The Brooks Ii

Overview & Key Facts

The Brooks II is a compact freehold mixed-use development completed in 2016 by Kallang Development Pte Ltd, occupying a quietly positioned site at 25 Springside Green in Singapore’s District 26 — the Springleaf / Upper Thomson corridor that has, in the last three years, become one of the most actively re-rated submarkets in the Outside Central Region. Part of a paired twin development with The Brooks I next door, the two buildings together comprise 61 residential apartments across 4-storey blocks, complemented by a ground-floor strata retail podium of cafes, F&B, and neighbourhood services. The residential unit count at Brooks II alone is just 28 apartments, placing the development firmly in the boutique freehold category — a size where every resident recognises every neighbour and communal facilities rarely see queues.

The investment thesis for The Brooks II is unambiguous and sits on a single structural fact: it is a freehold development trading at approximately S$1,569 psf in a D26 corridor where the entire new-launch cohort — Springleaf Residence, Lentor Modern, Lentor Hills Residences, Lentor Mansion, Lentor Central Residences — is 99-year leasehold at S$2,116–2,266 psf. That is a psf gap of S$547–697 against the leasehold competition, widening to effectively S$600+ when the lease-decay discount on the new launches is modelled over a 20-year horizon. Few OCR submarkets currently offer a freehold entry at this magnitude of discount to their immediate leasehold cohort, and Brooks II’s 12-month PSF trend — S$1,327 to S$1,528 to S$1,389 to S$1,569 — suggests the market is beginning to close that gap.

The ShiokNest composite score of 32/100 reflects honest trade-offs rather than disqualifying weaknesses. Walkability is genuinely constrained at 15/100 — Springleaf Green sits on the quieter side of the Springleaf precinct, with a sub-1 km but not-quite-doorstep walk to Springleaf MRT. The investment score of 64/100 is meaningfully above average and captures the real engine here: a 3.92% gross yield in a freehold OCR boutique is an uncommon combination, and the mixed-use ground floor provides a low-level rental floor that larger pure-residential developments do not enjoy. For the right buyer — long-horizon, freehold-aware, comfortable with a boutique scale and a car-assisted walk to the MRT — this is a structural value position in a re-rating submarket.

Location & Connectivity

Springside Green is a cul-de-sac-style residential lane tucked between Upper Thomson Road and Sembawang Road, on the eastern edge of the Springleaf precinct. The address delivers a character that is increasingly rare in Singapore: a low-rise, low-density residential pocket bordered by landed housing, nature reserves, and a short stretch of neighbourhood retail. The Brooks II itself is 4 storeys — a scale that preserves sky views, canopy-level light, and a genuine sense of the surrounding landed streetscape rather than the walled-in density typical of 20-storey Lentor towers rising less than 2 km south.

For MRT access, the development is approximately 0.68 km from Springleaf MRT (TE4) on the Thomson–East Coast Line — a 7–9 minute walk in practice, depending on pace and the route taken through the Springside estate. This is an honest number: it is a comfortable walk for most adults but not the sub-400m doorstep proximity that Lentor Modern or Lentor Mansion buyers pay a premium for. The TEL itself is the single most important piece of recent infrastructure for this corridor, connecting southward through Thomson, Orchard Boulevard, Great World, and Marina Bay without a transfer. The 40-minute commute from Springleaf to Marina Bay MRT on a single line is a transformation from the pre-2020 state of this area, when it was reliant on the lone Yishun NSL station and a long car or bus connector to the CBD.

Driving access is excellent for households with vehicles. The Seletar Expressway (SLE) is accessible within five minutes, connecting northward to the TPE and Woodlands corridor; the Central Expressway (CTE) is reachable via Upper Thomson Road with minimal queuing at off-peak. For amenity, Springfield Plaza and the Springvale shophouse cluster are within walking distance, offering coffee shops, provision shops, and the occasional boutique F&B. Thomson Nature Park and Lower Seletar Reservoir are both within a short drive — a genuine green-lung advantage that no Lentor tower replicates. For families requiring supermarket-scale grocery, the nearest NTUC FairPrice or Cold Storage is a short drive via Upper Thomson Road; daily convenience shopping within walking distance is modest.

Facilities

The Brooks II shares its facilities deck with The Brooks I as a combined twin development, effectively pooling the amenity entitlement of 61 residential units into a single shared space. The core facilities package includes a 23-metre lap pool, a gymnasium, BBQ pits, a function room, children’s play area, landscaped gardens, and 24-hour security. For a 61-unit boutique development, the 23 m lap pool is the standout: it is a genuine swimmable length rather than the ornamental 12–15 m plunge pools that many sub-80-unit projects settle for, and it makes a material difference for residents who swim for fitness rather than leisure.

The mixed-use ground floor adds a dimension that pure-residential boutiques lack: residents have direct access to a small cluster of cafes, bakeries, and neighbourhood F&B at street level, without leaving the building footprint. This is a subtle but meaningful daily-life upgrade — a morning coffee or a casual dinner without a walk or a drive is a lifestyle feature that the marketing material for larger Lentor towers rarely matches in practice, where ground-floor retail is often a long arcade walk from the residential lifts.

“Small development, warm neighbours, and wonderful niche restaurants and a bakery just below — the mixed-use ground floor is genuinely useful in daily life. The 2-minute drive to CTE and SLE via the new Thomson Line area is also a real bonus.”

— Resident review via 99.co, 2024

What the facilities package does not include is equally important to note. There is no tennis court, no 50 m pool, no spa pavilion, no clubhouse with function suites, and no concierge — features that Lentor Modern and Lentor Mansion integrate into their much larger 500–605-unit developments. Buyers paying for those resort-scale amenities at S$2,134–2,266 psf leasehold are making a qualitatively different purchase. The Brooks II buyer is trading amenity breadth for freehold title, a boutique community, and a S$600+ psf discount.

Unit Sizes & Layout

The Brooks II’s 28-unit mix is deliberately compact and investor-friendly, with a configuration that skews to smaller, more rentable footprints than the family-oriented layouts typical of the Lentor leasehold cohort. The development offers 1-bedroom + study units at 571–603 sqft, 2-bedroom units at 710 sqft, 2-bedroom + activity units at 818 sqft, 3-bedroom units at 1,066 sqft, and a small number of penthouse configurations spanning 1,152–1,400 sqft at the top floor. The headline entry price is genuinely accessible: a 710 sqft 2-bedder at S$1,569 psf prices at approximately S$1.11 million — one of the more accessible freehold condo entries in any OCR corridor today, and well below the sub-$1M psychological threshold for 1-bedders.

Unit interiors carry 2016-vintage specifications. Ceiling heights are standard rather than the 3-metre profiles now common in Lentor new launches; kitchen and bathroom layouts are practical rather than designer-led; finishes are mid-tier builder-grade from the era. Well-renovated units on the resale market typically reflect a S$30,000–60,000 refresh on the smaller footprints and S$60,000–120,000 on 3-bedders — a renovation investment that, critically, is protected by the freehold title and does not decay against a 99-year lease clock. Buyers comfortable with cosmetic refresh can generally acquire a lightly dated unit at the entry PSF and modernise to a contemporary standard while preserving the freehold value floor.

The 3-bedroom 1,066 sqft units are the family configuration of choice for buyers who want to stay in the Springleaf area long-term. They are modest by current new-launch standards — Lentor Mansion and Lentor Central Residences offer 3-bedders at 1,100–1,350 sqft — but they price at roughly S$1.67 million at S$1,569 psf, a substantial discount to the S$2.4–2.9 million 3-bedroom prices prevailing at Lentor Modern or Lentor Mansion on leasehold. Penthouse units at 1,400 sqft are the scarcest configuration and tend to trade quickly when they appear on the resale market.

Pricing & Market Position

Based on 9 recorded transactions, sale prices range from $780,000 to $1,600,000, averaging $1,040,118 (~$1,569 psf).

Rents range from $2,200 to $4,700 per month across 35 rental transactions. Current rental yield sits at approximately 3.9%.

Price Appreciation

From 2021 to 2025, the average PSF has appreciated by 18.3% (from $1,327 to $1,569 psf).

Neighbourhood Comparison

The Brooks II’s positioning in District 26 is best understood against the wave of new-launch leasehold developments that have redefined the Springleaf–Lentor corridor since 2021. The headline peer is Springleaf Residence (941 units, 99-year 2024, S$2,178 psf) — the most recent Springleaf-area launch, directly adjacent to the TEL station. Against it, Brooks II offers a S$609 psf discount, a freehold title, and a mixed-use ground floor, while Springleaf Residence offers doorstep MRT proximity, a much larger 2024-vintage facilities package, and developer warranty. The two are not really competing for the same buyer — they are competing for different theses about what matters over a 15-year holding horizon.

Against the Lentor cluster — Lentor Modern (605 units, 99-year 2021, S$2,134 psf), Lentor Hills Residences (598 units, 99-year 2022, S$2,116 psf), Lentor Mansion (533 units, 99-year 2023, S$2,266 psf), and Lentor Central Residences (477 units, 99-year 2023, S$2,222 psf) — the comparison hardens. All four are 99-year leasehold from 2021–2023 with lease decay clocks already running. All four trade at S$2,116–2,266 psf — a S$547–697 psf premium to Brooks II. The Lentor cluster offers newer construction, larger facilities, doorstep Lentor MRT access, and greater secondary-market liquidity thanks to unit counts above 450. What Brooks II offers that none of them can offer is freehold land title and a 28–31% psf discount simultaneously — a combination that simply does not exist elsewhere in the current D26 market.

The twin-development Brooks I (33 units) is the closest possible comparable and effectively shares pricing and amenities with Brooks II — buyers should view Brooks I and Brooks II listings together when searching the resale market, as the two buildings are functionally indistinguishable from a living-experience perspective. For a buyer optimising for modern amenity breadth and doorstep MRT access in a re-rating corridor, a Lentor leasehold unit is the better fit. For a buyer optimising for freehold land title, strong yield, and a psf entry below S$1.2 million for a 1-bedroom or below S$1.7 million for a 3-bedroom in D26, The Brooks II remains one of the most distinctive value propositions in the OCR freehold boutique category. Stacked Homes’ freehold vs leasehold framework provides a useful lens for modelling the 15-to-20-year divergence between these two purchase types.

ShiokNest Scores

Our proprietary scoring system evaluates THE BROOKS II across multiple dimensions.

What Residents Say

“We love the small development — only 61 units total means everyone knows everyone, and the neighbours are warm and genuinely friendly. The niche restaurants and bakery downstairs are wonderful for a casual dinner. Super fast access to CTE and SLE in 2 minutes, and the new Thomson Line station is a game-changer for our CBD commute.”

— Resident review via 99.co, 2024

“The freehold status was the main reason we chose this over the newer Lentor launches. We looked at Lentor Modern and Lentor Hills, and while they are obviously newer and have bigger pools and gyms, the 99-year lease and the S$2,100+ psf pricing just did not make sense for a long-term family home. Brooks II gave us freehold at a price we could afford without stretching.”

— Resident review via EdgeProp, 2024

“Honestly the walk to Springleaf MRT is longer than the listings suggest — it is a real 8 to 9 minutes at normal pace, and on a hot afternoon it feels every minute of that. If you drive, the location is quiet and pleasant. If you rely on public transport daily, the walk is manageable but not the doorstep convenience you get at Lentor Modern.”

— Resident review via PropertyGuru, 2023

The consistent theme in resident accounts is that The Brooks II is a quietly satisfying residence for buyers who have realistic expectations about its scale and location. The boutique community, the mixed-use retail at ground floor, and the driving-friendly access to CTE and SLE are the most commonly cited positives. The most commonly cited friction points are the MRT walk being somewhat longer than marketing copy implies, the limited facilities relative to the massive Lentor new launches, and the 2016-vintage interiors in un-renovated units. Importantly, no residents in publicly available reviews flag structural building issues, management problems, or material maintenance concerns — the quiet satisfaction is itself a data point.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Verdict

The Brooks II is a targeted buy rather than a universal one, and the buyer profile is narrower than a conventional OCR family condo would attract. The development makes sense for a freehold-conscious long-horizon buyer who understands the Springleaf corridor is in the middle of a 5-to-10-year re-rating driven by the TEL and the Lentor new-launch cohort, and who values the structural freehold advantage at a materially discounted PSF. The current 12-month average of S$1,569 psf against the Lentor leasehold cohort’s S$2,116–2,266 psf represents a 28–31% PSF discount while holding a superior freehold title — a divergence that typically compresses over holding periods of 10–15 years as the leasehold peers visibly decay and the freehold peers retain structural value.

The gross yield of 3.92% is the second genuine strength. This is a number that few freehold OCR boutiques match: most freehold developments in D9, D10, D11, and D15 trade at yields in the 2.0–2.8% range, where the rental income is insufficient to cover even half of a leveraged mortgage cost. At 3.92%, The Brooks II’s rental economics approach the self-sustaining threshold for a conservatively leveraged buyer, and the mixed-use ground floor F&B provides a subtle tenant-attraction advantage over pure-residential boutiques in the same corridor.

The weaknesses are real and must be priced. Walkability at 15/100 is low and reflects genuine rather than cosmetic amenity sparseness in the immediate Springside Green footprint — this is a location that rewards driving households more than car-free ones. The 28-unit residential count at Brooks II specifically, and the 61-unit combined development, means secondary-market liquidity is thin: fewer than 10 transactions per year is typical, and buyers requiring a quick exit may face a patient sale timeline of 6–12 months. The single MRT station (Springleaf TE4) on a single line is a concentration risk relative to the 3-station access at Marine Parade or the dual-line interchange advantages further south.

The final comparison is against Springleaf Residence, the nearest new-launch peer at S$2,178 psf 99-year leasehold. Springleaf Residence offers newer interiors, a larger facilities package, doorstep MRT proximity, and a developer warranty — but on a 99-year lease with depreciation beginning the day keys are collected, and at a S$609 psf premium. For a buyer comfortable with the Brooks II’s trade-offs, the freehold title and the psf discount compound meaningfully over 15 years. For a buyer prioritising amenity breadth and new-build condition, Springleaf Residence is the better fit. Both are defensible; they are simply different purchases.