Trendale Tower, a freehold block of 18 apartments at 79 Cairnhill Road, has been put up for sale by public tender at a guide price of $168 million. The Edge Singapore reported that marketing agent Knight Frank puts that at about $2,248 psf per plot ratio, after allowing for 7 per cent bonus floor area for balconies. The tender closes at 3pm on 23 October.
The building is 20 storeys on a freehold site of about 21,709 sq ft, a five-minute walk from Newton MRT. Its verified gross floor area is about 72,691 sq ft, a plot ratio of about 3.348. The URA Master Plan 2025 now zones the site residential at a plot ratio of 2.8, so the guide price is set on floor area about a fifth larger than a fresh site of this size would be given today. That inherited floor area is a large part of what is for sale.
Two ways to use it
The agent names two routes for a buyer. One is to redevelop into a boutique luxury condominium for sale. The other is a Serviced Apartment 2 scheme, the long-stay category URA introduced in December 2023, where guests must stay at least three months and the owner keeps the whole block for rental income. URA has indicated support for serviced apartment use under an outline planning application, subject to detailed approvals, and the agent says the additional buyer's stamp duty on the purchase may be remitted for that use. Next door, 11 Claymore Road is reported to be heading the same way, with about 100 long-stay apartments.
What a new condo there would have to sell at
Roov runs every land deal through the same cost model as its Government Land Sales page: land, stamp duties, construction, professional fees, marketing, financing and contingency, spread over the saleable area. At $2,248 psf ppr, that model puts a new condominium's breakeven at about $3,520 psf, and an indicative launch price with a normal developer's margin at about $4,200 psf.
The comparison sits a few streets away. The two 99-year Government Land Sales sites the agent cites in Newton went for about $1,820 psf ppr (Bukit Timah Road, November 2025) and $1,865 psf ppr (Peck Hay Road, June 2026). The same model puts Peck Hay Road's breakeven at about $3,035 psf and its launch at about $3,620 psf. A freehold boutique project here starts roughly $500 psf behind its leasehold neighbours before a brick is laid, and has to be sold at freehold prices to make sense.
What District 9 is paying
Roov's URA records for District 9 over the last 12 months:
New 99-year homes: 525 sales, median $3,259 psf. Freehold resale: 425 sales, median $2,395 psf.
On Cairnhill Road itself, freehold resales over the last 24 months ranged from a median $2,219 psf at Casa Cairnhill to $3,385 psf at Hilltops, with The Laurels at $2,841, Cairnhill Residences at $2,654 and The Vermont on Cairnhill at $2,568.
So a new launch at around $4,200 psf would have to price well above the best freehold resale on the street and above District 9's leasehold new-launch median. That can work for a boutique product in a thin pipeline, and it is the agent's argument. It is also why the hold-for-income route is on the table at all: an investor who never sells does not need a buyer at $4,200 psf.
For the owners
If the 18 apartments are held by separate owners, $168 million averages about $9.3 million a unit before the price is apportioned between them and before costs. The ownership has not been published, so treat that as arithmetic, not a forecast. Roov's en bloc calculator shows how a collective sale price is shared out, and the collective sales tracker now lists Trendale Tower with its tender date.
Why this matters beyond one block
Newton is being rebuilt. About 5,000 new homes are planned across Newton Circus, Scotts Road and Monk's Hill, according to Knight Frank, of which just over 650 have been committed so far. Each land deal there sets the floor for what the next launch must charge. Our guide to land bids and launch prices explains how to read a psf ppr figure into a launch price, and the GLS tracker runs the same numbers for every government site. Because balcony bonus floor area changes the psf you are really paying for, the GFA harmonisation guide is worth reading before comparing any two projects' psf.
For owners of older blocks wondering whether their own estate could go this way, we covered what the new 65 per cent en bloc threshold changes, and what Gilstead Court's fourth attempt says about pricing a reserve. And for a sense of how far land prices have run on the other side of Bright Hill, see the record land bid at Sin Ming.
If you own in an older block and want to know what yours could fetch collectively, or what a new launch nearby should cost, Roov's agent can run the numbers with you. Get in touch.