Project Spotlight: The Bayshore Area

Outside the prime districts of 9, 10 and 11, the East Coast area (Districts 15 and 16) has traditionally been a draw for expatriates. In the last two years, the area has proven to be especially popular with mainland Chinese and Indian nationals, says Wendy Tang, director of residential services at Knight Frank. “Those who are permanent residents tend to buy for their own occupation, while non-PRs are generally investors,” she adds.

Tang attributes the popularity of the East Coast neighbourhoods to “the more palatable pricing” compared with condominiums in Districts 9 and 10. The waterfront-resort lifestyle and the East Coast Park are also another attraction. “For those living in the Meyer Road and Amber Road/Marine Parade neighbourhoods, the CBD is actually just a short drive away,” she says.

Over the week of July 5 to 12, there was a blip of activity in the Bayshore Road neighbourhood. According to caveats lodged and downloaded from URA Realis, there were two transactions at Costa del Sol and two more at the neighbouring The Bayshore.

Of the three significant 99-year leasehold condos located in the Bayshore Road area, Costa del Sol, developed by giant Hong Kong developer, Cheung Kong (Holdings), is considered the newest. Completed in 2003, the 906-unit condo has seven 30-storey blocks, four swimming pools, a clubhouse, a gym, a minimart and a café. The other two condos are the 1,038-unit The Bayshore, built in 1996, and the 1,093-unit Bayshore Park, completed in 1986.

At least 70 apartments within Costa del Sol have changed hands since the start of the year, which works out to an average of 10 sales a month, estimates Jackie Mang, a unit head at Savills Singapore and a property specialist in the East Coast area. So, it is fairly actively traded, he reckons. Since June, transactions for upper-floor apartments starting from the 20th level have been sold in the range of $1,300psf.

About 70% of the buyers are said to be foreigners, with a good mix of potential owner-occupiers and investors, notes Mang. This is because high-floor units priced about $1,300psf appear to be “value-for-money” buys compared with new launches where the premium for unobstructed sea views is already priced in.

In the East Coast area, for instance, at recently launched projects that also boast unobstructed sea views, mid- to high-floor units are already priced from at least $1,900 to $2,000psf.

In the prestigious Meyer Road district, Hong Leong’s 196-unit freehold condo, Aalto, was completed last year. There are two 27-storey towers, and the high-floor apartments boast spectacular sea views. Such units have been sold for more than $2,100psf.

The 383-unit Silversea in Marine Parade – a 99-year leasehold private condo launched in 2008 that is the redevelopment of the former Amberville HUDC estate – also boasts clear sea views from the mid-level and higher-floor apartments. As at end-June, 319 units had been sold in the project, with prices of mid-floor units in the range of $1,860 to $2,389psf, depending on the views. In June, a 2,465sqft unit on the 14th level of Silversea was sold for $5.13 million ($2,079psf), and a unit on the 17th level fetched more than $5.66 million ($2,230psf).

At Costa de Sol, a 1,313sqft three-bedroom apartment on the 17th floor was sold in July for $1.67 million ($1,270psf). The last recorded transaction for the unit was in 2007, when it changed hands for close to $1.08 million ($820psf). As such, the seller saw a capital gain of about 55% in just the last four years.

The other transaction was for another 1,313sqft three-bedroom unit, this time on the 24th level, that was sold for $1.72 million ($1,310psf). The last time the unit changed hands was in October 2006, when it was sold for $991,580 ($755psf). The seller saw a hefty capital gain of 73.5% in the last five years.

Owners of three-bedroom apartments on the high floors (from 25th level up) with unrestricted sea views are already asking for $1,375psf, notes Savills’ Mang. Those from the 14th to 18th levels with such views are asking for $1,270 to $1,340psf.

In terms of asking rents at Costa de Sol, a mid-floor three-bedroom apartment of 1,346sqft was recently listed with an asking rent of $5,000 a month. Meanwhile, a 1,475sqft four-bedroom apartment located above the 20th level boasts full sea views and is listed with an asking rent of $5,800 a month. As for The Bayshore, a 1,227sqft three-bedroom high-floor unit has an asking rent of $4,000 a month.

At The Bayshore, one of the two recent transactions was for a third-floor, 926sqft unit that changed hands for $850,000 ($918psf). The unit last changed hands in 1996 – for $680,000 ($735psf). The other unit that changed hands measured 1,432sqft, and was on the 23rd level and sold for $1.285 million ($898psf).

Meanwhile, at Bayshore Park, the two most recent transactions were in late June. One involved a third-level, 624sqft one-bedroom apartment that was sold for $620,000 ($993psf). The other was for a 1,292sqft three-bedroom unit on the 12th level that changed hands for more than $1.2 million ($943sqft).
“The difference in the resale prices achieved at Costa de Sol compared with the other Bayshore condos is because the others are older, and therefore the layouts of the units are also rather dated,” says Savills’ Mang.

Another difference is the unobstructed sea view from high-floor units at Costa del Sol. “As the living rooms of all the units have full-height glass windows, the sea views are truly spectacular, “says Knight Frank’s Tang. “People… are willing to pay a premium for them.”

Source: THEEDGE SINGAPORE

The wife and I do profess to have some intimate knowledge of The Bayshore area, since we used to own an apartment in Bayshore Park during 2006 – 2007. We have also seen units in The Bayshore and Costa de Sol while we were residing at Bayshore Park:

Costa del Sol: We must agree that the sea view is spectacular, but so is the traffic noise from the ECP. If you intend to keep all windows 24/7 closed and rely solely on air-conditioning, then there is no problem. And speaking of air-conditioning, the lift lobbies on the ground floor are fully enclosed but not air-conditioned (at least this was the case when we last visited the project some 5 years ago). So it can be quite a hot and stifling wait for the lifts to arrive.

The Bayshore: The wife claimed that this project has the best swimming pool compared to the other developments. However, we find that the apartments are generally quite small while the internal layouts of those units that we had seen were rather irregular, i.e. with odd-shaped corners. And after Costa de Sol was completed in 2003, most of the sea-facing units in The Bayshore were blocked by the newer development.

Bayshore Park: The units are generally larger, while the views from the sea-facing units are comparable to what you get at Costa de Sol (minus the full-height glass windows). We also loved the huge balcony in our 2,200+sqft unit, which extend outwards from the apartment like a space-pod – it is probably one of the rare times that you find us saying that we enjoyed having a balcony. However, there are some downsides to this development too (other than age) – only gypsum boards are allowed should you need to rebuilt walls (that were previously torn down) within the apartments, while some of the basement carparks get flooded during heavy thunder storms.

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