My Manhattan: Site Recce and Price

My Manhattan, situated not in the heart of New York, USA but in the heart of Simei, Singapore. This 99-year condo by CEL Developments sitting right beside Simei MRT and Eastpoint Mall seems to be a winner on paper already. 

When we paid them a visit today, they were selling rather well, but not as well as we thought they would. Perhaps it was the price that was the key stumbling block. More on this later, but first...

Here's a recap of My Manhattan - My Manhattan is Simei's latest

Here's the location

Image: Onemap.sg

Here's a site overlay

Site overlay is approximate. Image: Onemap.sg

Here's a view of Eastpoint Mall

Folks eating at the upper floor restaurants will get a great view of your living room. We know a nice curtain and screen specialist.

Here's a view of Blk 253

Only a 4-lane road separates your bedroom with your prying neighbour. Again, curtain-specialists, take note.

Here's a view of the MRT line

Don't worry about the tracks. There will be a huge 6-storey multistorey carpark built blocking noise from the trains. More on this later. That is Modena you see in the background.

Here's a view of the landed units to the south-east

According to the agent that spoke to us, only the 5th floor and above gets an unblocked view. Those lower units - I don't think you'd like a view of green slope or red-tile when you wake up in the mornings.

Price
Okay, here's the thing - we did say it will hit the 1,000 psf mark - we were wrong! Prices for 5 storey and above units for 2 and 3 bedders range from $1,150 to $1,250psf! That's really high for a place like Simei. I know what you're thinking - "Lakefront Residences also doing around this price range, so why not My Manhattan?". Well if you put it that way, then the price is fair, in this current context and climate, why not? The developers have done their homework.

That said, the sales have not been as good as we expected though. The showroom was not the most crowded and about 20% of the 1-BR units released are still not sold (they usually are sold out in the preview launch for hot hot condo launches). The high price could be a factor. Perhaps the cooling measures maybe? 

[ this article is extracted from H88.com ]