Where fishing villages, rubber and pepper plantations first stood, now stands Sengkang.
A satellite town in the Northeast region of Singapore, it seems to have traversed decades and is now a modern township that is largely populated by young families and working professionals.
Sengkang district increasing in popularity amongst young home seekers
Perhaps Sengkang’s development is a nod to its namesake, which means “prosperous harbour” in Chinese. Bound by Punggol and Seletar on the top and Ang Mo Kio and Hougang at the bottom, it seems to be a transition between the old and new.
Aside from HDB flats, the number of private condominiums making their place in Sengkang has also been growing from strength to strength. Executive condominiums (ECs) may however still remain the favourite with buyers here as they span both public and private housing sectors as a rare sort of hybrid property.
Riversound Residence
ECs start out as public housing but become private apartments after 10 years. The government started this initiative to help HDB owners cross over to the private property market. One of the latest additions is the Riversound Residences in Sengkang East Avenue. New and reasonably priced, the property has been drawing buyers.
Thus it may not be surprising to see an EC site along Anchorvale triggered for tender from the reserve list of the Government Land Sales’ (GLS) programme. EC sites have traditionally drawn strong interest from developers and industry players expect the same for this site in Sengkang.
The reserve price of $255 million was met and the 99-year leasehold site released for tender last month. The 1.7 hectare site can potentially yield 550 residential units.
Executive condominium buyers are currently not subjected to the additional buyer’s stamp duty as the public housing rules apply to them. They are not allowed to own any other residential properties and developers are keen to turn their attention to this group of potential buyers.
