A 1,055 sq ft, two-bedroom-plus-study unit at Alexis has been listed for sale at $1.23 million ($1,166 psf) on TheEdgeProperty.com. The unit is currently tenanted at a monthly rent of $3,200 with the lease expiring next July, says Kim Shoo of ERA Realty who is marketing the property. At the asking price, the gross rental yield translates into 3.1%.
Completed in 2012, Alexis is a freehold mixed-use development on Alexandra Road with 293 condominium units taking up six floors and 21 shop units on the first level. The majority of the 293 units are one- and two-bedroom units. When the project was launched in February 2009, all the units were snapped up in less than a fortnight. Prices of the units sold then ranged from $850 to $1,100 psf. In subsales, prices hit a high of $2,084 psf in August 2013 when a 398 sq ft unit fetched $830,000 during the last peak.
Alexis was jointly developed by Fission Group and Yi Kai Group. Its residential component consists almost entirely of “shoebox apartments” — one bedroom units of below 500 sq ft — and it was considered the first significant launch of such a development. One-bedroom units range from 366 to 527 sq ft and one-bedroom-plus- study units from 474 to 764 sq ft. Two-bedroom units and two-bedroom- plus-study units are between 527 and 1,055 sq ft. The units were popular with buyers, many of whom were investors, as the one-bedroom units and even some of the smaller two-bedroom ones were priced below $600,000.
Alexis is a freehold mixed-use development on Alexandra Road with 293 condominium units taking up six floors and 21 shop units on the first level
Over the past six months, a handful of large two-bedroom and two-bedroom-plus-study units, including one-bedroom-plus-study penthouses with roof terraces in the 1,000-to-1,100 sq ft range have been leased at an average of $3,820 a month, according to URA data.
Meanwhile, one-bedroom units of 300 to 500 sq ft have been leased at monthly rents of $2,000 to $3,100, or an average of $2,438, according to rental transactions in the months of June to August. For units in the 500-to-700 sq ft range, transacted rents averaged $2,800 a month over the same period, based on URA data.
At Alexis, one-bedroom units have been sold at prices ranging from $1,667 to $1,781 psf from June to September, according to URA Realis. In terms of absolute prices, units sold ranged from a 398 sq ft, one-bedder on the third level that fetched $675,000 ($1,695 psf) to a 388 sq ft, one-bedroom unit on the fifth level that went for $690,000 ($1,781 psf).
Prices of the one-bedroom-plus-study penthouses (including roof terrace) and two-bedroom units above 1,000 sq ft have been holding steady at above $1,200 psf. The most recent transaction was for a 1,076 sq ft, onebedroom-plus-study penthouse with roof terrace that changed hands for $1.35 million ($1,254 psf), according to a caveat lodged in January 2016.
Therefore, a two-bedroom unit above 1,000 sq ft priced below $1,200 psf is an attractive buy, according to Kim Shoo.
For more information, call ERA marketing agent Kim Shoo at 8268 2292.
This article appeared in The Edge Property Pullout, Issue 749 (Oct 10, 2016) of The Edge Singapore.