Gem Residences

Overview & Key Facts

GEM Residences occupies a rare position in Singapore’s private residential landscape: it is one of only three condominiums in the entire Toa Payoh estate, sitting at Lorong 5 in District 12’s Rest of Central Region. Completed in April 2020, the development comprises two towers — one 37-storey and one 38-storey — delivering 578 units across a well-landscaped site that punches well above its neighbourhood expectations.

The project is a joint venture by three partners: Evia Real Estate, a Singapore-based developer with a track record including Heron Bay and Austville Residences; Maxdin Pte Ltd (a Greatearth Holding subsidiary, the construction arm behind multiple award-winning Singapore projects); and Gamuda Berhad, one of Malaysia’s largest listed infrastructure and property groups. Together they incorporated GEM Homes Pte Ltd as the project vehicle — and the collaboration shows in an ambition that sets GEM Residences apart from the typical mid-market condo.

The development’s defining concept is a “club condo” model — a deliberate attempt to blur the line between five-star hotel living and residential ownership. From a 24-hour concierge desk offering food ordering, grocery shopping, and laundry services to weekly on-site medical consultations, edible gardens, and a dedicated pet pool, GEM Residences was engineered to deliver a lifestyle product rather than simply a housing unit in a mature HDB estate. On these terms, it largely delivers — though buyers should weigh the lifestyle premium against leasehold realities and an MRT walk that requires genuine honesty.

GEM Residences also holds a modest place in Singapore property history: it introduced the country’s first triple-key (or “Trio”) residential units, a product concept that drew both consumer enthusiasm and regulatory intervention from URA during the launch phase. That episode is relevant context for investors: it signals both the developer’s creative ambition and the regulatory boundaries that constrain it.

Location & Connectivity

GEM Residences sits within Toa Payoh, one of Singapore’s most established HDB towns and a mature estate with a strong local identity. The immediate surroundings are decidedly heartland — HDB blocks in all directions, a temple adjacent to the site, and the ambient noise of a busy arterial road along Lorong 5. For buyers seeking the tranquil greenery of a landed enclave, this is not that development. What Toa Payoh delivers instead is unrivalled daily-convenience density: hawker centres, kopitiam, polyclinics, Toa Payoh Hub (library, stadium, sports complex), and decades of infrastructure built around practical living.

The nearest MRT is Braddell Station (North-South Line) at 500 metres — which sounds walkable on paper but translates to roughly 10–12 minutes on foot in Singapore’s heat. Toa Payoh MRT and its bus interchange is 870 metres in the other direction, offering both NSL connectivity and an extensive bus network to most of the island. Residents who are MRT-dependent should be honest with themselves: neither station is truly walkable by Singapore commuter standards, and a bus or short ride-hail will be a daily fixture for most households. That said, the NSL delivers direct access to Orchard Road in four stops, Bishan in one stop, and Dhoby Ghaut in six — the node quality is good once you reach it.

For drivers, the picture is substantially better. The CTE is accessible within minutes, connecting to the PIE, KPE, and the planned North-South Corridor. The CBD is approximately 15 minutes in off-peak conditions. The Toa Payoh Lorong 5 Food Centre — home to legendary plates of Hokkien mee and char kway teow — is a four-minute walk. Courts, SAFRA Toa Payoh, and multiple supermarkets are within five minutes by car.

The school situation is among the strongest in this sub-market. First Toa Payoh Primary School is 140 metres away — effectively next door, placing Phase 2C balloting within almost guaranteed reach for eligible buyers. Pei Chun Public School is 310 metres away, and CHIJ Secondary Toa Payoh 730 metres. For families oriented around primary school priority, GEM Residences is arguably the best-positioned condo in the immediate area.

Schools & Education

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

Facilities

The facilities offering is where GEM Residences most clearly differentiates itself — and where the “club condo” label earns its keep. Across a two-tower development of 578 units, the site delivers a facilities suite that competes with developments twice its size and at considerably higher price points.

The swimming pool is competition-grade and oriented for serious lap swimmers. A sky bar on the upper levels provides panoramic views across Toa Payoh and towards the city skyline — a genuine differentiator in a neighbourhood where rooftop amenity is essentially non-existent elsewhere. The gym is well-equipped, and the development includes dedicated fitness and dance classes run by external instructors, with scheduling managed through the concierge desk.

What makes GEM Residences genuinely unusual — even among Singapore’s broader condo market — is the concierge service infrastructure. Residents can order meals from a curated menu via the concierge, request grocery shopping assistance, arrange laundry pickup, book private chefs, access tech support for home networking, and receive discounts for regional attractions in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Phuket, and Bali. A weekly visiting doctor from the Tetsuyu team provides free consultations, with optional health screening packages at preferential rates. The parcel locker system (30 lockers of varying sizes) sends automated notifications on delivery receipt — a feature that has become standard in newer launches but was ahead of its time at GEM Residences’ launch.

Pet owners are unusually well served. A dedicated pet pool, pet run, and pet shower station are provided — facilities that most condominiums still do not offer in 2026. The edible garden (by Edible Garden City) gives residents a planting plot with a starter kit and coaching sessions, adding a community-building dimension that goes beyond conventional landscaping. Car-sharing (SMOVE) is available for residents who do not own a vehicle, reducing car ownership cost while maintaining mobility flexibility.

“The newest condo in Toa Payoh/Bishan. The others around Toa Payoh are just so so old. Good facilities and nice pools. Rooftop views very spectacular. Near MRT and amenities all around.”

— Resident review via EdgeProp

The practical caveat: the concierge-model services are only as good as their execution day-to-day, and management quality has drawn mixed feedback over the years. The wheel-clamping incident widely circulated on Google — where a guest’s vehicle was clamped in the designated guest lot after 11pm with no notification attempt — reflects a pattern that some reviewers describe as over-zealous security enforcement relative to resident hospitality. This is worth asking about directly with current residents before committing.

Unit Sizes & Layout

GEM Residences covers 22 floor plan types across a tight size range, from 452 sqft one-bedroom Suites up to 2,045 sqft for the now-sold Moonstone Penthouse. The unit mix is weighted toward smaller configurations: 1-bedders (19%), 2-bedders of various types (38%), and 3-bedders (29%) make up the bulk of the development. Four-bedroom (6%) and five-bedroom (6%) units round out the range, with each of these larger layouts typically better suited to families than investors.

The standout product innovation is the Dual Key (2BR, 778 sqft, 36 units) and Triple Key “Trio” (3BR, 980 sqft, 37 units) configurations. The Dual Key concept — a main unit with an attached self-contained studio sub-unit sharing a common front door but with separate interior access — is well-established in Singapore. The Triple Key was more radical: three self-contained sub-units within a single 980 sqft envelope. URA intervened during the launch phase, requiring the developer to modify the Trio units to include only one full kitchen rather than three, as the approved plans had not reflected multiple kitchens. The units were ultimately delivered with the modification, and the Trio configuration remains a genuine rental-yield play for investors: three tenants sharing a single 980 sqft footprint can theoretically generate rental income that a conventional three-bedder at the same size cannot approach.

Standard unit sizes are compact relative to earlier-generation condominiums: a 2-bedroom Premier comes in at 678 sqft, while the 3-bedroom Executive ranges from 936 to 1,012 sqft. These are in line with — not especially generous for — post-2015 Singapore launches. Buyers coming from older resale stock will notice the smaller footprints immediately, particularly in the secondary bedrooms. The two-tower configuration with an inter-block separation of approximately 47 metres means privacy between towers is reasonable — most residents report not being able to clearly see into neighbouring units.

The higher floors in both towers deliver genuinely good views. Upper-floor units facing the city direction look across Toa Payoh’s low-rise HDB fabric toward the CBD skyline. The sky bar captures this advantage communally, but buyers on higher residential floors also benefit. Lower floors facing the adjacent temple may experience intermittent noise during festival periods — worth factoring into stack selection.

Pricing & Market Position

Across 202 recorded transactions (all-time), sale prices range from $795,000 to $2,988,888, averaging $1,511,363.

Over the last 12 months, transactions averaged $2,050 psf.

Rents range from $1,500 to $8,000 per month across 999 rental transactions. Current rental yield sits at approximately 2.7%.

Rental Yield by Bedroom Type

Blended yield hides the spread between unit sizes — smaller units at GEM RESIDENCES typically rent harder per dollar of purchase price. The final column shows monthly rent per $100,000 invested, so unit sizes compare on equal capital:

Price Appreciation

From 2021 to 2026, the average PSF has appreciated by 22.8% (from $1,671 to $2,051 psf).

Neighbourhood Comparison

The most immediate comparison is The Orie, launched in early 2025 at the same Toa Payoh/Braddell address catchment. At approximately S$2,730 psf, The Orie commands a ~35% premium over GEM Residences on a per-square-foot basis but offers a fresh 99-year lease from 2025, developer warranties, and contemporary finishings. The trade-off is straightforward: buyers who prioritise lease longevity and a clean re-sale horizon pay the premium; those who accept a 10-year-consumed lease in exchange for immediate cost savings buy GEM Residences.

Trevista at Boon Keng — the other comparable RCR leasehold condo in this sub-market — transacts at approximately S$1,696 psf. Trevista is a 2009 project (99-year lease from 2007, ~81 years remaining vs GEM Residences’ ~88 years) with a larger site and more traditional facilities. At a S$300 psf discount to GEM Residences, Trevista appeals to buyers who weight lease remaining years more heavily than lifestyle amenity.

Eight Riversuites at Whampoa (S$1,639 psf, ~81 years remaining) sits below GEM Residences on PSF and lease, with a riverfront location that offers a different amenity proposition. Eight Riversuites is closer to Boon Keng MRT and carries a more investor-weighted tenant profile than GEM Residences’ largely owner-occupier community.

Verticus at Balestier (S$2,122 psf, 99-year lease from 2021) is the closest comparator in terms of lease freshness. Verticus has superior MRT proximity to Novena and Balestier MRT, a more urban street-level context, and newer finishings — at a ~$100 psf premium to GEM Residences. For buyers not attached to the Toa Payoh school catchment, Verticus offers better MRT and a cleaner lease at a modest premium.

Stacked Homes’ comparative analysis of GEM Residences vs The Orie quantifies the choice well: GEM Residences’ HDB upgrader demand base and unique concierge positioning provide support, but The Orie’s fresh lease and higher entry bar (primarily targeting buyers with longer investment horizons) represent a structurally different value proposition.

Lease Decay Analysis

The 99-year lease runs from 2015, meaning approximately 11 years have already been consumed. Roughly 88 years remain — still comfortably within the range where most banks will offer full financing without restrictions.

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 ~78 years remaining, which is still very bankable. The risk profile changes for longer holds.

ShiokNest Scores

Our proprietary scoring system evaluates GEM RESIDENCES across multiple dimensions.

What Residents Say

“The newest condo in Toa Payoh — the others around are just so old. Great facilities, nice pools, rooftop views very spectacular. Near MRT and amenities all around.”

— Resident review via EdgeProp

“The concierge service and the concept really feel like hotel living. Never expected this in Toa Payoh. Facilities for the pet are a huge bonus — the dog pool is real and the pet run is well maintained.”

— Resident review via PropertyGuru

“Nice concept but the bedrooms are quite small and there is very little walking space. Surrounded by HDB blocks and the temple nearby can be noisy on festival days. Security is very strict — my guest got wheel-clamped in the guest lot after 11pm and nobody called us despite them providing details at the entrance.”

— Resident review via 99.co

The pattern across review platforms is fairly consistent. Residents value the concierge services, the facilities differentiation, the school proximity, and the view quality from upper floors. Recurring frustrations centre on secondary bedroom sizing, traffic and ambient noise from the surrounding estate, and what some describe as over-enforcement by security management. EdgeProp and PropertyGuru listings show healthy turnover in the resale market, suggesting liquidity is adequate — though Dual Key and Triple Key units do trade less frequently and may require longer marketing periods.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Verdict

GEM Residences occupies an unusual niche in Singapore’s condo market: a genuinely differentiated lifestyle product in a decidedly non-glamorous location, sold at prices that now sit at a meaningful discount to the new-launch competition despite healthy post-TOP appreciation. The PSF gap between GEM Residences and The Orie (the current new launch at the same address range) is approximately $700 psf — roughly 35% — at comparable unit types. For buyers who can live with an older lease and the HDB-estate character of the surroundings, that gap represents a concrete, bankable saving.

The PSF trajectory tells a credible story: from S$1,745 at effective post-TOP pricing to S$2,024 in the trailing 12 months — a 16% appreciation in approximately four years, against a 99-year lease that started in 2015. The lease maths are not alarming at this stage: 88 years remaining as of 2026 means full bank financing remains broadly available, and the 60-year bank financing threshold is still 29 years away. But this is not a development where buyers should be cavalier about the clock. The Orie, launching at S$2,700+ psf on a fresh lease from the same MRT catchment, represents the comparison case that buyers must confront honestly.

The investment case for rental is more nuanced than the headline gross yield of 2.77% suggests. The Dual Key and Triple Key units offer yield optionality that conventional configurations do not. A Trio unit rented room-by-room to working adults is a materially different income stream than renting a 980 sqft apartment to a single family. Whether that premium is worth the management complexity and slower resale liquidity depends on the buyer’s operating tolerance.

Own-stay families oriented around First Toa Payoh Primary School represent the most naturally suited buyer profile. Proximity at 140 metres is essentially unbeatable, and the concierge and pet facilities add genuine quality-of-life for households with busy schedules or pets. The heartland location is not a drawback for this buyer — it is, in fact, the point.