Welcome back to another episode of “Property Showdown on LittleBigRedDot!”
Previously, we had a close fight from the Westies. ELTA and SORA. Today, let’s compare two City Developments! “Union Square Residences” by CDL Group, and “The Collective At One Sophia” by CEL Development, Sing-Haiyi Crystal, and Ultra Infinity.
As usual, we will be breaking down this Showdown into 7 categories, they are:
We will be breaking down this showdown into 7 categories like what we did previously. They are:
- Distance to the nearest MRT Station
- Number of MRT stops to the city centre (Raffles Place MRT Station)
- Distance to the nearest Hawker Centre
- Distance to the nearest Shopping Mall
- Primary Schools within 1KM radius
- Price per Square Foot
- Premium over the resale units in the vicinity
Category 1: Distance to the nearest MRT Station
Let’s begin by looking at Union Square Residences’ nearest MRT which is Clarke Quay MRT Station, located on the North-East Line (NEL)
The closest walking distance from Union Square Residences to Clarke Quay MRT Station is 500m according to Google Maps, the walk will take you about 7 minutes. Well 8-10 minutes if you have short legs like mine.
The walk is not really sheltered so yes, you might need to pack an umbrella along for your daily commuting. However, the good thing is the wide variety of eateries you can find surrounding Clarke Quay MRT Station. If you stay here, you definitely will have trouble thinking of what to get for dinner HAHA. Not forgetting having a huge FairPrice Finest for your freshest grocery shopping, and food hall dine-in option.
Now, let’s have a look at One Sophia. The nearest MRT from One Sophia would be Bencoolen MRT Station. According to Google Maps, it’s a 550m walk. What a close fight!
The winner for Category 1: Union Square Residences~
Category 2: Number of MRT stops to the City Centre (Raffles Place MRT Station)
This will be an interesting one. Both Union Square Residences and One Sophia are located within the Central Region of Singapore, I’m already excited to see who the winner will be! Without further a do, let’s gooo!
It takes 3 stops with one change at Dhoby Ghaut Station to reach Raffles Place MRT Station. Estimated commuting time would be 8 minutes at the cost of $1.29 per adult. Not too bad at all!
Now for One Sophia, and the results is: 5 MRT stops, with a total of 2 MRT Line changes. It costs $1.40 per adult and 10 minutes commuting time.
The winner for Category 2: Union Square Residences!
Category 3: Distance to the nearest Hawker Centre
Now I’m sure most of us love some local delights that are affordable and hits home every once in awhile, so especially for Home Seekers, this is very important.
Besides the Atas and more modern area in Clarke Quay, one of the selling points of Union Square is the fact that Home Owners get to choose whether they want to go for more expensive food to treat themselves or hawker food that hits home. Yup! On the other side of Union Square Residences is Chinatown, with Chinatown MRT being the second nearest MRT from the development and also home to Union Square Residence’s closest Hawker Centre: People’s Park Food Centre!
The walk to People’s Park Food Centre is 600m, about 10 minutes for a shorty like me, but hey if you are a breeze walker like my husband, it’s probably a 6-7 minutes walk.
Next, we will look at One Sophia’s nearest Hawker Centre.
Personally, I think it’s not surprising that a Central Region development is not of close walking distance to a Hawker Centre but instead, surrounded by malls and restaurants instead. Which is why Union Square Residence’s proximity to Chinatown is such a good bonus.
As much as One Sophia is a nicely located Condominium Development, the nearest Hawker Centre is a good 2.2KM away, about 29 minutes by foot. However if you do drive, it will only be a 5 minutes ride. but dayum, that’s far.
Weekend morning jog perhaps? a jog to gain back all the calories with your Char Kuey Teow.
The winner for Category 3: Union Square Residences!
Category 4: Distance to the nearest Shopping Mall
Alright! Another interesting round.
The nearest mall from Union Square Residences is the iconic Clarke Quay Central Mall, yes the one located by our Singapore River. It’s a mere 650m from Union Square Residences and takes about 9 minutes by foot to get there. I think it’ll be cool to slip into some flip flops and just stroll around the mall in FBT shorts while others look dressed up, AHA.
With that being said, it seems most of the amenities and important transport destinations are all within 10 minutes travelling time for Union Square Residences up until this round. Not bad!
How will One Sophia fair?
Wow. We have a clear winner. You can roll your way to the nearest mall and no one will notice. On top of that, there are two other malls: Parklane Shopping Mall and GR.iD Singapore that are within 3 minutes reach by foot as well.
THREE shopping malls within 3 minutes walk? We have to give this one to One Sophia!
The winner for Category 4: One Sophia!
Category 5: Primary Schools within 1KM Radius
To start off, I was planning to use Elite.com.sg for the comparison but the site can’t seem to detect Union Square Residence’s location. Anyways, there is 1 Primary School: River Valley Primary School that is within the 1KM radius from Union Square Residences.
Next, let’s have a looking at One Sophia.
One Sophia also has a Primary within its 1KM radius! St. Margaret’s School (Primary).
It may seem like a draw here, but let’s look at the walking distance to each school from our respective developments.
Even though River Valley Primary School is within 1KM radius, the walking path requires approximately 20 minutes, 1.4KM by foot.
The winner for Category 5: One Sophia!
Category 6: Price per Square Foot
Union Square Residences had its public sales launch last year end on 9 November 2024. Up until this point of writing, Union Square Residences has sold 32.79% of its units at an average of $3,171 PSF with the lowest being $2,856 PSF and highest being $3,752 PSF.
One Sophia previous had its launch on 6 November 2024 and till date, the average PSF sold is $2,745. Lowest PSF being $2,561 and highest being $2,917 PSF.
To sum up, Union Square Residences was sold at around 13.5% more expensive based on their average PSF. As both developments are located well within the central region and have a good amount of transport and food options altogether – its almost an equal fight. Getting above the average sale margin of more than 10% is not justifiable in my opinion.
The winner for Category 6: One Sophia!
Category 7: Premium over the resale units in the vicinity
It is important to know the property market within the area you are purchasing so as to know that you are paying at a reasonable purchase price.
Let’s begin with Union Square Residences. Union Square Residences is a 99 Years Leasehold Development housing 366 residential units. The closest Condominium Development to Union Square Residences is actually The Riverside Piazza. However, it does not have recent transactions according to Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) that we can compare, moreover it already has a significant amount of lease decay. For a more similar development around Union Square Residences, I will be using Canninghill Piers comprising 696 units, estimated TOP to be this year in 2025. Both developments are 99 Years Leasehold with a pretty fresh lease!
Like before, I will be using the most recent transactions over the last 6 months for Canninghill Piers. We will be taking its average PSF for this comparison.
The average PSF at Canninghill Piers is $2,986 PSF from Nov’24 to Mar’25, so if we take USR’s average PSF of $3,171, it will amount to a premium of 6.19%. Hey! That’s actually decent if you compare this to our previous Property Showdown between ELTA (New Launch) and its neighbour, Clavon which only TOP last year. You may read that post here: https://littlebigreddot.com/property-showdown-elta-vs-sora/
Now let’s resume.
Next we’ll look at One Sophia. Around the One Sophia, there are actually a good amount for Freehold Developments. If you do not mind developments that are more than 10 years old, you can certainly consider them. For a closer and more similar pick to One Sophia, I will be using Sophia Hills for this comparison. A 99 Years Leasehold development comprising 493 units, TOP in December 2018.
Average PSF at Sophia Hills is $2,149 from Nov’24 to Mar’25. Now let’s take One Sophia’s average PSF into comparison, which is $2,745. With that, we have a premium of 27.73%. If we take into account Sophia Hill’s lease decay, a reasonable calculation would be adding around $50 PSF to each year and that will amount to $2,499 PSF.
My personal opinion is that One Sophia is still in a somewhat reasonable range considering OCR projects have been selling at an average of $2,500-2,600 PSF over the last months, Developers do still want to earn their profit margin.
And yes, I agree. Property market’s been getting quite insane.
The winner for Category 7: Union Square Residences!
Verdict:
Union Square Residences (4) vs The Collective At One Sophia (3)
Congratulations USR!~
Love,
Lin Xuan
Disclaimer: I am in the Real Estate Field under the company ERA, which is appointed as the Developer’s Sales Team for most New Launch Projects in Singapore including both Union Square Residences and The Collective At One Sophia. The above are my sincere comparison. You may reach out to me via WhatsApp at +65 8222 2556 to obtain official project releases.
Wishing you a great weekend!
