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About Kooky and Shaka →City Developments Ltd (CDL) sold 350 of the 570 units at Lucerne Grand, its new project beside Lakeside MRT station, by 6pm on Sunday 4 October 2026, EdgeProp Singapore reported the same day. That is 61.4% of the project in two days of sales bookings, at an average price of S$2,480 per square foot (psf).
Two days earlier, on Friday 2 October, Far East Organization opened the preview of The Serra Residences, a 133-unit freehold tower in Novena with prices starting from S$3,120 psf, according to a separate EdgeProp report. The developer bought the site in 2010. Its official launch is scheduled for 16 October.
The two projects have little in common beyond the calendar. One is a large 99-year leasehold development in the west, on state land bought last year. The other is a small freehold tower in District 11, on land held for 16 years. Read together, the two EdgeProp reports show how differently two private launches of early October are built and priced.
Source: EdgeProp Singapore, reports of 4 October 2026 (Lucerne Grand) and 2 October 2026 (The Serra Residences).
What sold at Lucerne Grand
Sales bookings at Lucerne Grand began on Saturday 3 October, and the 350 units counted by EdgeProp are the position as of 6pm the next day. CDL published a news release on its investor site on 4 October under a headline giving the same number, 350 units sold on the launch weekend.
The project is a 99-year leasehold development of five 17-storey blocks on Lakeside Drive, with a retail podium on the first storey called Lucerne Galleria and a direct link to Lakeside station on the East-West Line. EdgeProp describes it as the first new private launch in the Lakeside precinct since Lake Grande in 2016.
Related readWestern Australia opens its A$250 million pre-sale guaranteeEvery unit type found buyers, though not at the same pace. The two sub-types that sold fastest sit at opposite ends of the size range: the standard two-bedroom units and the premium four-bedroom units.
Source: EdgeProp Singapore, 4 October 2026. The last two rows are sub-types already counted in the two-bedroom and four-bedroom rows.
The three main types add up to the project: 222 two-bedroom, 253 three-bedroom and 95 four-bedroom units make 570, and the units sold in each make 350. That leaves 220 units unsold after the weekend. Taking the two fast-selling sub-types out of their groups shows how the rest of each group fared. Among the other two-bedroom units, 61 of 126 were sold; among the other four-bedroom units, 7 of 48.
The weekend followed a preview on 19 and 20 September that drew about 4,000 visitors, EdgeProp reported on 21 September. The indicative prices published then started at S$1.498 million for a two-bedroom unit of 624 sq ft (S$2,401 psf), S$1.988 million for a three-bedroom unit from 883 sq ft (S$2,251 psf) and S$2.788 million for a premium four-bedroom unit from 1,152 sq ft (S$2,420 psf).
The land price behind S$2,480 psf
EdgeProp ties the pricing to what CDL paid for the land. The 145,314 sq ft plot is a Government Land Sales site, which CDL won in June 2025 for S$608 million. That works out at S$1,132 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), the measure developers use for land cost per square foot of buildable floor area.
Later tenders have cost more. EdgeProp sets the Lakeside figure against the S$1,537 psf ppr paid for a site at New Upper Changi Road awarded in September 2026, a difference of S$405 psf ppr. It adds that recent sites in the Outside Central Region (OCR), the suburban ring, have gone for more than S$1,500 psf ppr, and those in the Rest of Central Region (RCR) for more than S$1,600.
Related readAustralia's home starts rise 7.0% in the June quarter, ABS data showsThe wider market was not an easy backdrop. The Urban Redevelopment Authority's flash estimate of 1 October showed prices of non-landed homes in the OCR rising 2.2% in the third quarter of 2026. Huttons, an agency, described developer sales in the same quarter as the weakest for a third quarter since 1998. Marcus Chu, chief executive of ERA Singapore, commented on the Lakeside result in EdgeProp's report.
"As projects return to the market, buyer activity is becoming a more accurate reflection of underlying demand," Chu told EdgeProp.
Who was buying in Lakeside
About 93% of the buyers were Singaporeans and the rest were permanent residents, according to EdgeProp's report of the launch weekend.
The same report looks at the households most likely to move up from public housing nearby. Median resale prices of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats in the surrounding towns over the first nine months of 2026 ranged from S$620,000 in Jurong East to S$680,000 in Bukit Batok for a four-room flat, and from S$720,000 to S$828,000 for a five-room flat. A two-bedroom unit of 624 sq ft at Lucerne Grand was priced from S$1.498 million at the preview.
Employment is the other part of the developer's case. EdgeProp cites the Jurong Innovation District, which is expected to create about 100,000 jobs. Sherman Kwek, CDL's group chief executive, said in the same report that the project stands to benefit from the continuing transformation of the western region.
In an interview EdgeProp published on 2 October, Kwek put CDL's launch pipeline at 2,200 units, among them sites at Tanjong Rhu Road (about 515 units), Peck Hay Road (about 380), Solano Grand (about 300) and Wynwood Grand (about 430).
Related readAustralia's Housing Accord at two years: 124,000 homes behind pace"If that substantially depletes our launch pipeline, then it's time for us to replenish it," he told EdgeProp.
A Novena site held since 2010
The Serra Residences comes from a different kind of land bank. Far East Organization and Far East Orchard bought Pastoral View, a block of 50 apartments built in 1986, and an adjacent plot on Bassein Road in a collective sale in 2010 for a combined S$122 million, EdgeProp reports. The 51,396 sq ft site has a plot ratio of 2.8, and the land cost comes to about S$848 psf ppr including development charges. Far East Orchard sold its stake to Far East Organization in 2015.
The timing matters. EdgeProp notes that the purchase came before the additional buyer's stamp duty (ABSD) was extended to developers in December 2011. Shaw Lay See, Far East Organization's chief operating officer, told EdgeProp that the company is under no deadline to sell The Serra Residences and can therefore take a measured approach to pricing.
She also spoke about where the value of such a property lies. "That's because the value of the property is the land, and not the building," Shaw said.
The tower rises 28 storeys and is designed by P&T Consultants. It is sold as two collections. Levels 4 to 16 hold 91 units of 710 to 958 sq ft, from two-bedroom-plus-study to four-bedroom layouts. Levels 18 to 28, named The Summit, hold 42 larger homes: 20 four-bedroom units of 1,216 to 1,335 sq ft, 20 premium four- and five-bedroom units of 1,528 to 1,755 sq ft, and two penthouses of 2,648 and 2,669 sq ft. There are 113 car park lots and five lots for electric vehicles. A 710 sq ft two-bedroom-plus-study starts from about S$2.22 million.
Related readAustralia: KPMG says new-build spending up 20%, rebuilds down 32%| Item | Lucerne Grand | The Serra Residences |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | City Developments Ltd | Far East Organization |
| Location | Lakeside, at the MRT station | Novena, District 11 |
| Tenure | 99-year leasehold | Freehold |
| Size | 570 units, five 17-storey blocks | 133 units, one 28-storey tower |
| Land | State tender, June 2025, S$1,132 psf ppr | Collective sale, 2010, about S$848 psf ppr |
| Stage on 9 October | Launched 3 October | Preview since 2 October; launch 16 October |
Source: EdgeProp Singapore, 2 and 4 October 2026. The Serra Residences land cost includes development charges.
How freehold is priced against leasehold
A starting price of S$3,120 psf sits close to the going rate for new homes in the Core Central Region (CCR), whatever their tenure. Market data cited by EdgeProp put the median price of new freehold launches in the CCR at about S$3,160 psf in the third quarter of 2026, against about S$3,110 psf for 99-year leasehold projects. The gap is about 1.6%. In 2018 it was more than 37%.
Freehold is also scarce among new prime homes. Huttons counts about 4,000 new non-landed homes launched in the CCR between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026, of which 287, or 7%, were freehold. On the resale market, the agency's figures show freehold non-landed homes in the CCR appreciating 36% since 2015, compared with 25% for 99-year leasehold homes. Mark Yip, chief executive of Huttons Asia, told EdgeProp that buyers see a freehold home in the CCR as a way to preserve wealth and plan a legacy.
Land costs point the same way. PropNex cites recent state tenders in the CCR awarded at S$1,865 psf ppr at Peck Hay Road and S$1,820 psf ppr at Bukit Timah Road, and the agency expects that future CCR projects could cross S$3,500 psf. That is the agency's view, not a recorded price.
"The market has demonstrated that buyers are willing to transact at these levels for well-located prime projects," Kelvin Fong, chief executive of PropNex, told EdgeProp.
A freehold tower on land bought in 2010 and a leasehold project on land bought in 2025 reached the market in the same week.
Prime launches and Novena rents in 2026
EdgeProp's report gives the take-up recorded at this year's CCR launches, and it has been uneven: 57% at Newport Residences in January, 90% at River Modern in March and 56% at Dunearn House in July. Far East Organization's Amber House, a 105-unit project launched in June 2025, was 83% sold at an average of S$3,055 psf, based on caveats lodged up to 29 September.
For a nearby price reference, the report points to Neu at Novena, where a three-bedroom dual-key unit of 818 sq ft changed hands for S$2.39 million, or S$2,922 psf, according to a caveat lodged in August 2026.
Rental figures from SRI, another agency, show 1,262 private rental contracts signed in the Novena planning area in the second quarter of 2026, up 13.5% on the previous quarter. Two-bedroom units there averaged S$4,506 a month in that quarter, the highest level since the first quarter of 2025.
The neighbourhood itself is changing. HealthCity Novena covers 17 hectares, and its second phase, launched in September 2025, includes the TTSH Medical Tower with about 600 acute beds. The North-South Corridor is due to open its viaducts from 2029 and its tunnels from 2031, according to the same report.
What comes next
The Serra Residences launches officially on Friday 16 October, two weeks after its preview opened. Its temporary occupation permit, the stage at which owners can move in, is expected in the fourth quarter of 2030.
EdgeProp's launch-weekend report names two projects as next in line: The Serra Residences in the CCR and Thomson Reserve, a 1,268-unit development in the RCR.
At Lucerne Grand, the 220 units still available are 77 two-bedroom, 96 three-bedroom and 47 four-bedroom homes. The figure of 350 is a count taken at 6pm on 4 October, and no later tally had been published in the reports reviewed up to 9 October.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
