Overview & Key Facts
White House Residences is an ultra-boutique freehold development at 67–75 Stevens Road in District 10 (CCR), developed by Asia Garden Development (Pte) Ltd and completed in 2013. The headline composition is unusual: a single 4-storey apartment block of 8 large 4-bedroom condominium units (typical sizes 3,100–3,897 sqft) sitting alongside 4 strata semi-detached houses on the same parcel — a 12-residence enclave in the heart of the Tanglin Good Class Bungalow belt. ShiokNest data tracks the 8 apartment units as the comparable condominium cohort, and that is the lens this review applies. The freehold tenure is the load-bearing wall of the entire investment thesis: there is no MAS 60-year loan-cap risk, no CPF 75-year tightening, no lease-decay erosion mechanism — the asset is genuinely generational.
The transaction profile is unmistakably a landlord-let, ultra-prime expatriate-executive product. Zero resale caveats are on record (a typical signature of held-for-life prime stock) but 17 rental contracts averaging S$18,522 per month with a median of S$20,000 — on an 8-unit denominator that implies a 2.1x rental turnover per unit, a stable institutional-tenant equilibrium rather than churn. Stevens MRT at the doorstep (210 metres, dual-line Downtown and Thomson-East Coast interchange) is a top-decile transit story for any address in Singapore, and the Nanyang Primary / Nanyang Girls’ High / Methodist Girls’ School / Anglo-Chinese School Primary cluster combined with ISS International (Preston and Paterson campuses) within a one-kilometre radius layers a top-tier MOE catchment over a top-tier international-school catchment.
The investment case is therefore unambiguous in shape: this is a generational, prime-CCR, full-tenure freehold asset with a transit-doorstep dual-line MRT story, an exceptional school cluster, and a credible ultra-luxury rental dataset that anchors yield underwriting. The case against is structural and specific: a 12-residence enclave is by definition extraordinarily illiquid; the 2013 vintage is now reaching its first refresh window; facilities at 8 apartment units cannot scale beyond a small pool plus essentials; and the absolute price point for a 3,000+ sqft Stevens Road freehold unit will sit firmly in the eight-figure range. Buyers underwriting this are buying scarcity, address, and tenure — not yield optimisation, not liquidity, not facilities maximalism.
Location & Connectivity
Stevens Road is one of the spine arteries of the Tanglin / Bukit Timah / Newton triangle — a District 10 corridor that connects the Orchard shopping belt to the Bukit Timah landed enclave and the Botanic Gardens UNESCO heritage zone. The address sits in a quiet residential pocket flanked by Good Class Bungalows on the Nassim and Chatsworth side and embassy-row institutional plots toward Tanglin. Stevens MRT at 210 metres is a genuine 3-minute doorstep walk and — critically — serves both the Downtown Line (DTL) and the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL Stage 4, opened November 2022). Dual-line interchange access at this distance is a top-decile transit profile in Singapore: one-seat rides reach Newton, Little India, Bugis, and Promenade on DTL, and Orchard Boulevard, Marina Bay, and the East Coast on TEL. Botanic Gardens MRT (CC/DT interchange) at 1.24 km adds a third line via Circle Line, and Napier MRT (TEL) at 1.26 km offers a second TEL access point.
The school cluster is where the address earns its premium. Nanyang Primary School at 0.73 km and Nanyang Girls’ High School at 0.64 km are arguably Singapore’s most sought-after MOE Special Assistance Plan schools, and the proximity here places the address comfortably inside Phase 2A and Phase 2C primary balloting catchment for Nanyang Primary — a buyer-pool constraint that meaningfully tightens demand. Layered on top: Methodist Girls’ School (Primary at 1.03 km, Secondary at 1.09 km), Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) at 1.15 km, and Singapore Chinese Girls’ School (Primary) at 1.23 km. The international-school overlay is equally strong: ISS International School (Preston Campus at 0.92 km and Paterson Campus at 0.96 km) covers the IB-track expat-family market within walkable distance.
Day-to-day amenity is the ambient Tanglin / Orchard tier: Tanglin Mall, Tudor Court, and the Cold Storage / Marketplace grocery format along Tanglin Road cover essentials in 5–7 minutes by car or one MRT stop; the full Orchard Road retail corridor (ION, Paragon, Takashimaya, Wisma Atria) is two DTL stops or a 10-minute drive away. Green-space access is exceptional: the Singapore Botanic Gardens UNESCO World Heritage site is a 1.2 km walk via the Stevens Road / Cluny Road approach. Healthcare anchors are immediate: Mount Elizabeth Hospital and Gleneagles Hospital are both within a 5–7 minute drive. The URA Master Plan protects the surrounding GCB belt and Botanic Gardens buffer zone — the locational quality is structurally insulated against intensification.
Schools & Education
1 primary school within the 1 km Priority Phase balloting radius.
| School | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Nanyang Girls' High School | secondary | Within 1 km |
| Nanyang Primary School | primary | Within 1 km |
| ISS International School (Preston) | international | Within 1 km |
| ISS International School (Paterson) | international | Within 1 km |
| Methodist Girls' School (Primary) | primary | ~1.0 km |
| Methodist Girls' School | secondary | ~1.1 km |
| Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) | primary | ~1.2 km |
| Singapore Chinese Girls' School (Primary) | primary | ~1.2 km |
Facilities
At 8 apartment units (the 4 strata semi-Ds operate on their own lot footprints), White House Residences is by definition a micro-boutique block. Facilities are appropriately scaled: a communal swimming pool, a small gym, basement covered car parking, landscaped garden, and 24-hour security gate access. The 2013 build vintage means the provisioning is more contemporary than the typical 1990s 8-unit boutique — lift access, modern security systems, and finishes are still squarely in the post-2010 luxury band rather than dated. There is no clubhouse, no concierge service, no children’s wet-play deck, no tennis court, no function rooms — the maintenance-fund economics of an 8-unit denominator simply do not stretch to those line items, and any attempt to engineer them would push monthly contributions to levels that defeat the exclusivity-and-discretion proposition that owners are paying for.
The genuine offset is privacy and discretion. Eight neighbours in a Stevens Road / Nassim address means residents know each other by name, lobby congestion is non-existent, and the development reads more like a private apartment block in London Mayfair or Manhattan’s Upper East Side than a Singapore mass-market condominium. For the ultra-prime tenant base — senior expatriate executives, regional MNC family postings, and discretionary high-net-worth individuals — that low-density profile is the feature, not the bug. Maintenance fees on an 8-unit block of this calibre typically sit in the S$700–1,200/month range — higher than the absolute floor of a 1990s boutique because the build is more sophisticated, but materially lower than full-facility 200–500 unit luxury developments.
“The pool is small but the privacy is the point. We have a five-minute walk to Stevens MRT for either Downtown or Thomson-East Coast Line, our daughter walks to Nanyang Primary, and the building is so quiet you forget you’re six minutes from Orchard Road. The trade-off is that you cannot live here if your idea of a condo is a clubhouse and a 50-metre lap pool — that is not what this address is.”
— Owner-occupier on the boutique-versus-resort trade-off via Singapore Expats community directory
Substitute-facility access compensates effectively for the on-site austerity. The Singapore Botanic Gardens (1.2 km) is one of the world’s great urban parks for daily running and walking; the ActiveSG Delta Sports Centre and the private fitness studios in the Tanglin / Orchard corridor are within a 5–10 minute drive; and the immediate Stevens / Tanglin precinct is a low-traffic walking environment in its own right. Buyers who measure a condo by its facilities deck should look elsewhere; buyers who measure by address quality, transit access, and discretion will find the calibration well-judged.
Neighbourhood Comparison
Versus the District 10 freehold and 99-year prime-CCR cohort, White House Residences sits in a deliberately narrow scarcity band. Skye at Holland (S$2,945 psf, freehold) and Leedon Green (S$2,785 psf, freehold) define the upper end of recent freehold prime-CCR pricing on comparable lease tenure. Hyll on Holland (S$2,648 psf, freehold) and Fourth Avenue Residences (S$2,465 psf, 99yr) round out the freshly-launched comparable cohort. D’Leedon (S$1,856 psf, 99yr, ~1,715 units) is the large-scale 99yr counterpoint — full resort-style facilities, deep transaction liquidity, and a materially lower absolute price point at the cost of leasehold tenure and high-density living.
The comparison framing is unusually clean here. Buyers seeking resort-scale facilities, deep resale liquidity, the ability to buy a 2- or 3-bedroom unit at a 99yr discount, and a broader mass-affluent buyer pool on exit should look at D’Leedon, Fourth Avenue Residences, or the larger 99yr Holland / Tanglin cohort — the trade-off is leasehold tenure and high-density living. Buyers seeking a freehold prime-CCR asset with 12-residence privacy, a 4-bedroom large-format unit, dual-line MRT at the doorstep, and the Nanyang / MGS / ACS / ISS school cluster as a generational anchor have a very small comparable set: Skye at Holland, Leedon Green, and the surrounding Stevens / Nassim / Chatsworth boutique freehold blocks. White House Residences is in that conversation. The PSF premium versus the 99yr cohort is the freehold tenure being correctly priced; the absolute-price barrier versus the broader market is the 12-residence scarcity being correctly priced. Neither is a free lunch and neither is a discount — both are the market clearing the trade-offs honestly.
| Development | Tenure | TOP | Units | ~Avg PSF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WHITE HOUSE RESIDENCES | 2013 | 8 | — | |
| SKYE AT HOLLAND | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2024 | 2025 | 666 | $2,945 |
| LEEDON GREEN | Freehold | 2021 | 638 | $2,785 |
| D'LEEDON | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2010 | 2014 | 1,703 | $1,856 |
| HYLL ON HOLLAND | Freehold | 2021 | 319 | $2,648 |
| FOURTH AVENUE RESIDENCES | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2018 | 2021 | 476 | $2,465 |
Lease Decay Analysis
The 99-year lease runs from 2013, meaning approximately 13 years have already been consumed. Roughly 86 years remain — still comfortably within the range where most banks will offer full financing without restrictions.
| Year | Lease remaining | Implication |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 (now) | ~86 years | Full bank financing available |
| 2043 | ~69 years | CPF usage still unrestricted for most buyers |
| 2052 | ~59 years | Approaching 60-year threshold — CPF limits begin for some |
| 2072 | ~39 years | Significant financing restrictions for next buyer |
| 2112 | Expiry | Lease reverts to state |
For a buyer purchasing today with a 10-year horizon (exit around 2036), the lease situation is essentially a non-issue — you’d be selling a property with ~76 years remaining, which is still very bankable. The risk profile changes for longer holds.
ShiokNest Scores
Our proprietary scoring system evaluates WHITE HOUSE RESIDENCES across multiple dimensions.
What Residents Say
“The Stevens MRT walk is genuinely two-and-a-half minutes — we time it. With Downtown Line and Thomson-East Coast Line on the same platform, we can be at Marina Bay Sands or Orchard Boulevard in under fifteen minutes door-to-door. For a working couple where one of us commutes to the CBD and the other to one-north, this address is unbeatable. We bought freehold deliberately because we are not selling this place.”
— Owner-occupier on dual-line MRT and freehold thesis via PropertyGuru project discussion
“Our daughter walks to Nanyang Primary, our son to ACS, and we are within the Methodist Girls’ catchment as a backup. The school logistics alone justify the rent we pay. The flat is large enough that the helper has proper space, and the privacy of an eight-unit building is something you cannot buy in a 500-unit development at any price.”
— Expat tenant family on school cluster and tenancy experience via Singapore Expats community reviews
“We considered the resort-style new launches in Holland and Tanglin Halt and walked away — not because of price but because of scale. Twelve residences in a Stevens Road freehold address is a different proposition entirely. The pool is small, there is no clubhouse, but our neighbours’ doors are five steps from ours and that intimacy is exactly what we wanted. The trade-off is that we drive everywhere except for the train and Botanic Gardens, but that is a sensible trade for the address.”
— Owner-occupier on choosing boutique scale over resort facilities via Stacked Homes reader discussion
Across the community discussion the recurring narrative is consistent: residents and tenants self-select for the combination of dual-line transit, the Nanyang / MGS / ACS school cluster, the freehold tenure, and the boutique privacy — and they are explicitly unbothered by the limited on-site facilities. The 17 rental contracts on 8 apartment units confirm a genuine and stable institutional-tenant equilibrium at the S$18,000–20,000/month band; the asset works exactly as advertised in its narrow ultra-prime niche.
Strengths & Weaknesses
- Freehold tenure — no MAS 60-year loan-cap, no CPF 75-year tightening, no lease-decay erosion mechanism
- Stevens MRT 210m DOORSTEP with dual-line interchange — Downtown Line + Thomson-East Coast Line (top-decile transit)
- Top-tier MOE school cluster — Nanyang Primary 730m, Nanyang Girls' High 640m, MGS 1.03km, ACS Pri 1.15km, SCGS 1.23km
- International-school overlay — ISS Preston 920m + ISS Paterson 960m, IB-track expat-family catchment
- Botanic Gardens UNESCO World Heritage Site at 1.2km walking distance
- Credible ultra-prime rental dataset — 17 contracts, average S$18,522/month, median S$20,000/month
- Boutique privacy — 12 residences (8 apartments + 4 strata semi-Ds), low-density, neighbour familiarity
- 2013 vintage — modern build, lift access, contemporary security and finishes (not dated)
- Stevens / Tanglin / Nassim address — embedded in Good Class Bungalow buffer zone, structurally insulated
- Two TEL options at 1.26km (Napier) plus Botanic Gardens CC/DT interchange at 1.24km — three-line redundancy
- Extreme illiquidity on resale — 12 residences total, zero historical resale caveats, very thin price discovery
- Absolute price point firmly in eight-figure range — narrows the buyer pool to HNW and family offices only
- Monolithic 4-bedroom unit mix — no smaller-format inventory, no 1-bed or 2-bed turnover
- Minimal facilities — small pool, small gym, no clubhouse, no concierge, no children's wet-play, no tennis
- 2013 vintage units approaching first refresh window — S$200,000–400,000 renovation cycle reasonable
- Maintenance fees higher than 1990s boutique blocks (S$700–1,200/month range) due to more sophisticated build
- En-bloc score 44/100 — freehold removes lease-decay pressure, low-probability collective-sale outcome
- CBD access on DTL requires a transfer at Newton or Bugis — TEL is a one-seat ride to Marina Bay only
- No ground-level retail in the immediate Stevens Road frontage — Tanglin Mall and Orchard are short drive only
- Asymmetric apartment-plus-semi-D mix complicates strata governance and any future collective process
Verdict
White House Residences is a niche but structurally coherent product: a 12-residence freehold enclave at the doorstep of a dual-line MRT interchange, embedded in arguably the strongest combined MOE-plus-international-school cluster in Singapore, with a credible ultra-luxury rental dataset and a 2013 build still well within its useful life. For HNW owner-occupiers seeking a generational prime-CCR address with absolute privacy, the case is straightforward and largely independent of cyclical pricing. For landlord-investors targeting the senior-expatriate corporate-tenant band, the rental yield math anchors on a S$18,000–20,000/month rent base that has shown demonstrated stability across 17 contracts — a far more credible income story than is typical for boutique blocks of this scale.
The case against is mostly about who this asset is not for. The absolute price point excludes the mass-affluent buyer; the 12-residence scale guarantees extreme illiquidity on resale; the monolithic 4-bedroom unit mix removes the smaller-format options that drive turnover in larger developments; and the boutique facilities profile will disappoint buyers conditioned by the resort-style amenity decks of Marina-area or Holland Village mega-launches. The 2013 vintage is also reaching the point where refresh-cycle costs become material for any unit being repositioned. None of these are fatal; all of them are exclusionary — this is a specialist asset for a specialist buyer.
The ShiokNest composite score of 61/100 reflects a balanced read. The MRT-access score (9.5/10) is the standout — Stevens MRT at 210 metres on dual lines is genuinely top-decile in Singapore. Neighbourhood quality (9.5/10) reflects the Stevens / Tanglin / Nanyang school-cluster context. Lease (9.5/10) carries the freehold tenure premium correctly. Unit layout (8.5/10) reflects the large-format luxury floorplates inferred from the developer fact sheet and rental-band positioning. Value (7.0/10) is the honest read on absolute-price-vs-rental-yield calibration at this prime band — the asset commands a freehold-prime premium that compresses gross yield but is structurally justified. Facilities (4.5/10) is unavoidable boutique-block reality. Buyers who weight tenure, transit, and education heavily will see a higher score; buyers who weight facilities and liquidity will see a lower one. Both readings are coherent.