Property Hunt: Landmark Tower

March 2009


Located along Chin Swee Road in District 3, Landmark Tower has a 99-year tenure. It is easier to associate it with the Outram area and Singapore General Hospital. It was completed in 1995 by Garden Landmark (Far East), making it 24 years old. Usually for condominiums, we give a tick to those below 10 years of age, as it is easier for buyers to get a bank loan. Here, it gets a cross.

Facilities and amenities
Facilities in Landmark Tower are rather minimal. It only has a covered carpark, half a basketball court and barbeque pits. In terms of shopping malls, well considering that it is located at the outskirts of town, both Central Mall and Central Square are less than a 500m walk away. Easy enough to walk over after a day's work to unwind! Outram Park MRT station is just 0.53km away and Chinatown MRT is just 0.47km away. Either way, both are less than a kilometre so we would actually give it two ticks.

You would think that rental, even for an old building at a strategic location would cost a bomb. Rental for a three-bedroom in Lincoln starts at S$4,300. One at Queens at Queenstown starts from S$4,000 to S$4,800 and one at Thomson Euro-Asia starts at S$5,000.

Surprisingly a three-bedroom apartment here would set you back S$2,800 per month on a lower unit, compared to a higher unit at S$3,500, both significantly lower than the ones in other fringe areas.

This is strange because from Chinatown, you could walk down to the Central Business District (CBD), if you don't mind sweating it out a bit. Unlike the other fringe areas, you'd have to take a short MRT ride or even take a taxi to the CBD, yet living there costs more.

Then again this condominium is 24 years old, and it is located opposite some older HDB flats at Jalan Kukoh and beside some office buildings along Chin Swee Road and Hotel RE.

Caveats
For a condominium that's 24 years old, there were a total of four transactions lodged over the past 12 months – a clear sign that it is still rather popular after 24 years. Why? Is it because it is slightly cheaper than the newer ones on other fringe?

The first one was done in April last year, a 1,270 sq ft apartment sold at S$913 psf (S$1.16m for the unit).
The second transaction, also done in April, was for a 1,292 sq ft apartment sold at S$774 psf (S$1m).

There was another transaction in May for another 1,292 sq ft apartment at $875 psf (S$1.13m).
The last transaction was done last year also S$787 psf for a 1,270 sq ft, making it S$1 m for the buyer.

Within the month of April itself, you could already note that the pricing psf had gone down. From the first caveat lodged at S$913 psf, it went down to S$774 later that month. A difference of S$139.

That number went up to S$875 psf in May and finally S$787 in August. The difference in pricing psf is within the range of S$100 to S$200. Not too bad though. In comparison, Queens at Queenstown was selling at S$950 psf in July last year while Oleander Towers at Toa Payoh was S$740 psf last June.

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