These Are Our Top 5 Condos in Toa Payoh & Balestier, Ranked by the Data

District 12 is one of the most-misread postal codes in Singapore. Search "best condo in D12" and you'll be handed a list that quietly blends Toa Payoh, Balestier, Potong Pasir and Boon Keng — four estates that share a district number and little else. The Potong Pasir and Boon Keng end of the table scores well (Riviera 38 at 7.63, The Aberdeen at 7.56, Beacon Heights at 7.55), but those projects sit beside the North-East Line in a different neighbourhood with a different school catchment. So before ranking anything, we filtered the Resale Project Scorecard (RPS) down to the projects actually in Toa Payoh or Balestier — and two Braddell towers run away with it.

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First, What We Filtered Out

District 12 runs from the Braddell–Toa Payoh core, down the Balestier Road strip, across to Potong Pasir and Boon Keng on the North-East Line. The strongest non-Toa-Payoh scorers — Riviera 38 (7.63, Potong Pasir), The Aberdeen (7.56, Potong Pasir), Beacon Heights and Eight Riversuites (Boon Keng/Bendemeer) — are fine projects in their own right, anchored on the St Andrew's and Bendemeer school clusters. They are not in Toa Payoh or Balestier, and they belong on a Potong Pasir / Boon Keng list of their own.

A quick note on methodology: RPS scores 2,369 resale condos across Singapore on seven weighted factors — secondary market performance (25%), schools (20%), project size (16%), MRT proximity (13%), tenure (10%), rental yield (10%) and future transformation (6%). The secondary market score is cohort-relative: each condo is measured only against projects that reached TOP in the same two-year window, so a high score means top-quartile appreciation against its own vintage, not just a rising tide. The full methodology is published at tribesg.com/rps.

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The Top 5

Four of the five score 10/10 on schools. The two at the top are the only large-format 99-year projects in the area; the rest of the list is boutique freehold.

1. Trevista — 8.34, S

The clear top of Toa Payoh and Balestier sits 340m from Braddell MRT (NS18) and effectively on top of its school catchment: Kheng Cheng School is 0.07km away — at the gate — with CHIJ Primary (Toa Payoh), Marymount Convent, Pei Chun and First Toa Payoh Primary all inside 1km, the highest school density on this list. The scorecard calls it "top-tier across nearly every dimension": appreciation of +3.27% per annum, top 13% of its 2011-era cohort, and an ideal-scale 590 units ("the sweet spot for resale turnover"). Its one weak factor is future transformation (2/10) — central, mature, and already priced in.

2. Gem Residences — 8.32, S

Trevista's newer neighbour by Braddell MRT (TOP 2019, about 88 years of lease remaining), 0.49km from the station. Its profile is almost a mirror image: a perfect 10 on schools (Kheng Cheng 0.44km), a perfect 10 on size at 578 units, and top-quartile appreciation of +3.73% per annum (71st percentile of its 2019 cohort). The newer lease is the edge it holds over Trevista; the slightly longer walk to the MRT is the edge it gives back.

3. The Mezzo — 7.43, A

The strongest genuinely Balestier address on the list — a 127-unit freehold project on the Balestier Road belt, near Hong Wen School (0.59km) and St. Joseph's Institution Junior. Its appreciation is excellent: +2.83% per annum, top 16% of its 2012-era cohort, and freehold tenure scores a perfect 10. What holds it to an A grade rather than an S is size: at 127 units it is a "boutique development" with "lower transaction frequency and limited shared facilities," and at 0.96km from Novena MRT it is walkable but not at the doorstep.

4. Verticus — 7.30, A

The newest entry, and the one to read with a caveat. Verticus is a 162-unit freehold project off Balestier Road, completed only in 2024 — which means its appreciation score (+2.81%, top quartile of its 2024 cohort) reflects a very short window of transactions rather than a long resale record. Freehold tenure scores 10/10 and the schools score is strong (9/10). But as with any just-completed project, the secondary-market number is an early read, not a proven one; we rank it on its current RPS score and flag the youth openly.

5. De Royale — 7.20, A

A 204-unit freehold project 0.56km from Toa Payoh MRT (NS19), completed in 2006 — the most established freehold on the list. Its appreciation is the quiet standout: +4.35% per annum, top 21% of its 2006-era cohort, the strongest raw figure in the top five. Freehold tenure (10/10) and a workable 204 units underpin it. The soft spots are rental yield (3/10) and a slightly narrower school catchment (7/10, CHIJ Primary Toa Payoh and Kheng Cheng).

Just behind, and effectively tied for fifth, are two more Toa Payoh freeholds: The Arte (7.09, off Jalan Raja Udang) and Vista Residences (7.09, near Jalan Datoh), both well-built mid-2010s blocks held back by single-school catchments and below-average yields.

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The Pattern: Schools First, Lease Second

The factor that builds this list is schools. The Braddell–Toa Payoh core is wrapped in brand-name primaries — Kheng Cheng, CHIJ Primary (Toa Payoh), Pei Chun, Marymount Convent — and along Balestier you pick up Hong Wen and the SJI Junior catchment. Under RPS weights, schools carry 20% of the score; in this pocket of the city fringe, that 20% lands on almost every project. Distance bands matter for Primary 1 ballot priority (within 1km beats 1–2km), so Trevista's 0.07km to Kheng Cheng is not trivia — it is the mechanism.

The second, quieter pattern is a lease split. The two S-grade projects (Trevista, Gem Residences) are large 99-year developments that win on scale and liquidity. Everything below them is boutique freehold — De Royale, The Mezzo, Verticus, The Arte — which trades size and yield for tenure that never decays. Which one suits you is less a ranking question than a holding-period question.

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The Honest Caveats

Future transformation is low across the board. Trevista (2/10), Gem Residences (1/10) and the freehold cluster (3/10) all score poorly here, because the nearest masterplan catalyst — the Newton–Orchard mixed-use precinct — sits 1.8–3.2km away. This is a central, mature belt where the value is in what already exists (schools, MRT, town-fringe location), not in what's coming.

Yields are thin in the freehold names. De Royale, Vista Residences and The Arte all score 3/10 on rental yield. These are owner-occupier projects priced for tenure and school access; if your thesis is rental income, this is not the corner of the map for it.

The newest project has the shortest track record. Verticus (2024) earns its place on current RPS data, but two years of transactions is an early read. Buyers who want a proven resale history should weight Trevista, Gem Residences, The Mezzo and De Royale accordingly.

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The Bottom Line

Filter D12 honestly and "the best of Toa Payoh and Balestier" is the Braddell story: Trevista and Gem Residences, two large 99-year towers sitting on top of the Kheng Cheng / CHIJ school belt with walk-in access to the North-South Line — followed by a tier of boutique freeholds (The Mezzo, Verticus, De Royale) that trade scale for tenure. What the data does not support is treating "D12" as one market. A Braddell mega-project, a Balestier freehold boutique and a Potong Pasir block beside the NEL share a postal district and almost nothing else. Check where the project actually stands — not just its district code.

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Check How Your Condo Scores

Every condo in this article is among the 2,369 independently scored across Singapore — each graded on seven weighted factors: secondary market performance, schools, size, MRT proximity, tenure, rental yield, and future transformation.

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Silas Tan is a District Director at Huttons Asia and co-founder of TRIBE. He built the Resale Project Scorecard (RPS) using 126,000+ URA REALIS transactions. This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial or investment advice. CEA Registration R000303I.