D'mira

Overview & Key Facts

D’Mira is a boutique freehold condominium sitting quietly on Boon Teck Road, just off the busy Balestier corridor in District 12. Developed by MCL Land Development Pte Ltd — one of Singapore’s more established mid-market developers with a track record including Hallmark Residences and Parc Regentville — D’Mira was completed in 2013 and comprises just 65 units across 17 storeys on a compact 27,858 sqft site. Its original marketing tagline, “freehold selling at 99-year pricing”, signalled the developer’s intent to attract pragmatic buyers who valued tenure security without the premium typically attached to it.

The development’s design philosophy leans on crafted detailing over spectacle. Expansive bay windows in the living, dining, and bedrooms create a play of natural light that makes the compact floor plates feel more generous than the raw square footage implies. With only 65 units, the communal atmosphere is closer to a boutique apartment building than a condominium estate — residents tend to recognise one another, management is responsive, and the quiet of Boon Teck Road insulates the development from the commercial noise of Balestier Road proper.

Transaction data on EdgeProp shows D’Mira trading at approximately S$1,725 psf over the past 12 months — a meaningful discount to the nearby freehold peer Verticus (S$2,122 psf) and broadly in line with the RCR freehold bracket. With only 9 recorded sales and 97 rental transactions in the database, this is a thinly traded, buy-and-hold asset where freehold tenure is the principal investment thesis.

Location & Connectivity

D’Mira occupies an address that sits between two distinct Singapore sub-markets: the mature Toa Payoh HDB heartland to the north-east, and the medical-cum-professional cluster of Novena to the south-west. This positioning gives residents access to two MRT nodes — Toa Payoh MRT (NS19) at approximately 660 metres and Novena MRT (NS20) at about 1.03 km — neither of which is a stroll-out-the-door convenience, but both reachable on foot for commuters willing to accept an 8–12 minute walk. The Toa Payoh MRT option is generally preferred given its shorter distance and the shelter coverage along the Balestier Road footpath.

For drivers, the Central Expressway (CTE) and Pan Island Expressway (PIE) are accessible within minutes, making D’Mira a reasonable choice for car-dependent families. Orchard Road is roughly nine minutes by car in off-peak traffic, and the CBD sits perhaps 15 minutes away. The new North-South Corridor, once complete, will further compress travel times from this mid-corridor location.

Day-to-day convenience is solid. Shaw Plaza on Balestier Road is within comfortable walking distance, offering a supermarket, food options, and retail. The Toa Payoh HDB Hub — a well-stocked town centre with hawker centre, wet market, library, and Toa Payoh MRT interchange — is under 10 minutes on foot. The Balestier precinct’s famous lighting and renovation shops cluster along the main road, and a dense hawker corridor along Toa Payoh Lorong streets rounds out the food landscape. Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park is accessible by a short drive or a longer cycle.

Schools & Education

2 primary schools within the 1 km Priority Phase balloting radius.

Facilities

For a 65-unit development on a 27,858 sqft site, MCL Land managed the facilities budget sensibly. At ground level, a swimming pool, children’s playground, BBQ pits, and a function room cover the essentials. The standout, however, is the rooftop sky lounge and gym on the 17th storey — an entire upper floor dedicated to recreational use with elevated city views. On a clear day, the panorama takes in the low-rise Balestier streetscape and the D12/D13 skyline, making the rooftop gym arguably the most atmospheric workout space in the sub-district. The sky lounge concept was a deliberate design differentiation by MCL Land, compensating for the compact ground-floor footprint by moving the lifestyle experience upward.

“The rooftop is genuinely one of the nicest parts of D’Mira. Working out up there with city views at sunset is something larger condos don’t easily replicate. It feels exclusive because almost nobody else is ever there.”

— Resident review via EdgeProp

The trade-off is predictable: with only 65 units sharing the facilities, the pool can feel cramped during peak weekend hours, and the function room booking calendar fills up quickly for festive seasons. Facilities overall score appropriately for a boutique development — the sky lounge elevates the profile above bare-minimum, but buyers expecting a resort-scale leisure deck will need to recalibrate expectations. Maintenance fees are correspondingly modest, a quiet advantage for owner-occupiers and yield-focused landlords.

Unit Sizes & Layout

D’Mira’s five unit configurations are a product of 2010-era planning norms — floor plates that would comfortably qualify as “mid-size” even against today’s new-launch benchmarks. The 2-bedroom at 969 sqft is the smallest entry point, already larger than many new-launch 3-bedrooms. The 3-bedroom range (1,238–1,604 sqft) represents the bulk of the development’s 33 units of this type — the 1,604 sqft 3-bedroom with Private Enclosed Space is a genuine family apartment. The 4-bedroom at 1,507 sqft closes out the mix. Bay windows throughout the living, dining, and bedroom zones are a consistent design feature that inflates the effective sense of space beyond the raw floor area; experienced buyers inspecting resale units often comment on how the units “live larger” than expected from the size specification.

Resale units reflect their 2013 vintage: un-renovated kitchens and bathrooms show age against 2026 expectations, and the original marble and timber finishes — once a premium signal — now sit in the middle tier. Many resale listings have been partially refreshed; budget S$50–80k for a thorough renovation if purchasing un-renovated stock. The size advantage over new builds remains a genuine compensating factor: a D’Mira 3-bedroom at 1,259 sqft delivers roughly 30–40% more floor area than a new-launch 3-bedroom at comparable D12 PSF levels.

Pricing & Market Position

Based on 9 recorded transactions, sale prices range from $1,275,000 to $2,600,000, averaging $1,895,210 (~$1,725 psf).

Rents range from $2,750 to $6,500 per month across 97 rental transactions. Current rental yield sits at approximately 2.5%.

Price Appreciation

From 2021 to 2025, the average PSF has appreciated by 26.9% (from $1,359 to $1,725 psf).

Neighbourhood Comparison

Within the D12 freehold segment, D’Mira’s primary competitor is Verticus (162 units, Freehold, S$2,122 psf, 2024 TOP), which offers a newer build, larger facilities footprint, and fresher interiors at a roughly 23% PSF premium. The trade-off is clear: Verticus buyers pay for newness and larger scale; D’Mira buyers get more generous floor plates, a distinctive rooftop feature, and the price discount. For buyers who prioritise per-unit square footage over interior vintage, D’Mira’s proposition wins on value-per-sqft math.

Against the 99-year leasehold competition — Gem Residences (S$1,832 psf, 578 units) and Trevista (S$1,698 psf, 590 units) — D’Mira occupies interesting territory. It prices above Trevista while offering freehold tenure, and competes closely with Gem Residences on PSF. Buyers choosing between D’Mira (freehold, 65 units, 1,238–1,604 sqft 3-bedders) and Gem Residences (99-year, 578 units, resort facilities, newer) are making a classic boutique-versus-estate trade-off. Neither is wrong — it depends entirely on whether the buyer values tenure security or lifestyle facilities more.

ShiokNest Scores

Our proprietary scoring system evaluates D'MIRA across multiple dimensions.

What Residents Say

“D’Mira is a hidden gem that most people walk past on Boon Teck Road without knowing it exists. Small community, clean, well-managed. The rooftop gym and lounge is the best feature — I use it almost every morning.”

— Owner-occupier review via EdgeProp

“The walk to Toa Payoh MRT is about 10 minutes and slightly awkward due to the Balestier Road crossing. If you drive it doesn’t matter, but for someone car-free it becomes tiring in the heat. The unit size though — our 3-bedroom is genuinely big.”

— Tenant review via 99.co

“Freehold in D12 for under S$2 million for a good-sized 3-bedder — where else are you getting that? We bought knowing the facilities are basic and the yield is modest. It’s a family asset, not a rental play.”

— Owner review via PropertyGuru

Across review platforms, residents consistently highlight the development’s boutique scale and community feel as differentiators. The rooftop sky lounge earns specific praise as an unexpectedly high-quality amenity for a small development. The primary complaint is the MRT walk — particularly cited by tenants and younger residents who don’t own vehicles. EdgeProp sentiment data reflects a stable, low-turnover ownership profile typical of freehold owner-occupier communities.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Verdict

D’Mira is a freehold proposition for buyers who have done the arithmetic on Singapore’s diminishing freehold land bank in the RCR. At S$1,725 psf, it sits roughly 20% below the nearby freehold peer Verticus (S$2,122 psf) while offering meaningfully larger units, a 2013 TOP (versus Verticus’s 2024), and a rooftop amenity that the newer boutique development does not replicate. The freehold tenure means no lease-decay anxiety for multigenerational holding — an increasingly scarce attribute in D12 where the competing 99-year leasehold stock (Trevista 2012, Eight Riversuites 2015, The Orie 2024) dominates by volume.

The case is weaker on yield. A 2.46% gross yield trails the market and reflects thin liquidity — only 9 sales in the dataset, a median rent of S$4,200, and a median price of S$2,050,000. Investors should model conservatively and not expect the capital-growth trajectory of a high-liquidity development. The walkability score of 45/100 honestly flags a car-helpful location; residents without vehicles will find the Toa Payoh and Novena MRT walks manageable but not effortless, particularly in Singapore’s climate.

The ideal buyer is a family owner-occupier with a generational horizon — someone who values freehold security, appreciates larger-than-market unit sizes, and uses a car for daily commuting. For that profile, D’Mira offers a rare combination: central RCR address, freehold tenure, boutique scale, and a sky lounge that rivals far larger developments in character. Investors seeking short-to-medium-term yield will find more efficient alternatives elsewhere in D12.