11 MRT stations with the most number of condos

How much shorter would your commute be if you could walk to the MRT station?

Don't get me wrong. Bus rides are incredibly enjoyable, but waiting for a bus to take you to the MRT station can be exasperating. You're so near yet so far. Being late because you missed your bus is the worst.

I don't know about you but growing up most of us aspired to live near a MRT station.

So we were wondering, where in Singapore can you find the most number of condos within a 5 minutes walk to the nearest MRT station?

More importantly, are there any affordable (read: cheaper) areas that might be interesting to explore whether you're looking for a brand new BTO, upgrading to a condo or gearing up switch it up when the prices fall.

Well, today we put together a list of the top 11 MRT stations with the most number of condos nearby! (Eleven because the two stations tied at tenth place and we want to be fair + it's juicy!)

Ok, without dillay dallying, here's the list!

This is a static list curated on 19 Feb 2024. You can find the full interactive list with live data here.

Number 1: Newton

Coming in at number 1, it is unsurprisingly Newton. If you've ever taken a walk after feasting at Newton Food Centre, you might have notice the sprawling collection of condos nearby.

Depending on where you're coming from, Newton is either the beginning or the end of the long Bukit Timah Road and is probably the most accessible area of Bukit Timah. As a result, the projects are mostly older (1980s - 2000s) with few or little transactions in recent years. In fact, in recent years, the only new launch in this neighborhood has been Pullman Residences at a whopping $3070 psf on average.

This is a static list curated on 19 Feb 2024. You can find the full interactive list with live data here.

You might have also notice that almost all the condos in this area are freehold and many of them are small boutique developments. At about $2200 - $2700 psf, a 1000 sqft unit will put you back about $2.2M to $2.7M. On that note, it is probably also worth noting that most units in this area start from a minimum size of 1000sqft.

Click here if you are interested to dig deeper into the data or look closer at each of the condos in the list.

Interesting finds

Ok we aren't going to bore you by going through this list one by one. As promised, we want to look for things that are surprising (and preferably affordable). 2, 3, and 4 are actually particularly interesting.

It's no coincidence that Potong Pasir, Aljunied and Farrer Park are within the vicinity of each other. This region that you are looking at is located right outside the CBD (10 mins by train) which makes this a rather popular area amongst renters and expats.

Potong Pasir

Potong Pasir comes in a close second at 21 condos with an average PSF of $1534. You're also able to snag smaller units in this area. A 883sqft unit at Woodsville 28 which is just 2 mins away from Potong Pasir MRT just went for $1.28M in December 2023.

If you prefer new launches and freehold condos, a similarly sized unit at Myra sold for about $1.4M in Oct last year.

Potong Pasir as a neighborhood is particularly interesting from a property perspective because it was a opposition-held constituency from (1984 - 2006). Read into it what you will but objectively property prices were significantly depressed when compared against the skyrocketing prices in the neighboring town, Toa Payoh (which quite literally a stone's throw away). This presents us with a unique opportunity to afford buying into a burgeoning part of town that is arguably very close to town and highly accessible.

Farrer Park and Aljunied

Both Aljunied and Farrer Park have very similar mix in condos - mostly freehold, with a couple of 99 years. Condos in Aljunied tend to be a little older (the town's a little older too) and prices are therefore also a little lower. The one big advantage that Farrer Park has over Aljunied is City Square Mall. The presence of a big retail mall within walking distance can make life a lot more convenient, but more importantly, buoy prices further in the region.

What's also similar is units in these two areas tend to be much smaller than average. In fact, this is where you'll find quite a number shoebox units under 400sqft. You can easily units between 400 - 500 sqft which means finding units under a million is highly possible. Centra Suites in Aljunied last transacted for $715,000 in Jan 2024 for a 425sqft unit.

In Farrer Park, a similar freehold development Soho 188, 4 mins walk from Farrer Park, retails at a slightly higher price point despite being 4 years older (completed in 2008). The last transaction at $770,000 for a 420sqft unit making its psf $300 more than Aljunied.

We chose to compare these two developments because they relatively similar in size (Centra Studios: 51 units and Soho 188: 49 units), about the same age (Centra Studios: 2012, Soho 188: 2008), freehold, and are similar in their walking distance from the nearest train station.

Other interesting observations

• Kembangan made it on to the list with 12 condos and the lowest average PSF. Depending on your personal definition of "convenience" and "accessibility", there are definitely less accessible areas on the list that are far more expensive.
• The disparity between min. PSF and average PSF for some of the areas on this list (like Potong Pasir, Stevens and Beauty World) tell us that there are some really old condos in those areas that you can scoop up if you enjoy huge renovation projects.

This has been a very interesting exercise for us and hopefully it has been for you too (especially since you made it to the end). As part of this exercise, we wanted to experiment new ways of finding interesting properties that might not have been on our radar previously in hopes of finding undiscovered gems. Today we learnt a couple of things about Potong Pasir, Farrer Park and Aljunied.

What have you learnt?