Property Hunt: Queens at Queenstown

2 Feb 2009

Situated in district 3, Queens was developed by Queenstown Peak in 2002. It has a 99-year tenure with a total of 722 units altogether spread across 2-, 3-, 4-bedroom apartments and penthouses. Since the condominium was completed in 2002, that makes it seven years old. It gets a tick in our age criteria for being less than a decade-old. Its relative young age makes it is easier for potential buyers to get a bank loan.

Amenities/Facilities/ MRT
The Queens condominium has all the basic facilities in a condominium: a swimming pool, badminton and tennis courts, putting green, gym, and of course, barbeque pits. For amenities, IKEA and Queensway Shopping Centre (to get your cheap running shoes) are less than a kilometre away.

The nearest MRT station is Queenstown, located just 200 metres away. For being less than a kilometre away, Queens gets a tick. Both Redhill MRT station and Commonwealth MRT station are 1.3 km and 1.35 km away respectively. So Queenstown MRT station is still the nearest bet.

CONQUAS
The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) gave the Queens a CONQUAS score of 91.4. This is so far one of the highest CONQUAS scores given to a condominium that we have covered in our Property Hunt.
According to BCA records, the condominium that received the highest CONQUAS score was Savannah Condopark by City Developments (CDL), with a score of 94.1.

Breaking it down into the various criteria, Queens received 91.7 for structural works, 89.8 for its architectural works and 98.8 under M&E fitting. Queens looks like a job well done. The contractor engaged for Queens condominium was Woh Hup and looking at trends, most of the condominium developed by either CDL or Woh Hup have relatively 'high' CONQUAS scores.

Rental
Queens has a rental yield of 4.34%, according to the rental list of Q3 2008 for condominiums. Looking at the rental rate for Queens, for a 3-bedroom apartment, the monthly rents range from S$4,000 to S$4,800. A 2-bedroom apartment goes out for S$3,200 (914 sq ft) to S$3,500 (950 sq ft) per month. The 4-bedroom ones are all above S$5,000. If you're talking about buying an apartment here, a 3-bedroom apartment starts at S$1.15m to S$1.2m. For a 2-bedroom apartment, the price starts from S$865,000.

Caveats
Over the past 12 months, a total of 29 transactions were lodged. A quick glance at Queens' price per sq ft (psf) reveals that the pricing does not vary much from month to month. It managed to stay rather constant with mild fluctuations amid the economic downturn.

In February last year, the price psf was S$899. March saw an average of S$950 psf and in April, the price went up by S$30 to S$980 psf. In May, the average price psf went down by S$10 to S$970 and in June, it fell even further to S$880. July's average managed to climb up to reach S$950 psf and it stayed that way till August. In September, the average price psf went down once more to S$900 and for October, it went down again S$40 to S$860 psf. There was only one unit sold in November at S$829 psf.

In fact, from then till now, there has been no other transaction lodged: this could mean either there is no demand or the residents were not willing to sell off their apartments. With such unwavering selling prices, it looks like the Queens is standing firm on her ground.

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