for those units facing the sea. But the sea-facing units also overlook Elias Mall. We passed by this small neighbourhood mall along the way to the showflat and frankly, we find it to be a rather ugly building especially from a bird’s eye view.


• Although the marketing brochure claimed that OASIS @ELIAS is close to nearby malls such as IKEA, Giant, Courts and White sands, none of these amenities is accessible with reasonable ease without a vehicle. So for those of you who are looking forward to amenities within walking distance from the condo, you may have to contend with Elias Mall and the neighbourhood HDB shops.
• The marketing brochure also claimed that the CBD is accessible within minutes through the comprehensive network of ECP, TPE, PIE CTE & SLE. But the wife and I reckon that it will take between 25 minutes (normal traffic) to almost an hour’s drive (rush hours) to get to the city.

On first pass, OASIS @ELIAS definitely looked like a good buy as you can purchase a bigger apartment at a relatively lower price compared to other new projects. However, if you take into consideration its actual location, accessibility, quality of the project (as demonstrated in the showflat) and distance from amenities, the “good buy” statement may need requalification. As a comparison, the wife and I actually prefer Livia down the road – it has a much bigger land site, is mostly unblocked and best of all, is freehold. And if our memories serve us right, the psf price of OASIS @ELIAS and Livia are almost similar. But we reckon that OASIS @ELIAS will still be popular amongst first-time buyers and upgraders that are comfortable with living in the Tampines/Pasir Ris/Changi area. Those who have missed the opportunity to buy units at Livia (which we understand is 100% sold) may also be interested in this project. The good take-up rate for the 2-bedders and the sea-facing 3- and 4-bedders seen at OASIS @ELIAS thus far seemed to support that notion.

Click here to view slide show and floor plans