Property Spotlight: Tai Keng Gardens

The quiet landed housing enclave of Tai Keng Gardens located off Jalan Lokham in the Paya Lebar area has seen a flurry of activity. Two houses in the neighbourhood recently changed hands, according to caveats lodged with URA Realis at end-January. One was a semi-detached house sitting on a 3,423sqft freehold plot on Tai Keng Gardens (the street bearing the name of the estate) that was sold for close to $2.69 million ($786psf), while the other was an intermediate terrace house located across the road and sitting on a 1,873sqft freehold plot that was sold for $1.76 million ($939psf).

Peggy Ong, a Singaporean and mother of four, has been a resident in Tai Keng Gardens for the last five years. Ong had paid $1.4 million for her intermediate terraced house on 2,000sqft of land back in 2007. She moved there because of her four school-going children. Tai Keng Gardens is within 1-km radius of well-respected schools - Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School and Maris Stella High School.

"Many of the aging houses have been sold by owners whose children have grown up and moved out," says Ong, " So, a lot of young couples and families have moved in because of the schools. Most of them tend to do extensive renovations or tear down the existing structure and redevelop into a brand-new three-storey house."

Tai Keng Gardens is a mature estate, made up mainly of terraced and semi-detached houses developed more than 30 years ago by Keng Seng Group, according to property agent who knows the area very well. The residential neighbourhood is tucked away from the bustling Upper Paya Lebar Road and the nearby light industrial estates, and yet accessible to teh CBD via the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway, and to Orchard Road via the Central Expressway, he adds. Shopping malls such as nex and Hougang Mall are also within a five-minute drive of Tai Keng Gardens.

Interest in the area has picked up because of a spill-over effect from other more popular landed housing enclaves in the area, including Serangoon Gardens and Kovan. "It's going to be the next wave in landed housing," says Particia Zoey Tan, senior realty adviser at Knight Frank. Tan is marketing a two-storey, four-bedroom corner terraced home at Thrift Drive, a short walk from Tai Keng Gardens. The 2,550sqft terraced unit is priced at $2.7 million ($1,500psf, based on a built-up area of 1,800sqft). She notes that the asking price is on par with those of terraced houses in Serangoon Gardens, which are typically at a 10% to 20% premium to those at Tai Keng Gardens. "This reflects the optimism of the seller," she adds.

The newly opened Bartley MRT station could also play a part, as Tan has seen the number of transactions in the Serangoon Gardens neighbourhood increase significantly since the Serangoon and Lorong Chuan MRT stations opened.

Ong says most residents in Tai Keng Gardens, which is dominated by owner-occupiers, prefer the location to Serangoon Gardens, as it is quieter and less congested. The transformation of Paya Lebar into a commercial hub, which is part of the government's 2008 master plan, is also expected to speed up the rejuvenation of the ageing estate.

Located just off the busy Upper Paya Lebar main road is Tai Keng Court, an old mixed-use development with residential-cum-commercial units fronting Jalan Lokam, just one street away from Tai Keng Gardens. The property has been put up for collective sale with an indicative price of $130 million ($903psf ppr), according to sole marketing agent Jones Lang LaSalle. With a potential gross floor area of 152,301sqft, including an adjoining piece of state land of 4,988sqft, the freehold site could yield a five-storey building with 121 residential units averaging 950sqft in size, and 30 commercial units averaging 700sqft. "Tai Keng Court is the largest condo site in the Tai Keng Gardens area," says Stella Hoh, head of investments at Jones Lang LaSalle. She sees interest coming mainly from mid-sized developers because of its low price. "Such sites will appeal to developers, as there's scarcely any supply of land parcels of this size that can be redeveloped into a mixed-use project in the Tai Keng Gardens neighbourhood," adds Hoh.

If the collective sale of Tai Keng Court is successful, it will also speed up the renewal of the landed housing area.

Source: THEEDGE SINGAPORE

Click on link below to read our previous post on the collective sale of Tai Keng Court:
http://sgproptalk.blogspot.com/2012/02/enbloc-news-tai-keng-court.html
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