Insights

The New Project Scorecard, Explained

New launches don't have a resale history to score — so the New Project Scorecard grades them on the area's track record, then works out the holding period a unit needs to hit your target return. Here's how it works.

By TRIBE Editorial · 28 June 2026 · 5 min read

A new launch has no resale history — the units have never traded, so the very thing the Resale Project Scorecard leans on hardest doesn't exist yet. The New Project Scorecard solves that by asking a different question: not "how has this project performed?" but "how has this location performed, and what would a unit here have to do to earn the return you want?" It went live in June 2026, and it answers three things — a quality grade, the holding period to reach your target annualised return at your asking price, and how the launch compares against the best resale option within one kilometre.

Weighted factors

area-driven, not project history

8.5+

Score needed for grade S

fixed bands, unlike the resale curve

1km

Resale comparison radius

repriced as if new today

The five factors — and what each is worth

Because there's no transaction record for the project itself, the NPS scores the surrounding market on five factors, each marked out of 10 and weighted:

Factor	Weight	What it captures
Capital appreciation	30%	10-year resale appreciation of comparable condos within 1km
School effect	20%	Primary-school catchment strength
Project size	18%	Unit count
MRT proximity	18%	Walking distance — doorstep scores 10
District rental growth	14%	Recent rental momentum in the district

Capital appreciation carries the most weight at 30%, measured on an absolute scale (roughly 0% a year scores 0, 5% a year scores 10) with a small project-quality adjustment of up to ±1.5 points. The logic is direct: a new launch inherits the trajectory of the homes around it, so the area's ten-year resale record is the best available read on where a brand-new unit is likely to head.

How the grade is built — fixed bands, not a curve

Here's the key difference from the resale scorecard. The RPS grades on a curve, ranking each project against its peers. The NPS uses fixed numeric bands: S is 8.5 and above, A is 7.0–8.49, B is 5.5–6.99, C is 4.0–5.49, and D is below 4.0. A grade means the same thing every time, independent of what else launched that quarter. So an NPS "A" and an RPS "A" are not computed the same way — don't read them interchangeably.

The part that does the real work: the holding-period calculator

The grade tells you about the location. The holding-period calculator tells you about your purchase. Enter the project, bedroom type, floor area, your asking price and a target annualised return, and it computes the holding period that purchase needs to reach that return — the number of years you'd realistically have to hold. You can run it two ways: own-stay, which uses price growth only, and investment, which adds the district's gross rental yield to the maths. It's the honest counterweight to a showflat pitch: instead of "prices only go up," it puts a number of years against the return you're hoping for.

The second agent-assisted view is a buy-new-vs-resale comparison. It takes the best RPS-graded resale project within one kilometre and reprices it "as if it were new today" — applying an age-depreciation curve (separate tracks for freehold and leasehold) plus a small floor-area-efficiency lift for newer layouts — so you're comparing like with like. It's the question every new-launch buyer should ask and rarely gets answered with data: what am I paying for new, versus the same money in an established project next door?

What's open, and what's gated

Anyone can see a project's grade — that's the public teaser. The holding-period calculator and the within-1km resale comparison are agent-assisted: they surface the per-unit transacted data and comparison set through a TRIBE consultant. If you're not working with one, the tool shows the grade and a short access request; the full calculator opens once you're connected.

How to read it — and what it isn't

The NPS grade is backward-looking on the area's performance and is calculated gross of stamp duty, financing and fees. It's a fundamentals read on the location and the project's basic attributes — not a forecast, and not financial advice. A high grade with a long required holding period is telling you something real: good area, but priced such that it needs time to deliver. Read the grade and the holding period together, never the grade alone.

See how a launch you're considering grades — and what it would take to make the numbers work — at tribesg.com/nps.

Sources: TRIBE New Project Scorecard; factors, weights, grade bands and calculator behaviour as at June 2026. Underlying data: URA Data Service per-unit caveats, OneMap/SLA. Grades are model outputs computed gross of duties and fees, not investment advice.

Silas Tan is a District Director at Huttons Asia and co-founder of TRIBE. This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial or investment advice. CEA Registration R000303I.