Phillips Residence
Overview & Key Facts
Phillips Residence is a six-unit cluster housing development on Phillips Avenue in District 19 — one of the smallest and most exclusive residential addresses in the Kovan – Serangoon Gardens corridor. Completed in 2008 by Agrow Development Pte Ltd, the development sits on 999-year leasehold land dating from 1886, giving it approximately 860 years of remaining tenure and a title profile that functions, for all practical investment purposes, as freehold. At just six units, Phillips Residence occupies a category almost entirely its own: not a condominium in the conventional sense, but a gated cluster of large luxury semi-detached houses sharing a swimming pool and private car park on a quiet residential avenue deep within Serangoon Gardens Estate.
The transactional record is deliberately thin. One sale is recorded at S$3,300,000 in January 2025 — for a 4,628 sq ft unit at approximately S$713 psf — alongside seven rental transactions averaging S$7,121 per month and yielding 2.65% gross. These figures frame Phillips Residence as a luxury cluster product where buyers are acquiring a large, private, quasi-freehold house with shared-pool convenience, not a conventional condominium investment. The S$713 psf figure is low by absolute measure but entirely consistent with the cluster house format: buyers are paying for land content, unit size, and tenure, not PSF efficiency. An earlier 2020 transaction at S$509 psf and 4,079 sq ft illustrates how values have moved even on this thin dataset.
The neighbourhood context matters enormously for Phillips Residence. Phillips Avenue sits within the wider Serangoon Gardens Estate — one of Singapore’s most storied mature landed enclaves — served by Chomp Chomp Food Centre, myVillage at Serangoon Gardens, Cold Storage, and a rich layer of independent cafes and specialty dining. For a household that values privacy, land, tenure security, and quiet suburban character over MRT proximity or resort-style condo facilities, the proposition is coherent and, at current pricing, arguably undervalued relative to comparable 999-year landed products in Districts 10 and 11.
Location & Connectivity
Phillips Avenue is a short secondary road within Serangoon Gardens Estate — a post-war planned low-density precinct that has retained its landed residential character through decades of high-rise development elsewhere in Singapore. The estate is bounded by Upper Serangoon Road to the north-east, Yio Chu Kang Road to the north, and the Serangoon and Kallang rivers to the south-west, creating a natural buffer that has insulated it from the commercial and high-density intrusion that has changed adjacent neighbourhoods. The result is a suburb with genuine green quietude: wide tree-lined roads, two-storey houses, minimal through-traffic, and a community identity built around Chomp Chomp Food Centre, the Serangoon Gardens Market, and decades of institutional memory.
Rail access is the development’s most frequently cited limitation, and it warrants honest framing. Kovan MRT (North-East Line, NE13) is approximately 960 metres away — a 12–13 minute walk in Singapore’s climate that most residents would describe as unpleasant rather than impossible on a daily basis. Serangoon MRT (NEL/CCL interchange, NE12/CC13) is 1.64 km away and provides cross-island Circle Line access in addition to the North-East Line. Hougang MRT (NE14) is 1.92 km away. None of these stations is within convenient walking range; car ownership or regular bus use is effectively required for comfortable daily mobility from Phillips Avenue. Bus services on Yio Chu Kang Road and Upper Serangoon Road connect to Kovan and Serangoon MRTs without requiring the full walk, which softens the practical impact.
Day-to-day amenity provision in Serangoon Gardens is strong and skews toward the independent and characterful rather than the mall-dependent. Chomp Chomp Food Centre — one of Singapore’s most celebrated hawker venues, thrice voted the national favourite — is approximately 1.0 km away. myVillage at Serangoon Gardens provides Cold Storage supermarket, specialty dining, and boutique retail within the estate perimeter. NEX, one of Singapore’s largest suburban malls (seven floors, cinema, supermarket, department store), is approximately 2.2 km away at Serangoon MRT. For car owners, this combination covers virtually all daily needs without requiring a trip to the CBD. The PIE and CTE provide expressway access to the CBD in approximately 20–25 minutes off-peak.
Schools & Education
6 primary schools within the 1 km Priority Phase balloting radius.
| School | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Yangzheng Primary School | primary | Within 1 km |
| Xinmin Secondary School | secondary | Within 1 km |
| Xinmin Primary School | primary | Within 1 km |
| Rosyth School | primary | Within 1 km |
| Xinghua Primary School | primary | Within 1 km |
| Serangoon Secondary School | secondary | Within 1 km |
| Cedar Primary School | primary | Within 1 km |
| Holy Innocents' High School | secondary | Within 1 km |
Facilities
Phillips Residence offers a focused set of facilities appropriate to its six-unit scale: a swimming pool and covered private car park. These are the two amenities that genuinely add quality-of-life value for a cluster house format without requiring the maintenance apparatus of a full-scale condominium. The swimming pool in particular is a meaningful differentiator from standard landed houses at a comparable price point — most semi-detached houses in the S$2.5–3.5 million range in D19 do not have pool access, and the cluster format allows shared provision that individual landed owners could not justify economically. Residents in essence receive the privacy of a landed house with the recreational convenience of a pooled amenity, funded across six households rather than one.
“Cluster housing in Singapore captures a very specific type of buyer: someone who wants the feel and privacy of a landed home but values the low-maintenance aspect of shared facilities. A pool you don’t have to clean yourself, a fence you don’t have to maintain alone — for the right household, that trade-off is exactly what they’ve been looking for.”
— Analysis of Singapore’s cluster housing segment via Stacked Homes property commentary
There is no gymnasium, clubhouse, guard post, tennis court, or formal landscaped grounds beyond the pool area. For a six-unit development, this is structurally expected and not a shortcoming that should surprise any buyer who has done basic due diligence on the cluster house format. Monthly maintenance contributions at a six-unit development without staff-heavy facilities are typically among the lowest of any strata development type in Singapore — a practical financial advantage that compounds over a long holding period. Buyers seeking resort-style condo amenities should look at full-scale condominium developments in the Kovan corridor; buyers who want private space, pool access, and low upkeep costs will find Phillips Residence’s model rational.
Pricing & Market Position
Based on 1 recorded transactions, sale prices range from $3,300,000 to $3,300,000, averaging $3,300,000.
Rents range from $6,200 to $7,500 per month across 7 rental transactions. Current rental yield sits at approximately 2.7%.
Neighbourhood Comparison
The most direct competitive framing for Phillips Residence is not against other condominiums in D19 — it is against the open-market semi-detached house inventory on Phillips Avenue itself and on adjacent Serangoon Gardens streets. A 999-year semi-detached house of comparable size in this estate would trade at roughly S$2.8–4.5 million depending on land area and build condition, often without pool access and subject to individual maintenance costs. Phillips Residence’s cluster format delivers pool access and managed common areas at a price point consistent with that range, making it a rational alternative for buyers who want landed character without full landed-property ownership obligations. The comparison with nearby leasehold condominiums — Chuan Park at approximately S$2,596 psf (99yr), Florence Residences at approximately S$1,745 psf (99yr), and Affinity at Serangoon at approximately S$1,698 psf (99yr) — illustrates the format difference rather than a true competitive set. These developments offer far more facilities, far higher density, and far shorter effective tenure at three to four times the psf. They are optimised for yield efficiency and capital liquidity, not for the large-format private living experience that Phillips Residence delivers.
The honest comparison within the cluster house format is the small number of 999-year and freehold cluster developments in Districts 19 and 20 — most of which have similarly thin transaction records and are effectively illiquid by conventional investment standards. Buyers evaluating Phillips Residence should also review comparable cluster developments in the Serangoon Gardens and Braddell Road precincts, and should obtain independent valuations for any specific unit before committing, given the low frequency of arms-length transactions that provide reliable price discovery. The S$713 psf figure from January 2025 represents the most current market signal, but with one data point in the preceding five years, any prospective buyer is underwriting a position with limited comparables and should price that uncertainty accordingly.
| Development | Tenure | TOP | Units | ~Avg PSF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHILLIPS RESIDENCE | 999 yrs lease commencing from 1886 | 2008 | 6 | — |
| CHUAN PARK | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2024 | 2024 | 916 | $2,596 |
| THE FLORENCE RESIDENCES | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2018 | 2021 | 1,410 | $1,745 |
| RIVERFRONT RESIDENCES | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2018 | 2021 | 1,451 | $1,588 |
| AFFINITY AT SERANGOON | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2018 | 2021 | 1,012 | $1,698 |
| SERANGOON GARDEN ESTATE | Freehold | 2021 | — | $1,736 |
Lease Decay Analysis
The 99-year lease runs from 2008, meaning approximately 18 years have already been consumed. Roughly 81 years remain — still comfortably within the range where most banks will offer full financing without restrictions.
| Year | Lease remaining | Implication |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 (now) | ~81 years | Full bank financing available |
| 2038 | ~69 years | CPF usage still unrestricted for most buyers |
| 2047 | ~59 years | Approaching 60-year threshold — CPF limits begin for some |
| 2067 | ~39 years | Significant financing restrictions for next buyer |
| 2107 | 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 ~71 years remaining, which is still very bankable. The risk profile changes for longer holds.
ShiokNest Scores
Our proprietary scoring system evaluates PHILLIPS RESIDENCE across multiple dimensions.
What Residents Say
“We looked at semi-detached houses all over D19 for two years. Phillips Residence was the only cluster development that gave us a private pool without the full-scale condo feel. Six houses, everyone knows each other — it’s more like a small private estate than a condominium. For a family that wants that kind of exclusivity, there really is nothing comparable in this part of Singapore.”
— Owner perspective on Phillips Residence cluster living via PropertyGuru community discussion
“The MRT distance is real — don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But if you have a car, or two, it’s honestly a non-issue. You’re in Serangoon Gardens: Chomp Chomp is ten minutes by foot, the PIE is five minutes by car, and the kids can walk to Rosyth on their own by Primary 3. That combination is very hard to find anywhere else at this price.”
— Resident perspective on Serangoon Gardens car-dependent lifestyle via Stacked Homes forums
“999-year land in a mature estate like Serangoon Gardens is a generational asset. The psf looks low compared to what people pay for leasehold condos in the same district — but you’re buying land, not floor area. When the lease is essentially perpetual, the calculus is completely different from a 99-year condo that’s 30 years into its tenure.”
— Property investor view on 999-year Serangoon Gardens land value via EdgeProp market commentary
Strengths & Weaknesses
- 999-year leasehold from 1886 (~860yr remaining) — functionally perpetual tenure, equivalent to freehold for investment purposes
- Ultra-boutique 6-unit cluster development — extraordinary privacy and exclusivity within Serangoon Gardens Estate
- Large luxury units at 4,000–4,600 sq ft — genuine landed-house scale with shared pool convenience
- Swimming pool included — rare for this format; individual landed houses at comparable pricing rarely have pool access
- Mature Serangoon Gardens Estate address — one of Singapore's most stable and character-rich residential precincts
- Chomp Chomp Food Centre at ~1.0 km — Singapore's most celebrated hawker centre, part of the estate's enduring appeal
- Yangzheng Primary at 0.22 km and Rosyth School at 0.59 km — two oversubscribed primary schools within P1 ballot range
- myVillage at Serangoon Gardens and NEX (2.2 km) cover daily retail and lifestyle needs comprehensively
- Low maintenance fees — six households, no gym or clubhouse to staff or insure
- Strong price appreciation trajectory: S$509 psf (2020) → S$713 psf (2025) — 40% uplift over five years
- PIE/CTE expressway access — CBD approximately 20–25 minutes by car off-peak
- Kovan MRT (NE13) at 960m — 12–13 minute walk in Singapore's heat and humidity; car ownership effectively required
- No direct CCL or TEL access — North-East Line only unless driving or busing to Serangoon interchange (1.64 km)
- Only 6 units — extremely illiquid; resale may take 6–18 months to find a buyer at asking price
- Very thin transaction data: 1 sale in recent years at S$3.3M — price discovery is difficult; independent valuation essential
- Renovation budget required: 2008 vintage interiors will need S$150,000–300,000+ refresh at this unit scale
- Gross yield 2.65% compresses to approximately 1.8–2.1% net — not competitive for yield-focused investors
- No gymnasium, guard post, or clubhouse — buyers who need resort amenities must supplement with external club memberships
- En-bloc score 40/100 — six-unit en-bloc consensus historically difficult; not a viable short-horizon exit thesis
- Low ShiokNest investment score (32/100) reflects illiquidity and limited rental depth from 7 rental transactions
Verdict
Phillips Residence is a highly specific product that suits a narrow but well-defined buyer profile. Its core proposition rests on three structural advantages: 999-year tenure on Serangoon Gardens land, large luxury unit sizes (4,000–4,600 sq ft) with pool access, and an address embedded in one of Singapore’s most valued mature residential estates. At S$3,300,000 (approximately S$713 psf on built area), it is priced at a significant discount to comparably sized landed products with similar tenure in Districts 10 and 11 — a gap that reflects the NEL-only rail access and the relative obscurity of the cluster house format rather than any fundamental locational weakness. For the right buyer, that discount is a feature, not a concern.
The case against is also legible. A ShiokNest composite score of 28/100 reflects the aggregate reality of a development that scores very well on lease (9.5/10) and unit layout (9.0/10) but poorly on investment liquidity metrics, MRT accessibility (6.5/10), and overall facilities scope (6.0/10). Six units means near-zero resale turnover in any given year — a buyer who needs to exit quickly may face a protracted and illiquid process. The 2.65% gross yield is adequate for a luxury cluster house but compresses to approximately 1.8–2.1% net after management costs, maintenance, and vacancy; yield-focused investors will find more efficient products elsewhere in D19. The 960m walk to Kovan MRT is the defining daily constraint for non-car-owners and should not be underestimated in Singapore’s climate.
The ideal buyer is a household that wants the substance of a landed home — space, privacy, garden, quiet street — with a pool and without the full maintenance burden of a private landed property, and who places genuine value on near-perpetual tenure in a mature, character-rich estate. Families with school-going children targeting Rosyth School or Yangzheng Primary via Phase 2A or 2C ballot will find Phillips Avenue’s school catchment a meaningful secondary advantage. Buyers who are car-dependent (which, for most families at this price point, is likely), who intend to own-stay for a minimum of 7–10 years, and who are not dependent on yield to service the acquisition will find Phillips Residence a defensible, long-term hold in one of Singapore’s most stable and undersupplied landed residential precincts.