Honest Insights On Dunearn House

Dunearn House is a 380-unit, 99-year leasehold development in the Bukit Timah Turf City precinct in District 11 — two 19-storey towers and three 10-storey blocks by Frasers Property, Sekisui House and CSC Land Group, a 0.28km (about four-minute) walk to Sixth Avenue MRT on the Downtown Line. It grades an A (7.0) on our New Project Scorecard (NPS), and it arrives with a genuine first-mover claim: it is the first new private condominium in the Turf City area in more than three decades, a 99-year leasehold dropped into one of Singapore's most established freehold, landed and Good Class Bungalow belts. It previews on 10 July and opens for sale on 25 July 2026, with the developer guiding indicative prices from S$1.475 million — about S$2,799 psf — for a two-bedroom. This is a pre-launch look at what the A rests on, what the opening prices imply against the enclave, and where the honest caveats sit. Methodology published. No spin.

The NPS grades a project's district-level fundamentals over a 10-year window — capital appreciation, rental growth, schools, MRT access and project size — from real URA transacted data. It is backward-looking by design: it reflects the district's history, lifted for the project's own size, transport and schools, not a forecast. Because Dunearn House has not transacted yet, the holding-period read below uses the developer's indicative opening prices rather than a settled transacted record, and should be treated as provisional until real caveats land.

The scorecard: what an A actually says

Dunearn House's 7.0 is carried by transport and a genuinely strong prime-district growth record, with two honest soft spots.

The top of the card is unusually good for a prime address. Transport is a near-perfect 9.0 — a genuine four-minute walk to Sixth Avenue MRT, with the future Turf City station on the Cross Island Line coming to the precinct as well. The standout is capital appreciation at 8.5: resale homes within a kilometre grew about 3.8% a year over the past decade — strong for the Core Central Region, where prime growth has usually lagged — and after the model's +0.89 lift for the project's size, transport and schools, projected growth runs to about 4.7% a year, comfortably clear of the 3% bar. The 380-unit scale scores 8.0, deep enough for a full facilities deck and a liquid resale market. The two honest soft spots are the other half of the card. Rental growth is only 2.6 — District 11 rents grew about 4.1% a year, moderate, and prime yields are thin, so this is not a cash-flow address. And the school factor is a middling 5.0: despite Bukit Timah's famous belt, only Raffles Girls' Primary falls inside the strict one-kilometre primary-school metric (0.80km, on a balanced ballot), with Nanyang, Hwa Chong and the rest nearby but not all inside the ring the NPS measures. This is an A built on transport and growth, honest about its yield.

The launch: what Turf City's first condo is asking

Dunearn House is a preview, so there is no transacted record yet — only the developer's indicative guide, reported by Stacked Homes and the trade press ahead of the 10 July preview:

Those are opening from-prices for the best-value stacks; analysts have pencilled the overall average nearer S$2,900–3,100 psf (CBRE and SRI pre-launch estimates), broadly in line with where Core Central Region new sales have been clearing. The mix leans family: two-bedders make up roughly 45% of the project, but the three- and four-bedroom formats — the 19-storey "Pinnacle" tower units — are the ones the location is really pitched at. The development also leans hard into greenery, with about 35% of the site landscaped, a 50-metre lap pool and two clubhouses, and BCA Green Mark Platinum (Super Low Energy) certification. For a buyer, the number that matters is the entry PSF, and the next section sets it against the enclave.

The benchmark: priced under freehold, above the old leasehold

With no resale of its own, Dunearn House is best read against two things — the land it sits on, and the homes around it. On land, the consortium paid S$491.45 million, or S$1,410 psf per plot ratio, at the June 2025 tender — the top of nine bids, with CDL second at S$1,360 psf ppr, a margin of under 4%. Tellingly, a second, adjacent Dunearn Road plot went for S$1,625 psf ppr to a Wing Tai–Metro venture a year later, so this JV bought the cheaper of the two sites — useful pricing headroom. On the homes around it:

The read is clean. Dunearn House's opening prices sit below freehold Watten House (~S$3,230) — the tenure discount you would expect — and roughly level with freehold Juniper Hill resale (~S$2,911), while running above the older 99-year Fourth Avenue Residences resale (~S$2,520) and well above freehold Sixth Avenue resale (~S$2,125). The premium over Fourth Avenue is the fresh lease, the brand-new product and the Turf City first-mover position; the discount to Watten and the other freehold stock is the honest cost of a 99-year tenure in a district where the neighbours mostly hold their land forever. The two-bedroom from S$2,799 psf is the value entry — it undercuts freehold resale nearby — while the four-bedroom from S$3,030 is where you pay the full first-mover premium.

How long you'd likely hold

Using the NPS calculator's model — ~4.7% expected growth, a 3% target — here is the estimated holding period at the developer's indicative opening prices, on price growth alone and with the area's ~3.1% rental yield added. These are provisional: they move once real transactions set the project's own record.

Because the modelled ~4.7% growth clears the 3% bar with room to spare, the exits are quick across the range — the honest variable is not whether it clears, but where you enter. The two-bedroom from S$2,799 psf, below the estimated average, clears fastest in the three-to-five-year tier; the three- and four-bedders, at or above the ~S$2,950 estimated average, land a step higher on price alone but come back to three-to-five years once the ~3.1% rent is added. That thin rent is the real caveat: with District 11 yields around 3%, the return here is a capital-appreciation story, not a cash-flow one — the growth engine does the work, and an investor who needs the rent to carry the hold should look at the yield number twice. Figures are indicative and gross of stamp duty, financing and selling costs.

The honest verdict

Dunearn House is what an A looks like when transport and a genuinely strong prime-district growth record line up, with the trade-offs of a leasehold home in a freehold belt. The four-minute walk to Sixth Avenue MRT, a 1km resale record near 3.8% a year lifting projected growth to ~4.7%, and a 380-unit scale in the Bukit Timah Turf City precinct — first condo there in over 30 years — are real strengths, and the opening prices sit sensibly below freehold Watten House. The honest caveats are equally clear: it is a 99-year lease among freehold neighbours, rental growth is only moderate so yields are thin, and the school factor is middling despite the postcode, because only Raffles Girls' Primary lands inside the one-kilometre ring. For a family or own-stay buyer who wants the address, the MRT and the schools nearby, and enters at the two- or three-bedroom from-prices, Dunearn House looks like a credible A. For a yield-seeker, District 11's rents are the limiter. Note this is a preview: the grade is from the live NPS, but the prices are the developer's indicative guide and the holding read is provisional until the project transacts.

See the full scorecard and run your own unit price through the holding-period calculator at tribesg.com/nps.

Sources: NPS quality grade, the five factor scores, modelled growth and rental yield per the TRIBE New Project Scorecard (URA Data Service transacted PSF; 1km resale trend lifted for project size, transport and schools; figures as at July 2026). The 10 July preview, 25 July launch and indicative prices (2BR from S$1.475m / S$2,799 psf; 3BR from S$2.597m / S$2,978 psf; 4BR from S$3.588m / S$3,030 psf) per Stacked Homes, EdgeProp and The Edge Singapore; the S$491.45m / S$1,410 psf ppr land rate (June 2025 tender, nine bids, CDL second at S$1,360 psf ppr) and the adjacent S$1,625 psf ppr site per EdgeProp. Analyst average estimates (CBRE ~S$2,900–3,000 psf; SRI ~S$2,910–3,100 psf) per EdgeProp. Comparable indicative PSF for Watten House, Juniper Hill, Fourth Avenue Residences and The Sixth Avenue Residences per EdgeProp / PropertyGuru / 99.co transaction data; District 11 gross rental yield (~3.1%) per Global Property Guide (Q2 2026). Prices are indicative pre-launch figures and will change; scores and holding periods are model outputs, not financial advice.

Silas Tan is a District Director at Huttons Asia and co-founder of TRIBE. He built the New Project Scorecard (NPS) and Resale Project Scorecard (RPS) on URA transacted data. This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial or investment advice. CEA Registration R000303I.