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One-bedder at 8 @ Mount Sophia going for $1.38 mil

By Tan Chee Yuen

/ The Edge Property |

February 5, 2017 8:00 AM SGT

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The 103-year leasehold 8 @ Mount Sophia has 4 nine-storey blocks comprising one- to three-bedroom units and penthouses ranging from 850 to 2,626 sq ft

A 968 sq ft unit at 8 @ Mount Sophia is on the market for $1.38 million ($1,426 psf). The one-bedroom unit on the ground floor was listed on TheEdgeProperty.com by Daryl Ng, a property agent from ERA Realty. The unit is currently rented out at $3,800 a month, according to Ng. Based on the asking price, this translates into a gross rental yield of 3.3%.

The 313-unit 8 @ Mount Sophia was developed by Frasers Centrepoint Ltd and completed in 2007. The main selling point of the project is its location in prime District 9, just a short walk from Plaza Singapura shopping mall and the Dhoby Ghaut MRT interchange station.

The 103-year leasehold project has 4 nine-storey blocks comprising one- to three-bedroom units and penthouses ranging from 850 to 2,626 sq ft. The most recent transaction at the development was for a 2,497 sq ft, three-bedroom penthouse with a roof terrace. The property was sold for $2.475 million ($991 psf), according to a caveat lodged on Sept 27 last year. Just a week before, a three-bedroom penthouse of 2,616 sq ft fetched $2 million ($765 psf), according to a caveat lodged on Sept 20.

The last transaction of a one-bedder at 8 @ Mount Sophia was in June last year when an 893 sq ft unit on the fifth level changed hands for $1.35 million ($1,511 psf).

Next door to 8 @ Mount Sophia is another leasehold development, the 118-unit Suites at Orchard by Allgreen Properties. The 99-year development has a mix of one- to three-bedroom duplexes and penthouses ranging from 549 to 1,776 sq ft. It was completed in 2014, seven years after 8 @ Mount Sophia.

Like most new condominium projects, units at Suites at Orchard are more compact. One-bedroom units start from 549 sq ft, two-bedroom units from 753 sq ft and three-bedroom duplexes from 1,550 sq ft. The two most recent transactions at the project were for the bigger units. A 1,485 sq ft, two-bedroom penthouse with roof terrace fetched fetched $2.7 million ($1,818 psf), according to a caveat lodged in April 2016. And a 1,776 sq ft, three-bedroom duplex with private enclosed space on the third floor was sold for $2.91 million ($1,640 psf) in March last year.

The most recent transaction of a one-bedroom unit at Suites at Orchard was in April 2015 when an 840 sq ft, one-bedroom penthouse with roof terrace on the 10th floor was sold for $1.51 million ($1,798 psf). The asking price for a similar-sized unit today is $1.6 million ($1,907 psf), according to a listing posted on Jan 31.

Therefore, a 968 sq ft one-bedder at 8 @ Mount Sophia priced at $1.38 million is considered an attractive buy, given its location and unit size, says ERA’s Ng.

The development is close to the Singapore Management University, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and LaSalle College of the Arts. It is also within walking distance of the National Museum, Singapore Art Museum and Fort Canning Park.

That could explain why, despite being 10 years old, 8 @ Mount Sophia continues to be popular among tenants. Monthly rents of one-bedroom units of 800 to 900 sq ft ranged from $3,500 to $4,400 over the past three months.