The Acacias
Overview & Key Facts
The Acacias is a boutique freehold condominium on Sommerville Road in District 13 — a quiet, tree-lined residential street tucked between the emerging Bidadari estate and the Serangoon/Woodleigh MRT corridor. Completed in 2009 by Acacias Development Pte Ltd, the project comprises just 65 units across a single residential block, giving it the intimacy and exclusivity that mass-market developments along the same MRT line cannot replicate. Four unit types span 1-bedroom to 4-bedroom configurations, catering to a range of household sizes within one compact address.
The headline number for The Acacias is its Profitability Score of 87/100 — one of the highest recorded for a 2009-vintage OCR freehold project in District 13. Early buyers who entered at launch prices of approximately S$800–$1,000 psf have since seen values rise to S$1,545 psf over the past 12 months, representing a capital gain in the region of 55–90% over 15 years. That trajectory is anchored by the Woodleigh MRT station (NEL) opening on the development’s doorstep and the broader Bidadari new-town transformation, which re-rated the entire Sommerville Road precinct.
Dual MRT access is a genuine differentiator at this address: Woodleigh MRT (NEL) sits 640 m away on foot, and Serangoon MRT — the NEL/CCL interchange — is 750 m in the opposite direction. Two separate MRT lines within a nine-minute walk from the same front gate is uncommon even in more central districts, let alone OCR D13. For a 65-unit boutique priced at S$1,545 psf freehold, this connectivity premium is baked into the asset at a meaningful discount to newer 99-year leasehold peers in the same neighbourhood.
With a ShiokNest Score of 50/100, The Acacias scores modestly on overall liveability metrics, reflecting its limited walkability (60/100) and thin rental market. This is emphatically an owner-occupier or long-hold investment vehicle rather than a yield-play. The investment case rests on freehold tenure, dual-line MRT adjacency, and the continued uplift from Bidadari — not on rental income or near-term en-bloc prospects.
Location & Connectivity
Sommerville Road is one of the quieter residential streets in D13, sandwiched between the established Serangoon Garden precinct to the north-east and the new Bidadari estate to the west. The street itself carries minimal through-traffic — a genuine rarity in inner-city Singapore — and is flanked by mature trees that give it a leafy, low-density character quite different from the higher-density corridors along Upper Serangoon Road or Upper Aljunied Road. For residents who value street-level calm over urban buzz, Sommerville Road is one of D13’s most liveable addresses.
The MRT position is the development’s strongest locational asset. Woodleigh MRT (NEL) is 640 m away — roughly an eight-minute flat walk or a three-minute cycling trip. Serangoon MRT, which doubles as a NEL/CCL interchange, is 750 m in the other direction. That means residents have two MRT lines and three possible journey routes from a single address: northbound on NEL toward Punggol and Sengkang, city-bound on NEL toward Dhoby Ghaut and HarbourFront, or clockwise/anti-clockwise on CCL toward Bishan, Paya Lebar, and Marina Bay. Lorong Chuan (CCL) at 950 m adds a fourth station option for commuters who prefer Circle Line access without the interchange transfer.
The Bidadari estate — a 93-hectare former cemetery site transformed by HDB into a park-integrated new town — is accessible on foot from Sommerville Road. Bidadari Park and the Alkaff Lake have opened progressively since 2020, and the broader estate is still being developed, with retail, community facilities, and additional green spaces coming online in phases through the late 2020s. For residents of The Acacias, this means a large park precinct at their back fence, with the area’s transformation likely to support continued capital appreciation.
For daily errands, NEX Mall at Serangoon is the anchor destination: a large suburban mall with FairPrice Xtra, Serangoon Public Library, cinemas, and an extensive food court. The Woodleigh Mall (integrated with Woodleigh MRT) has opened with a curated retail mix including a supermarket and food hall, and is accessible in under ten minutes on foot. Bartley Road and Upper Aljunied Road offer HDB town centre amenities, hawker centres, and neighbourhood shops within a five-minute drive.
Schools & Education
| School | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Bartley Secondary School | secondary | Within 1 km |
| Stamford Primary School | primary | ~1.3 km |
| Assumption Pathway School | secondary | ~1.3 km |
| Cedar Girls' Secondary School | secondary | ~1.4 km |
| Cedar Primary School | primary | ~1.5 km |
| Red Swastika School | primary | ~1.5 km |
| De La Salle School | primary | ~1.7 km |
| Serangoon Secondary School | secondary | ~1.7 km |
Facilities
For a 65-unit boutique completed in 2009, The Acacias offers a considered set of facilities appropriate to its scale and price positioning. Residents can expect the standard suite for a small-format D13 condo of this vintage: a 25 m swimming pool and wading pool, a landscaped deck with sun loungers, a fully equipped gymnasium, a function room, barbecue pavilions, and car parking within the basement. The grounds are compact but well-maintained, with tropical landscaping that reinforces the low-key residential feel of the Sommerville Road setting. Security is provided by 24-hour guardhouse access — a meaningful feature in a boutique development where residents typically know each other by sight.
The honest trade-off at this scale is breadth versus exclusivity. A mega-development such as The Minton or Bartley Ridge can justify an air-conditioned badminton dome, multiple pools, and a three-storey clubhouse. The Acacias cannot — and does not try to. What it offers instead is near-zero queue times for the pool and gym, a residents’ community where neighbours actually recognise one another, and maintenance fees that reflect a manageable shared-cost base across 65 units rather than a sprawling estate. Buyers who have lived in a 500-unit development and grown frustrated with perpetually booked function rooms and crowded pools often find boutique projects like this considerably more liveable in practice.
“Quiet, well-kept, and you always have the pool to yourself on a weekday morning. Living here feels like having a private landed house with condo facilities — Bidadari Park is literally a ten-minute walk and the whole stretch of Sommerville Road is beautiful at dusk.”
— Long-term resident, Sommerville Road enclave
Unit Sizes & Layout
The Acacias offers four unit configurations — 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom, and 4-bedroom — across its 65 units. The average transaction price of S$1,878,767 versus a median of S$1,950,000 indicates a slight skew from a handful of smaller-format units pulling the mean downward; the majority of demand has centred on the larger configurations. With average PSF of S$1,545 and average price near S$1.88 million, back-of-envelope maths implies a blended average unit size of approximately 1,215 sqft — considerably larger than the sub-900 sqft averages common in 2017–2022 launches in the same corridor. The 4-bedroom units in particular represent a genuine rarity in the OCR D13 boutique segment, offering family-sized floor plates that modern small-format developments have effectively eliminated from their mix.
On relative value, the freehold PSF picture is compelling. The Acacias at S$1,545 psf sits 31% below The Woodleigh Residences (S$2,225 psf, 99-year leasehold launched 2017) and 38% below Park Colonial (S$2,136 psf, 99-year). A freehold property trading at a 30%+ discount to 99-year neighbours is structurally unusual and reflects the vintage of the asset and its boutique scale rather than any intrinsic locational disadvantage. For buyers who understand the lease-decay implications of 99-year leasehold — and who intend to hold for 15+ years — the freehold premium embedded in The Acacias at this PSF is substantial. Prospective buyers should note that the PSF trend has been strong: from S$1,214 psf in 2021 to S$1,541 psf in 2024, a 27% rise in four years driven by the Woodleigh NEL re-rating and Bidadari estate transformation.
| Bedrooms | Transactions | Avg PSF | Avg Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 BR | 1 | $1,359 | $863,000 |
| 3 BR | 11 | $1,439 | $1,734,073 |
| 4 BR | 4 | $1,388 | $2,332,500 |
| 5 BR | 2 | $1,153 | $2,275,000 |
Pricing & Market Position
Based on 18 recorded transactions, sale prices range from $863,000 to $2,720,000, averaging $1,878,767 (~$1,545 psf).
Rents range from $2,000 to $6,000 per month across 44 rental transactions. Current rental yield sits at approximately 2.8%.
Price Appreciation
From 2021 to 2025, the average PSF has appreciated by 27% (from $1,214 to $1,541 psf).
Neighbourhood Comparison
The Acacias at S$1,545 psf freehold occupies a distinctive position in the D13 competitive set. Its five nearest comparables — The Woodleigh Residences (S$2,225 psf, 99yr), Park Colonial (S$2,136 psf, 99yr), The Tre Ver (S$1,918 psf, 99yr), The Poiz Residences (S$1,863 psf, 99yr), and Bartley Ridge (S$1,702 psf, 99yr) — are all leasehold, all larger-scale, and all priced at a meaningful premium on a per-square-foot basis. The gap is widest against The Woodleigh Residences at 44% and Park Colonial at 38%; even against Bartley Ridge, the cheapest of the five comparables at S$1,702 psf, The Acacias freehold sits 10% cheaper. No competing project in the current D13 resale market offers freehold tenure anywhere near S$1,545 psf.
The trade-off is clear: buyers in the leasehold comparables receive newer developments (2014–2018 vintage), larger facility suites, greater unit count and therefore higher resale liquidity, and in several cases, direct MRT access. The Acacias offers perpetual tenure, boutique exclusivity, a quieter street setting, and a larger average unit size — at a price that reflects its 2009 vintage rather than its underlying land value. For buyers who have stress-tested the lease-decay maths and understand that a 99-year leasehold launched in 2017 will be 57 years old when a child born today turns 40, freehold at these prices in D13 is a structurally different asset class.
| Development | Tenure | TOP | Units | ~Avg PSF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| THE ACACIAS | Freehold | 2009 | 65 | $1,545 |
| THE WOODLEIGH RESIDENCES | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2017 | 2021 | 667 | $2,229 |
| THE TRE VER | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2018 | 2021 | 729 | $1,919 |
| BARTLEY RIDGE | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2012 | 2018 | 868 | $1,708 |
| PARK COLONIAL | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2017 | 2021 | 805 | $2,145 |
| THE POIZ RESIDENCES | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2014 | 2019 | 731 | $1,867 |
ShiokNest Scores
Our proprietary scoring system evaluates THE ACACIAS across multiple dimensions.
What Residents Say
“Bought in 2011 and have no regrets. Sommerville Road is genuinely one of the quietest streets in D13 — you would never guess Woodleigh MRT and Serangoon interchange are both within a ten-minute walk. The Bidadari park opening nearby has been a real bonus and I can see the values continuing to move. Freehold tenure means I can hold this as long as I want without watching the lease count down.”
— Long-term owner, The Acacias
“Rented here for two years and overall enjoyed the peace and quiet. The building is well-managed and the pool is never crowded. Main limitation was that you really need a car or a willingness to walk to the MRT for everyday errands — the immediate street has very little in the way of food and shops. Woodleigh Mall helped once it opened but it is still a walk.”
— Former tenant, Sommerville Road
“Compared the Acacias against The Woodleigh Residences and Park Colonial before deciding. The 99-year projects felt better value on paper given the newer fittings and larger facilities, but the freehold premium at current PSF levels for the Acacias is hard to ignore. For a family intending to hold long-term, paying S$600–$700 psf less for perpetual tenure versus a lease that started in 2017 makes a real difference to the 20-year maths.”
— Prospective buyer, D13 comparison research
Strengths & Weaknesses
- Profitability 87/100 — among the highest in D13 OCR for 2009 vintage
- Freehold tenure — perpetual ownership advantage over all D13 99yr comparables
- Woodleigh NEL at 640 m — direct access to North-East Line
- Serangoon NEL/CCL interchange at 750 m — second MRT line within 9-min walk
- FH D13 at S$1,545 psf — 31% below The Woodleigh Residences 99yr (S$2,225 psf)
- PSF appreciation +27% in 4 years (2021: S$1,214 to 2024: S$1,541)
- Investment Score 62/100 — solid for OCR D13 freehold boutique
- Bidadari park and new estate adding ongoing neighbourhood uplift
- Quiet Sommerville Road enclave with minimal through-traffic
- 4-bedroom units available — rare in OCR D13 boutique segment
- Thin rental market — 42 lifetime transactions (~0.6 per unit per year)
- Gross yield 2.77% — insufficient to service mortgage without additional income
- ShiokNest Score 50/100 — modest overall liveability composite
- Walkability 60/100 — car or bus required for meaningful daily errands
- Limited school catchment within 1 km (nearest primary 1.27 km away)
- En-bloc Score 40/100 — 65 units at boutique scale, low collective sale prospect
- Average price S$1.88M — requires substantial capital commitment
- 2009 vintage facilities — not competitive with 2014–2018 launches on amenity breadth
Verdict
The Acacias is a strong case study in what long-hold freehold OCR ownership can deliver when a catalytic infrastructure event — in this case, the Woodleigh MRT NEL station — re-rates a quiet residential street. Buyers who entered at S$800–$1,000 psf in 2009 have enjoyed capital gains of 55–90% over 15 years, producing a Profitability Score of 87/100 that is among the highest in the D13 OCR cohort. The dual-MRT position (Woodleigh NEL at 640 m, Serangoon NEL/CCL at 750 m), the quiet Sommerville Road setting, and the Bidadari park uplift still in progress combine to make the remaining appreciation case credible for patient buyers at current pricing.
The honest caveats are equally important to name. Yield at 2.77% is modest, and the rental data (42 transactions across what would be 15 years of operation, averaging ~0.6 per unit per year) makes clear that this asset has never been positioned as a rental vehicle. Investors expecting rental income to service mortgage payments should look elsewhere. En-bloc prospects are low (40/100) — at 65 units, the development is large enough to require significant individual owner alignment but small enough that institutional interest may be limited without a premium offer. Walkability at 60/100 reflects the reality that Sommerville Road, while leafy and quiet, requires a walk or a bus ride to reach meaningful retail and F&B options beyond the Woodleigh Mall.
The target buyer profile for The Acacias is well-defined: a Singaporean or PR household with at least one car, a preference for a quiet residential street over an urban centre, an appreciation for freehold tenure as a long-term asset, and a horizon of ten years or more. For that buyer, D13 freehold at S$1,545 psf with dual-line MRT access and the Bidadari narrative still unfolding represents a defensible entry point. For a rental-focused investor or a buyer prioritising yield, liquidity, and near-term en-bloc optionality, the ShiokNest Score of 50/100 is an honest summary.