Chencharu Close GLS

The research read

Chencharu Close GLS is an upcoming 99-year leasehold integrated development of about 864 homes in District 27, Yishun (OCR), by a joint venture of Evia Real Estate, Gamuda Land and Ho Lee Group. The site, part of the former ORTO recreational grounds, was awarded by HDB on 26 September 2025 for $1.0126 billion, or $980 psf ppr. Preview is targeted for Q1 2027 (est.), with TOP around 2032 (est.).

Three structural facts separate this site from the rest of the pipeline. The tender legally obliges the developer to build and hand over a public bus interchange and a hawker centre inside the scheme, within roughly 13,000 sqm of commercial space — that is a mandate, not a marketing feature, and it is part of why the land number looks the way it does. It is the first private residential launch within a kilometre of Khatib MRT since The Estuary in 2010, so there is no hyperlocal resale print to price it against. And it is the private anchor of an HDB precinct committed in March 2024 to about 10,000 new homes by 2040, at least 80% of them public housing — a buyer here is underwriting a funded plan rather than a finished neighbourhood.

Those are the facts. The price is the open question — specifically, what the developer must charge given what it paid, how far that sits above the nearest District 27 new launch already transacting, and what the executive condominium sites in the same estate do to the choice. The developer has not released an official project name; we track the site under its Government Land Sale parcel name, and launch updates as they are confirmed appear on the Chencharu Close GLS project site.

How much will Chencharu Close cost? What the land price already tells us

The land price is the one number that is already fixed, so any honest estimate starts there. At $980 psf ppr, Chencharu Close sits mid-table among Outside Central Region land awards of the last two years — above every residential-only site in the north, below the most recent comparable mixed-use parcel, and well above the executive condominium land in the same estate. The comparison below is ordered by land psf ppr and drawn from our own land-sales dataset of URA and HDB tender results.

Two readings of that table are commonly offered and only one of them holds. The bullish reading points at Tampines Ave 11 in 2023 at $885 and calls $980 a premium; the bearish one points at Lakeside Drive at $1,132 and calls it cheap. Both compare across two years of a moving land market. The fair peers are the trailing awards with a comparable brief: Tampines Street 94 at $1,004 in October 2024, a mixed-use parcel with a simpler scope and no bus interchange, and Lentor Gardens at $920 in April 2025, residential-only. Chencharu Close sits between them while carrying more obligation than either — the transport and hawker components are built at the developer's construction risk. On that basis the land was bought at a fair rate for what it includes: neither a bargain nor an outlier.

Land is one line of the cost stack. Adding construction, professional fees, financing and marketing gives an estimated breakeven of about $1,975 psf ppr; applying the 1.15–1.30 developer margin band we use on every project on this site produces an indicative launch range of $2,270–$2,570 psf. On that range a 700 sqft two-bedroom lands near $1.59M–$1.80M and a 1,000 sqft three-bedroom near $2.27M–$2.57M. The full working is set out in our pricing methodology. Note what a moderate land cost does and does not do: it lowers the floor, giving the developer room to price keenly if the market asks it to. It creates no obligation to use that room, and first-mover sites are rarely the ones where developers discount.

What runs today, and what is still only a target

• Khatib (NS14), about 460m — roughly a 7-minute walk (est., verify with OneMap or on foot). Operating on the North South Line, running direct to Orchard, Somerset, Dhoby Ghaut, City Hall, Raffles Place and Marina Bay with no transfer. This is the part of the case that needs no forecast.
• Bishan (NS17 / CC15), three stops. The nearest interchange, opening the Circle Line and its loop through the city fringe.
• The bus interchange inside the development. Mandated by the tender, so first-and-last-mile connections within Yishun and Sembawang start in the building rather than after a walk. This is the element genuinely rare at this price point.
• Seletar Expressway via Sembawang Road, which fronts the site, linking to the Central Expressway for city trips and the Tampines Expressway across the island.
• North-South Corridor, whose Admiralty Road West to Lentor Avenue viaduct segment is officially targeted for 2027, with an in-ramp planned along Sembawang Road. Under construction and funded.

The discipline we apply to any un-opened road or line is to ask what holds if it slips. Strip the North-South Corridor out entirely and the address still has an operating MRT station under 500m away on a line that reaches Orchard without a change, plus a bus interchange downstairs. The corridor is upside on a funded timetable, not the foundation of the case — and a page that leaned the value argument on a 2027 target date would be selling a delivery risk as a feature.

The township plan, and how far off it really is

• The Chencharu precinct, announced 5 March 2024. About 10,000 new homes by 2040, at least 80% public housing, on and around the former ORTO grounds. A ministerial commitment, with the first Build-To-Order flats already launched.
• The integrated hub itself. The bus interchange, hawker centre and retail podium are tender obligations, which makes this development the daily-life centre of the new estate rather than a condominium beside one.
• North-South Corridor viaduct, targeted 2027. Under construction, with an access ramp planned on the road fronting the site.
• The precinct's own upgrader pool from about 2032. Chencharu's first Build-To-Order cohorts reach their minimum occupation period roughly a decade after launch, which is the point at which a local move-up market exists here for the first time.

This is the earliest-stage catalyst list of any launch in the current pipeline, and that cuts both ways. Every item above is committed and dated, which is more than most transformation stories can show. But none of it is finished: the surrounding estate will be an active construction site through this project's own build period and for years after its TOP, and the 2040 completion horizon is eight years past the estimated keys date. Buyers here are pricing a masterplan, not a matured town — a different proposition from Lentor or Tampines, where the first movers launched alongside infrastructure that was already partly in place. Our fuller treatment of what first-mover pricing has actually delivered elsewhere is in our first-mover analysis.

Which primary schools are within 1km of Chencharu Close?

One MOE primary school falls inside about a kilometre of the site on our own dataset: Peiying Primary (~0.18km). In the 1–2km band sit Naval Base Primary (~1.09km), Jiemin Primary (~1.27km), Northland Primary (~1.43km), Ahmad Ibrahim Primary (~1.98km) and Yishun Primary (~1.99km). These are straight-line distances computed from OneMap geocodes. MOE registers priority on its own measured basis, and against a final postal address this site does not yet have, so confirm the current band on MOE SchoolFinder before anchoring a decision on it.

What proximity buys, and what it does not, shows up in the ballot record, and here it produces an unusual answer. In the 2025 Primary 1 exercise Peiying, the sub-1km school, did not ballot at Phase 2C at all: 53 applicants came forward for 105 vacancies, and balloting only became necessary at the 2C Supplementary stage. Naval Base at ~1.09km balloted at Phase 2C with 64 applicants for 60 places, and Northland at ~1.43km balloted heavily, with 142 applicants for 41 vacancies. Being inside the 1km band is what gets a family into a ballot; it is not what wins one. The point for this site is that its nearest school is currently the least contested of the group, while the two in real demand sit outside the 1km band — the reverse of the usual new-launch school argument, and a position a precinct adding thousands of families by 2040 may not preserve. How this pattern behaves across launches is set out in our study of primary schools and new launch demand.

Beyond schools, daily life leans for now on established Yishun: Northpoint City and Junction Nine for retail, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for healthcare and as a substantial local employer, Yishun Park, Lower Seletar Reservoir and Khatib Bongsu Nature Park for recreation, and Yishun Bus Interchange one stop up the line. The hawker centre and retail podium downstairs arrive with the building, not before it.

Renting it out: the numbers so far

This is the section most launch material skips. The nearest genuinely comparable tenanted stock is North Park Residences at Northpoint City, where average rents over the trailing year run near $5.70 per square foot per month on 99.co data as at July 2026 — about $3,990 a month on a 700 sqft two-bedroom. Chencharu Close would enter at a materially higher price per square foot while renting into the same corridor at broadly the same rents, which is arithmetic rather than opinion: on our indicative range a 700 sqft two-bedroom near $1.69M against that rent implies a gross yield of roughly 2.8%, and closer to 1.9–2.2% net once property tax at non-owner-occupier bands, maintenance and a vacancy allowance are taken out.

That says something about which case is carrying the purchase, not about whether the purchase is sound. The tenant pool is real and specific — Khoo Teck Puat Hospital's shift-based healthcare staff, the uniformed and civil-service population around Khatib Camp, and the usual North-side churn as owners of ageing flats rent out while they decide their own next move. But an investor buying here is buying the precinct's capital case and the scarcity of new private supply in the estate, not the running yield, and that yield will look worse at launch than at any later point. Anyone buying primarily for income should run their own entry price through the new launch ROI calculator rather than a corridor average.

Who a first-mover buy here suits

It works best for Yishun, Khatib and Sembawang flat owners moving into their first private home without leaving the network of family, schools and habits they already have; multi-generational households for whom a hawker centre, a bus interchange and a hospital within a short hop are daily infrastructure rather than amenities; commuters who value an unbroken North South Line ride to Orchard and the Central Business District over a shorter one that requires a transfer; and long-horizon buyers who read a committed 10,000-home precinct as a decade of gradual re-rating they are entering at the start of. The buyer it does not suit is the one whose entire budget is HDB sale proceeds with no top-up — median Yishun resale prices in the second quarter of 2025 ran about $887,500 for an executive flat, $716,400 for a five-room and $569,000 for a four-room, and after CPF refund and outstanding loan the equity that emerges is a fraction of those figures, against a three-bedroom estimated near $2.27M–$2.57M. Nor does it suit the income-eligible buyer for whom price is the binding constraint: two executive condominium sites in the same estate, Sembawang Road and Miltonia Close, carry indicative ranges of $1,700–$1,920 and $1,760–$1,990 psf on the same model, roughly $500 psf below this site. What that gap buys is unrestricted resale and rental from completion, with no five-year minimum occupation period and no income ceiling — a real trade at a real price, not an upgrade for its own sake. The wider version of that choice is in our new launch versus resale guide.

Duties, loan limits and cash up front

Standard private condominium rules apply: no citizenship restriction, no minimum occupation period, Total Debt Servicing Ratio capped at 55% of gross monthly income and stress-tested at 4%, and loan-to-value up to 75% on a first housing loan, 45% on a second and 35% on a third — 55% where the loan tenure runs past 30 years or the borrower past 65. Singapore Citizens pay no Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty on a first property, 20% on a second and 30% on a third; Permanent Residents pay 5% on a first and 30% on a second; foreigners pay 60% on any residential purchase. Buyer's Stamp Duty applies on the tiered scale on top — on a $2.4M purchase that is about $89,600 — and neither BSD nor ABSD can be loan-financed. Under the schedule effective 4 July 2025, Seller's Stamp Duty runs for four years from the date the option is exercised, not from TOP, which on a build-under-construction timeline means a purchase previewing in 2027 is normally clear of SSD well before keys are collected around 2032.

Progressive payments soften the cash profile: 5% on booking in cash, 15% plus BSD at exercise three weeks later, then staged draws against construction milestones, 25% at TOP and the final 15% at the Certificate of Statutory Completion a year on. The stage worth modelling explicitly is the stretch between exercising the option and TOP, which on a 2027 preview and a 2032 completion runs close to five years — long for an upgrader carrying a flat sale, an existing mortgage and a growing progressive drawdown at once. Before preview the concrete step is an in-principle approval from a bank, so the affordable unit types are known rather than guessed. Work the numbers through our affordability calculator, stamp duty calculator and progressive payment calculator, and read the TDSR guide for how the stress rate binds. Upgraders selling a flat first should start with selling an HDB to buy a new launch, since the sequence drives both the ABSD position and the deposit. Stress-test the repayment at a rate above today's, not at today's. We do not forecast rates.

Buying into a precinct that is not built yet

What follows is the list we would put in front of a buyer, with the context that cuts each one down to size or sharpens it.

• Moderate–highA large premium over the district's current benchmarkOur indicative $2,270–$2,570 psf sits roughly 14% to 29% above Canberra Crescent Residences' ~$1,990 psf average, the only District 27 new launch currently transacting in volume. A buyer at launch pays that gap up front and must later find someone willing to pay more, in a district whose established private stock trades well below it. The mitigant is what the gap buys — a station 460m away against 750m, and a mandated bus interchange, hawker centre and retail podium no other project in the estate has — but it is a premium with work to do, not a mispricing to be arbitraged.
• ModerateNo hyperlocal resale evidence at allThe last private launch within a kilometre of Khatib was The Estuary in 2010, so there is no recent caveat history within walking distance to price this against, and exit liquidity here is genuinely untested rather than merely uncertain. The mitigant is that this is a structural feature of every true first-mover site rather than a Chencharu-specific weakness, and the archetype has performed: our own study of Lentor Modern sub-sale profits tracks a first-mover, MRT-integrated launch into a blank corridor that went on to trade at double-digit gains within a year of completion.
• ModerateA first-time consortium on a first-of-kind buildEvia Real Estate, Gamuda Land and Ho Lee Group have not delivered a project as this three-way combination, and none of the three has previously delivered an integrated bus-interchange-and-hawker-centre scheme at this scale. Sequencing public transport infrastructure, a hawker centre and 864 homes on one site is materially harder than a residential-only build, and delay risk sits mostly there. The mitigant is that Evia and Gamuda have completed two Singapore joint ventures together, Gamuda Land's parent is a listed regional construction major, and Ho Lee Group holds a BCA A1 general-building grading — the capability is present even if this exact pairing is new.
• ModerateExecutive condominiums in the same estate at about $500 psf lessSembawang Road and Miltonia Close carry indicative ranges of $1,700–$1,920 and $1,760–$1,990 psf on the same model, and both preview in 2027. For an income-eligible household the private premium here has to be justified on more than product. The mitigant is that the two are not substitutes: an EC carries a five-year minimum occupation period, an income ceiling and restricted resale for the first decade, and Miltonia Close sits about 1.8km from Khatib with no station within walking distance.
• Low–moderateThe school case is thinner than it looksOnly one primary school falls inside about 1km, and on the 2025 exercise it was the least contested of the six nearby, taking 53 applicants against 105 Phase 2C vacancies. The schools in real demand — Naval Base and Northland — sit at ~1.09km and ~1.43km, outside the priority band. The mitigant is that low contention at the nearest school is a good outcome for a family that wants a place rather than a prestige address, and these are straight-line distances against a site with no final postal address yet; confirm on MOE SchoolFinder.
• LowYears of surrounding construction, and unconfirmed particularsThe precinct builds out to 2040, so active works around the development are near-certain through the early ownership years, and the project name, unit mix, site plan and preview date are all still unreleased. The mitigant is that neither changes the pricing thesis: construction activity is a temporary condition that resolves as the estate completes, and the particulars all firm up at the sale-licence stage.

What we will be checking next

1. 5 Mar 2024Chencharu precinct announcedAround 10,000 new homes by 2040, at least 80% public housing, on and around the former ORTO grounds.
2. 26 Sep 2025Site awarded$1.0126 billion, $980 psf ppr, to Evia Real Estate, Gamuda Land and Ho Lee Group. The Sembawang Road executive condominium site was awarded the same day at $692 psf ppr.
3. 2026Design and approvalsProject name, unit mix, site plan and pricing all still unreleased as at August 2026.
4. Q1 2027 (est.)Preview and price listOfficial name, unit mix, floor plans, stack data and actual pricing. This is when the estimates on this page become facts — or are corrected.
5. 2027 (target)North-South Corridor viaduct segmentAdmiralty Road West to Lentor Avenue, with a planned in-ramp on Sembawang Road. The one dated infrastructure catalyst that lands during construction.
6. Q1–Q2 2027 (est.)Booking dayDay-one take-up is the demand signal worth watching, against the roughly 91% sell-through Canberra Crescent Residences has reached in the same district.
7. ~2032 (est.)Estimated TOPKeys, and the point at which the hawker centre, bus interchange and retail podium open. Around 92 years of lease remain at completion.

Is Chencharu Close a good buy? How we would read it

Stated as a trade: you pay an estimated 14% to 29% more per square foot than the district's current new-launch benchmark, and in exchange you get a station 460m away on a line that reaches Orchard without a transfer, a bus interchange and hawker centre legally required to be built into your own podium, and the private anchor position in a funded 10,000-home precinct. That suits a Yishun or Sembawang upgrader with headroom above the flat-sale bridge, a commuter who values the unbroken North South Line ride, and a long-horizon buyer comfortable owning through a decade of surrounding construction. It does not suit a buyer stretching to the last dollar, an income-eligible household for whom the executive condominium sites in the same estate are around $500 psf cheaper, or anyone buying primarily for yield.

Two figures will tell you most of what you need to know. One is the launch psf against our $2,270–$2,570 indicative range and, more importantly, against Canberra Crescent's ~$1,990: priced near the bottom, the moderate land cost has been passed through and the integrated podium is close to free; priced at or above the top, the first-mover premium is doing all the work and needs the precinct to deliver on schedule to justify it. The second is day-one take-up, which tells you whether a blank-slate precinct draws depth or hesitation. We will come back to both once the price list is out. Wider context sits in our GLS pipeline tracker and the Singapore price trends dashboard. The Chencharu Close GLS project site carries the showflat schedule, unit mix and floor plans as the developer confirms them; this page holds the independent yardstick to measure them against.

Sources: HDB and URA Government Land Sale tender results compiled in our own land-sales dataset; Ministry of National Development announcement on the Chencharu precinct (5 March 2024); LTA records for the North-South Corridor; MOE school data and 2025 Primary 1 balloting releases compiled in our own schools dataset, with OneMap geocodes for distances; HDB resale statistics (2Q2025 Yishun medians); 99.co rental data for North Park Residences (July 2026); IRAS and MAS for duties and financing rules; PropertyInsider.sg tracked transaction dataset for District 27. Figures marked (est.) are our estimates and subject to change at preview; indicative launch pricing is produced by our pricing model and is not developer pricing. Past performance of comparable projects is not indicative of future results. This page is research, not financial advice. PropertyInsider.sg is an independent research publication and does not market this project — see our editorial policy.

Page history

• 20 Aug 2026 — Editorial pass: section headings and framing rewritten to be specific to this project rather than shared house phrasing across the launch pages. No figures, sources, tables or FAQ answers changed.
• 19 Aug 2026 — Research read rewritten to the house standard. Corrected the unit count to about 864 on our tracked record and the estimated TOP to around 2032; corrected the Khatib walk to about 460m and 7 minutes from our own MRT dataset, replacing the tender-material 5–10 minute range; rebuilt the land-cost table from our own land-sales dataset, removing four comparables that were not in it and adding the District 27 executive condominium sites that compete for the same buyer; walked pricing explicitly from the $1,975 psf ppr breakeven through the 1.15–1.30 margin band; added the Canberra Crescent Residences cross-check at ~$1,990 psf and about 91% sold; corrected the schools section, which previously placed Naval Base Primary inside 1km when our dataset puts it at ~1.09km, and added 2025 Phase 2C ballot figures; added the rental counter-case, a financing and duties section, the executive-condominium alternative, and the "who it does not fit" reading; removed unsourced floor-area figures for the bus interchange and hawker centre.
• 12 Aug 2026 — Indicative range set at $2,270–$2,570 psf (est.) under pricing methodology v3; preview window recorded as Q1 2027 (est.).
• Next scheduled update — the day the developer releases the official project name or the price list, whichever lands first; the indicative range is replaced with actual pricing, unit mix and stack data at that point.

Frequently asked questions