These Are Our Top 5 Condos in Queenstown & Tiong Bahru

Queenstown and Tiong Bahru sit in District 3, a strip of the Rest of Central Region that buyers treat as almost-prime — walking distance to the CBD, ringed by good primary schools, and threaded by three MRT lines. It is also one of the most expensive resale markets outside the core, which makes the choice between projects expensive to get wrong. So we did what the Resale Project Scorecard (RPS) is built for: ranked every resale condo in the district on the same evidence, and let the data pick the top five.

The RPS scores each project from 236,000-plus URA REALIS transactions across seven factors — primary-school catchment, capital appreciation, rental yield, MRT access, future-transformation upside, project size, and tenure — each marked out of 10, rolled into one score and a letter grade from S to D. Methodology published, no spin. Of the 39 ranked projects in District 3, eight earn the top S grade. These are the five that score highest.

Photo: Wzhkevin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

1. Artra — 8.04, grade S

Artra tops the district on the strength of the two things that matter most to a resale buyer: getting to work and getting capital back. The scorecard logs it 60m from Redhill MRT (EW18) — direct, walk-in access — and an average annual capital appreciation of +4.29%, in the top quartile of its 2020-era cohort (84th percentile). Rental yield is a strong 4.12%. Its one soft spot is future-transformation exposure: the nearest catalyst, the Greater Southern Waterfront's Telok Blangah precinct, is 2.44km away, far enough that the RPS scores the upside as modest. For a 99-year project with about 89 years left and an active 400-unit resale market, that is a minor quibble against a genuinely complete profile.

2. The Regency @ Tiong Bahru — 7.98, grade S

The Regency is the freehold play, and the scorecard rewards it for exactly that. It posts a perfect mark on schools — three primary schools within 1km, nearest Zhangde Primary at 0.57km — and exceptional appreciation: an average annual +4.58%, top 1% of its 2010-era cohort. Freehold tenure removes any lease-decay question. The trade-offs are honest ones the RPS flags plainly: at 158 units it is a boutique block with lower transaction frequency and limited facilities, and rental yield is a below-average 3.00%. This is a hold-for-the-long-term, school-catchment buy, not an income play.

3. Twin Regency — 7.83, grade S

Twin Regency is the second freehold entry and scores on transport and tenure: 200m from Tiong Bahru MRT (EW17) and freehold, with appreciation in the top quartile of its 2007 cohort (+4.61%, 89th percentile). Schools are a genuine advantage too — Zhangde Primary just 0.29km away. Like its neighbour The Regency, the weaknesses are total returns — yield is a below-average 3.14% — and limited future-catalyst exposure. The RPS is consistent about Tiong Bahru's freehold blocks: you are buying durability, schools and location, not yield.

4. Stirling Residences — 7.70, grade S

Stirling is the scale play. At 1,259 units it is by far the largest project on this list — the deepest, most liquid resale market in the district, with full condo facilities the boutique freehold blocks can't match. The scorecard rewards it for momentum and access: an average annual +4.57%, in the top 10% of its 2022-era cohort, and 280m from Queenstown MRT (EW19). As a 99-year project with about 90 years remaining, lease decay is not a near-term concern — and rental yield is the strongest of the five at 4.48%. The one caveat the RPS flags is limited future-catalyst exposure: the nearest, the Greater Southern Waterfront, is 2.42km off. For a buyer who wants a large, amenity-rich development with proven appreciation, walk-to-MRT access and income, Stirling is the pick.

5. The Metropolitan Condo — 7.64, grade S

The Metropolitan rounds out the five on the most balanced all-round profile of the group. The scorecard logs it 160m from Redhill MRT (EW18) — direct, walk-in access — with solid school proximity (Gan Eng Seng Primary at 0.55km) and dependable appreciation: an average annual +3.71%, top quartile of its 2009-era cohort (82nd percentile). At 382 units it has a healthy, liquid resale market. The caveats are lease and yield: as a 2009 project it has about 79 years remaining ("some long-term decay exposure but not imminent"), and yield is a modest 3.27%. For a buyer who wants transport and schools in one mature, proven package, it is the value all-rounder of the five.

Photo: Qingwu Zhou, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What they share — and what to watch

Run the five side by side and a pattern emerges.

Every one of them scores on transport — none is more than a few hundred metres from a station — and most score on schools. The recurring weakness across the district is future-transformation upside: District 3 is already built out, so the RPS finds little of the catalyst-driven uplift you see in, say, the Greater Southern Waterfront fringe or around new CRL interchanges. That is not a flaw so much as a feature: you are buying a mature, proven location, and the price already reflects it. Just outside the five, Principal Garden (7.62, S) and Avenue South Residence (7.54, S) make the same case — both still S-grade, separated from the top five by fractions of a point.

The decision inside this list is not "which is best" — all five are S-grade — but which trade-off you are buying. Freehold durability and schools (the two Tiong Bahru blocks, The Regency and Twin Regency), the most complete all-round profile (Artra), scale and resale liquidity (Stirling Residences), or transport-and-schools in a mature mid-size block (The Metropolitan Condo). Price the lease, the yield, and the school you actually need against your own horizon, and let the scorecard — not the showflat — frame the shortlist.

See the full ranking and every project's scorecard at tribesg.com/rps.

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Sources: TRIBE Resale Project Scorecard (236,000+ URA REALIS transactions; scores and reasons as at June 2026). Scores and grades are model outputs, not investment advice.

Silas Tan is a District Director at Huttons Asia and co-founder of TRIBE. He built the Resale Project Scorecard (RPS) using 236,000+ URA REALIS transactions. This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial or investment advice. CEA Registration R000303I.