Dunearn House, Is CCR Worth It at This Price?

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When Dunearn House was announced, the first question most of my clients asked me was: "Is it worth buying a 99-year leasehold in the CCR?"

Here's my honest take. Dunearn House is not for everyone. But for the right buyer, whether you're an upgrader wanting a prestigious address without the freehold premium, or an investor looking for a transformation play with multiple catalysts, let me walk you through why this launch is worth understanding properly.

What Is Dunearn House?

Dunearn House (达恩豪庭) is a 380-unit development along Dunearn Road in the Swiss Club subzone of District 11, one of the most low-density, prestigious residential enclaves in Singapore. It sits in the Core Central Region (CCR), where new launches have historically carried freehold premiums and seven-figure price tags.

What makes this project unusual is the developer trio behind it: Frasers Property (23,000+ homes built in Singapore), CSC Land (subsidiary of one of the world's largest construction groups, China State Construction), and Sekisui House (Japan's #1 homebuilder with 2.7 million homes built globally, including 90,000+ net-zero energy houses since 2013). The construction quality, landscaping, and smart home integration are well-backed.

Five blocks of varying heights (2 blocks at 19-storey, 3 at 10-storey) occupy a site of about 145,000 sqft, with a 50m lap pool, a Waterfall Club on the first level, and a Dunearn Club on the second.

Land Cost

Between September 2023 and April 2025, the average land cost across GLS sites was about $1,157 psf per plot ratio. Between June 2025 and June 2026, that average jumped to approximately $1,480 psf ppr. That's a 28% increase in just one year. And the recent benchmarks only go higher: Peek Road (next to Newton Food Centre) at $1,865 psf ppr, River Valley Green at $1,730 psf ppr, Dover Drive at $1,556 psf ppr.

Dunearn House sits at $1,410 psf ppr. The plot right next door was awarded in April 2026 at $1,625 psf ppr, $215 higher, within one year. If developers are paying tomorrow's prices for land today, can we realistically expect future launches to be cheaper? If anything, Dunearn House is one of the last projects still priced off an older, more favourable land cost.

Location, The Swiss Club Address

Dunearn House is the first non-landed private residential development in the Swiss Club estate in over three decades. That sentence alone tells you something about the scarcity of what's being offered here.

The Dunearn Road corridor is tree-lined, quiet, and well-established. You're not looking at a site carved out of a forgotten industrial fringe, you're in a neighbourhood where residents have historically been expatriates, professionals, and old Singapore money.

In terms of getting around, the options are solid for a CCR location:

• Sixth Avenue MRT (DTL), about a 6-minute walk
• Botanic Gardens MRT (CCL + DTL), ~10 minutes walk
• Holland Village MRT (CCL), ~12 minutes walk
• Orchard Road / CBD, about 10 minutes by car
• Turf City MRT (Cross Island Line), opening 2032, ~10-min walk

The property also sits in one of Singapore's most prestigious education belts:

• Nanyang Girls' High School, 0.33km away
• National Junior College, 0.52km
• Hwa Chong Institution, 0.66km
• Raffles Girls' Primary School, 0.78km
• Methodist Girls' School (Primary & Secondary), in the area

The Turf City Transformation

Dunearn House is the first residential project in the Turf City transformation precinct. The old racecourse at Turf City is being redeveloped into a green, mixed-use housing estate under the URA masterplan, think retail at the grandstands, F&B clusters, neighbourhood parks, sports facilities, schools, a bus interchange, and a new MRT station on the Cross Island Line.

Milestones scheduled:

• Road widening (Eng Neo Ave, Dunearn Road, Bukit Timah Road), already underway
• Cross Island Line Turf City station, confirmed, opening 2032
• First Turf City housing parcels, releasing progressively
• New HDB precinct, schools, health and community facilities, phased in

Here's the key point: Dunearn House's land was acquired at $1,410 psf per plot ratio. As more Turf City parcels are released, they will be benchmarked against Dunearn House's successful launch, and land costs will only go up from here. Future buyers in this precinct will be paying more for the same address. Dunearn House buyers are locking in first-mover pricing.

Floor Plan Highlights

I've gone through the floor plans carefully, and there are three I'd highlight as the ones to look at first:

Comparison

Royal Green, the nearest freehold neighbour, has seen average profits of around $114K per unit. Fourth Avenue Residences averaged about $213K, with the best outcomes going to 3-bedroom buyers who got in early in 2019. Even Sixth Avenue Residences, which people often cite as a success story, needed an 18-year holding period to generate average profits of ~$967K.

Why the muted performance? Two root causes. First, livability issues, many units in older projects face Bukit Timah Road directly (road noise, limited natural light). Second, and more importantly, those projects had skewed unit distributions where 60–70% were 1 and 2-bedroom units. Low family-sized supply means low natural demand from upgraders, and that caps price sustainability.

Dunearn House is different on both counts. GFA harmonisation means every unit gets usable, livable space with no wasted bay windows or oversized AC ledges. And critically, more than 50% of Dunearn House's 380 units are 3 and 4-bedroom, the exact unit types this neighbourhood has always been starved of. That's a fundamentally different demand profile.

The Honest Cons, What You Need to Know

Any honest review has to cover these three points:

1. No primary school within 1km right now. The nearby schools, Nanyang Girls' High, NJC, Hwa Chong, are all secondary and tertiary. The nearest primary school (Raffles Girls' Primary) sits at 1.44km. The 1km zone update only happens in June 2027, so this is an unconfirmed upside, not a guaranteed one. If you're buying purely for primary school proximity, be clear-eyed about this.

2. The Grandstand has closed. The old Turf City grandstand, which used to house supermarkets, tuition centres, restaurants, has shut down to make way for the Turf City redevelopment. Right now, the nearest groceries require a short drive. There's no hawker centre within 2km; the nearest is Adam Road Food Centre. This is a real inconvenience for the first few years, and it's entirely dependent on how quickly the government builds out the township amenities.

3. Patience is required. This is not a 3-year flip. The HDB BTO exercise for Turf City is expected to start around 2030, and with a 10-year MOP for prime/plus classification, the full upgrader ecosystem takes 15+ years to fully form. The investors who will benefit most are those with a 7–10 year horizon minimum.

Who Will Buy from Me When I Want to Exit?

This is the question every serious buyer should ask before committing. And I think the answer here is stronger than most people expect.

The Turf City masterplan calls for 15,000 to 20,000 public and private residential homes in the precinct. As those HDB flats are built and their owners complete their MOP, a natural pool of upgraders forms, people already living in the Bukit Timah belt who want to stay in the neighbourhood and move into private property. That's the first buyer pool.

The second pool: Bukit Timah landed homeowners looking to rightsize or buy for their adult children nearby. The third: million-dollar HDB flat owners from Queenstown, Clementi, Redhill, Ghim Moh, many of whom aspire to enter the Bukit Timah belt and will be watching Dunearn House closely.

Let me put some numbers to this. A 5-room flat in Clementi recently sold for $1.58m. Newly MOP 5-room flats there average about $1.46m today. Assume a buyer sells their flat in 2030 at $1.46m, after CPF repayment and loan principal, they walk away with roughly $1.15m in usable funds. If a 1,001 sqft 3BR in Dunearn House entered at $3,200 psf and exited at $3,700 psf in 2030, the buyer needs about $1.09m for the 25% down payment. At $1.15m available, that Clementi HDB upgrader can afford the unit. The maths works.

My Take, Own Stay or Investment?

My take: Own Stay. Both cases have merit, but they work for different reasons, and I think the unit type matters more here than the purpose.

3BR and 4BR: strong case for both own stay and investment. There is a genuine supply void for larger units in this corridor. Resale comps at the same quantum are 20–30 year old developments with inferior layouts and ageing leases. Demand from Bukit Timah families who want to stay in the area, for schools, for lifestyle, for the neighbourhood, is real and sticky. These units I expect to move fast at launch.

2BR: more selective. The quantum has to make sense against surrounding resale options. Evaluate carefully against your alternatives.

If capital appreciation through rental yield is your primary goal, this may not be the first project on your shortlist, the story here is about long-term transformation, not immediate yield optimisation.

For investment, the time horizon matters most. This is not a 3-year play. The Turf City story unfolds over 7–15 years. If you go in understanding that, the multiple catalysts, land prices rising, school zone update in 2027, Turf City MRT in 2032, HDB upgraders eventually entering the market, stack up into a compelling long-hold thesis. You don't need every catalyst to fire. Two or three is enough.

Final Thoughts

Dunearn House will earn. I'm confident of that. But it rewards the patient buyer, not the one looking for a quick exit.

What makes this launch genuinely interesting is the combination of things that rarely align: a CCR address at land cost that's lower than neighbouring plots already being transacted, a developer trio with serious track records, GFA-harmonised layouts that finally make Bukit Timah livable for modern families, and a transformation precinct with clear government commitment behind it.

The honest trade-offs are real too, no primary school within 1km right now, no nearby hawker centre while the Grandstand is being redeveloped, and a 99-year tenure in a historically freehold enclave. None of these are dealbreakers, but they are things to factor into your decision with eyes open.

If you want to go through the numbers for your specific situation, which unit type makes sense, how it fits your budget and timeline, what else is available at this quantum, I'm happy to have that conversation. No pitch, just an honest walkthrough.