# 1 Loft
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Overview & Key Facts
#1 Loft is a freehold boutique 80-unit, 8-storey loft-themed development on Lorong 24 Geylang in District 14, completed in 2016 by The One Development 2 Pte Ltd. The project earned its name from the loft-style master suites and convertible living rooms first showcased at the 2013 launch — a configuration choice that was unusual for a sub-S$1 million Geylang freehold and remains a defining feature on resale today. The boutique 80-unit scale and the Lorong 24 side-street setting (shielded from the Geylang Road through-traffic) place #1 Loft into a small cluster of Lorong 24 freeholds that includes The Octet, Edenz Loft, and the newer Rezi 24.
The transaction profile is unambiguously a yield play rather than a capital-appreciation play. Twenty-one resale caveats and 124 rental contracts on file deliver a 4.58% gross yield — comfortably above the citywide private-condo average and above the District 14 freehold cohort — on an average sale price of approximately S$735,000 and an average rent of S$2,755 per month. EdgeProp’s 2024 project spotlight on the Lorong 24 freehold cluster found that #1 Loft logged 24 unprofitable against only 7 profitable resale transactions, with maximum losses around S$145,000 — the weakest capital-gain profile of the four Lorong 24 freeholds. Buyers entering at this level are explicitly underwriting cash yield from Aljunied MRT-driven tenant demand, not betting on PSF appreciation.
This is a cash-yield-first freehold boutique condo for landlords prioritising 4–5% gross rental return on a sub-S$1 million entry ticket, supported by Aljunied MRT 0.42 km away and Geylang’s 24/7 food-and-beverage tenancy demand. It is not a product for capital-appreciation seekers, families requiring family-format unit sizes, or buyers averse to the unfiltered character of inner Geylang.
Location & Connectivity
Lorong 24 Geylang sits one street north of Geylang Road in the city-fringe RCR, with Aljunied MRT (East-West Line) at 0.42 km — an honest 5–7 minute walk for younger residents and roughly 10 minutes for those carrying shopping or moving at a less brisk pace, depending on which exit is used. Dakota MRT (Circle Line) at 0.75 km and Mountbatten MRT (Circle Line) at 0.76 km add Circle Line redundancy in the opposite direction, with Paya Lebar MRT (East-West / Circle Line interchange) at 1.20 km giving direct interchange access for one-stop hops to Paya Lebar Quarter. Two MRT lines within walking distance and a third interchange under 1.3 km is genuinely strong connectivity for a sub-S$1 million entry point.
Drive times reflect the city-fringe positioning: Raffles Place CBD is approximately 12 minutes via Nicoll Highway, Marina Bay Sands is 10 minutes, and Changi Airport is 15–18 minutes via the PIE/ECP. The address is friendly to both car-owning residents and the equally large pool of public-transport-only Geylang tenants. Daily-life retail clusters at Geylang Lor 27 hawker centre, Old Airport Road Food Centre (1.5 km), and the dense 24-hour coffee-shop and minimart layer along Geylang Road itself — including a 24-hour self-service laundromat directly across the street that residents repeatedly cite as one of the unsung quality-of-life amenities of this address.
School proximity is functional but not the headline draw: Geylang Methodist School (Primary) at 0.28 km falls within the 1 km MOE primary-school priority radius, and Geylang Methodist Secondary at 0.47 km adds continuity through to upper secondary. One World International School (Mountbatten) at 0.44 km supports international-school families on a budget. Tao Nan and Haig Girls’ are within 1.4–1.8 km but outside the priority radius. The school depth here favours the resident-tenant family demographic rather than positioning #1 Loft as a school-belt buy.
Schools & Education
2 primary schools within the 1 km Priority Phase balloting radius.
| School | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Geylang Methodist School (Primary) | primary | Within 1 km |
| One World International School (Mountbatten) | international | Within 1 km |
| Geylang Methodist School (Secondary) | secondary | Within 1 km |
| Kong Hwa School | primary | Within 1 km |
| Haig Girls' School | primary | ~1.4 km |
| Macpherson Primary School | primary | ~1.6 km |
| Tanjong Katong Primary School | primary | ~1.7 km |
| Tao Nan School | primary | ~1.8 km |
Facilities
#1 Loft is honestly equipped for an 80-unit boutique block on a constrained Lorong 24 plot: a 4th-storey swimming pool and pool deck, a fitness corner / equipped gym, a 24-hour BBQ pit, and a children’s playground sit alongside ground-level resident parking. There is no clubhouse, function room, tennis court, or sky terrace — the facilities footprint is consistent with the boutique price point and was never the marketing pitch for this development. Maintenance fees are correspondingly modest (typical band of S$280–360 per month depending on unit size), which materially supports the yield arithmetic for landlords.
“The pool and gym are basic but functional — you’re not paying for resort-style facilities here, you’re paying for a freehold loft 5 minutes from Aljunied MRT at a price most condos in this district can’t touch. Beautiful interior, lofts are always nicely built. Cracks on the paint and the carpark is dark, but those are minor in context.”
— Composite resident perspective via SingaporeExpats #1 Loft reviews and EdgeProp project page
Unit Sizes & Layout
The 80 units span 24 floor-plan types — an unusually high configuration count for a project this size and a direct artefact of the loft-themed design language. Unit sizes range from approximately 549 sqft (compact 1-bedroom) to 1,324 sqft (3-bedroom-with-loft / 4-bath at the upper end), with the bulk of inventory in the 560–700 sqft 1-bedroom band. Loft-format units feature a two-level master suite with an upper-level sleeping platform — the configuration that gave the development its name — and several layouts include a convertible living-room partition that allows a 1-bedroom unit to be reconfigured into an effective 2-bedroom for tenants prioritising room count over living space. Recent rental caveats span S$1,800–S$3,500 per month, with a high of S$4,800/month (October 2024) on a ~1,300 sqft unit and a low of S$1,200/month on a 500 sqft compact unit.
| Bedrooms | Transactions | Avg PSF | Avg Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 BR | 17 | $1,278 | $717,680 |
| 2 BR | 2 | $1,308 | $1,225,000 |
| 3 BR | 2 | $1,041 | $1,367,000 |
Pricing & Market Position
Based on 21 recorded transactions, sale prices range from $665,000 to $1,580,000, averaging $827,836 (~$1,309 psf).
Rents range from $1,200 to $4,800 per month across 124 rental transactions. Current rental yield sits at approximately 4.6%.
Price Appreciation
From 2021 to 2026, the average PSF has appreciated by 2.6% (from $1,173 to $1,203 psf).
Neighbourhood Comparison
The closest comparables are the three other Lorong 24 freeholds. Edenz Loft (42 units, freehold, TOP 2015) sits on the same street and shares the loft-themed positioning with the cleanest loss profile of the four projects. The Octet (TOP 2016, freehold) is the contemporary peer to #1 Loft and trades on broadly similar PSF metrics. Rezi 24 (110 units, TOP 2023, freehold) is the newest entrant on the street and has captured the strongest recent resale performance — the freshness premium is real, though the entry PSF is correspondingly higher. Among these four, #1 Loft commands the lowest absolute entry price, the highest gross yield, and the weakest capital-gain track record.
Stepping out of Lorong 24 to the broader District 14 99-year cohort: Parc Esta (PSF S$2,183, 99-yr, 1,399 units) and Penrose (PSF S$1,928, 99-yr, 566 units) trade at materially higher absolute PSF on leasehold tenure but offer larger-development facility decks, family-format unit availability, and the capital-appreciation profile of mass-market 99-year products with stronger transaction liquidity. Sims Urban Oasis (PSF S$1,761, 99-yr, 1,024 units) sits in between. The choice is structurally clean: #1 Loft for the freehold-yield-boutique profile at the lowest absolute entry; Parc Esta or Penrose for the leasehold-larger-development capital-growth profile at a higher absolute commitment. Both are legitimate strategies for different investor profiles.
| Development | Tenure | TOP | Units | ~Avg PSF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # 1 LOFT | — | 80 | $1,309 | |
| PARC ESTA | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2018 | 2021 | 1,399 | $2,183 |
| SIMS URBAN OASIS | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2014 | 2020 | 1,024 | $1,761 |
| PENROSE | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2019 | 2021 | 566 | $1,928 |
| EUHABITAT | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2010 | 2016 | 697 | $1,326 |
| THE ANTARES | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2018 | 2021 | 265 | $1,833 |
ShiokNest Scores
Our proprietary scoring system evaluates # 1 LOFT across multiple dimensions.
What Residents Say
“Convenience of city-fringe living — near Aljunied MRT and eateries on every corner. The 24-hour self-service laundromat is across the street, which sounds trivial but is genuinely useful when you’re working late. The interior is different from a standard cookie-cutter unit; the lofts are beautifully built and feel more like a city apartment than a typical Singapore condo.”
— Resident on city-fringe convenience and loft design via SingaporeExpats #1 Loft reviews
“Beautiful place. With cracks on the paint and a dark carpark. The estate is on a quiet side street so you don’t hear the Geylang Road traffic, but the area itself is what it is — you have to be honest with yourself about that before you move in or buy.”
— Resident on the honest neighbourhood character via SingaporeExpats project reviews
“Bought as a yield play in 2018 and the maths still works. Tenants turn over but never sit empty for long — Aljunied MRT and the food layer do the heavy lifting. Capital appreciation has been flat to negative in real terms; this is not the project to buy if you want to flip in three years. As a 10-year freehold rental engine it’s done what I bought it to do.”
— Composite landlord-investor perspective synthesised from EdgeProp 2024 project spotlight
Strengths & Weaknesses
- Freehold tenure on a sub-S$1M entry ticket — rare configuration in the District 14 freehold cohort
- 4.58% gross yield with 124 rental transactions on file — yield is real, not small-sample
- Aljunied MRT 0.42 km — genuine 5–7 minute walk on a quieter Lorong 24 side street
- Two MRT lines within 0.8 km (East-West / Circle), Paya Lebar interchange under 1.3 km
- Loft-format units with two-level master suites — distinctive design that commands a measurable rental premium
- Boutique 80-unit scale — modest maintenance fees support the yield arithmetic
- Geylang 24/7 food-and-beverage layer — reliable tenant demand from F&B and night-economy workers
- One World International School (Mountbatten) at 0.44 km — supports budget international-school tenancy
- Geylang Methodist Primary at 0.28 km — within 1 km MOE priority radius
- City-fringe location — Raffles Place 12 min, Marina Bay 10 min, Changi 15–18 min by car
- Capital-appreciation track record is the weakest in the Lorong 24 freehold cluster (24 unprofitable vs 7 profitable resales per EdgeProp 2024)
- District 14 freehold psf trails East Region (S$1,516 vs S$1,706) and islandwide (S$1,953) — stigma discount is structural
- Heavy 1-bedroom inventory mix — not a family-format product; capital appreciation tends to lag bigger-format peers
- Geylang Road red-light corridor proximity — the Lorong 24 setback helps but does not eliminate exposure
- Resident reviews flag dark carpark and surface paint cracks — 1990s-style execution despite 2016 vintage
- No clubhouse, tennis court, or function room — facility footprint is genuinely boutique
- Sub-1,000 sqft majority — limits the buyer pool on resale to investors and singles/couples
- 8-storey block with no high-floor premium views — outlook quality is Lorong-level
Verdict
#1 Loft is a clearly defined product: a freehold boutique loft-themed condo on a city-fringe MRT-walkable address, priced for cash-yield investors at the bottom of the District 14 freehold range. The 4.58% gross yield is genuine and is supported by 124 rental transactions on file — this is not a small-sample yield. The Aljunied MRT 0.42 km commute to the CBD, the 24/7 Geylang F&B layer, and the freehold tenure combine into a coherent landlord-investor proposition at the sub-S$1 million entry ticket.
The capital-appreciation profile is, conversely, the weakest in the Lorong 24 freehold cluster: EdgeProp’s spotlight on the four Lorong 24 freeholds found 24 unprofitable resales against 7 profitable ones at #1 Loft, the worst ratio of the cohort. The newer Rezi 24 (TOP 2023) has absorbed the recent boutique-freehold premium more cleanly. Buyers should underwrite #1 Loft as a 5–10 year hold targeting cash yield, with capital gain treated as upside rather than expectation.
The ShiokNest composite score of 61/100 reflects the trade-offs accurately: strong walkability (85/100), respectable investment fundamentals (63/100), and a freehold tenure offset against the District 14 stigma discount, the boutique-development capital-gain track record, and the heavy 1-bedroom inventory mix. Buyers who can tolerate the Geylang context, prioritise rental yield, and view the freehold tenure as a long-dated optionality play will find this address fair value at current PSF; buyers seeking capital growth, family-format space, or a pristine neighbourhood character should look at Parc Esta, Penrose, or the broader East Coast freehold cohort instead.