BTO Guide for Woodlands May'21

Ya boi is back, and if I'm back, it can only mean 1 thing.

BTO season is back.

Prepare your Singpass-es, whip out your $10 and put on your reading glasses for some intensive reading, cause it’s BTO time again baby.

If you wanna read up on the guides for the other sites in this launch,

Bukit Merah
Geylang
Tengah

As usual, if you need a reference for the Woodlands site map, I got you.

Undecided if the Woodlands BTO is for you? 🔽

Content Page

Woodlands May’21
Units Available
Prices
Street
Transport
Amenities
Places of Worship
Education
Investment

Woodlands May’21

Woodlands will always have a special place in my heart.

I spent many a day staying back playing frisbee and hanging out with friends, and many a night exploring the area for dinner options, all at the expense of my A-levels (sorry teachers and mom/dad!)

Woodlands gets a lot of flak for being ulu, unsafe and that place to Malaysia, but you can be assured that you’re out of the woods (in both senses). This town has quite rapidly developed and quite literally, metamorphosed into an entire new town.

There's even evidence to back this up, given that Woodlands is the 3rd most populated town in Singapore with 70000+ residents in 2015.

So, even though it's still considered a non-mature estate, you, like many other people, can comfortably call this place Home.

I’m also doing this new thing where I try to predict what this BTO will be called, and we’ll see if I’m anywhere remotely close
(waiting for HDB’s reply on royalty fees if I’m right).

What I think it’ll be called: Park Grove @ Woodlands / Woodlands Court
What I want it to be called: Da Hood in the Woods
What it’s actually called: Woodgrove Ascent

That being said, let’s get into the nitty gritty


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Units Available

There are 1540 units available for this sale, the most of any in this launch.

The types of units up for this sale are 3-room, 4-room and 5-room.

As of this moment, we don't know how these 1540 units are allocated (we'll update it here when HDB releases the info)

Update: The total units up for sale is confirmed to be 1540
There are 146 2-rm Type I units, 540 2-rm Type II units, 84 3-rm units, 411 4-rm units and 359 5-rm units.

_{*Psstt .. don't know what's the difference between the Type I and Type II 2-rm units? I explain it here}

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Prices

Simply put, the Woodlands Aug’20 sale had both units being right beside an MRT Station, and this one is not.

It’s hard to accurately predict the price, but I’m taking the route of this sale costing slightly lower, making it cheaper for you, for the trade-off of the MRT convenience.


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Street

This block of units is situated to be along Woodlands Avenue 1.

Whether or not they’ll construct a new road from the middle of all the blocks that connects to Woodlands Avenue 3 remains to be seen.

Traffic doesn’t seem to be too bad during peak hours, but just take note of possible jams along Woodlands Avenue 2 when turning towards Causeway Point, probably because of traffic coming from SLE.

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Transport

The train situation is pretty decent. You’ll be about a 10 mins walk away from Woodlands MRT Station.

I think the real potential behind this will be the Thompson-EC line, which will provide easier accessibility to the Circle line, Downtown line and Cross-Island line.

Bus wise, it’s just meh. You have a bus stop that stops right outside your block, but it only serves 3 buses - bus 912, its brother, 912B and its mother, 912M.

However, I do expect more bus services to serve that area when residents can move in, if not confirm damn crowded sia. I mean, bus 912M is already for the peak hour crowds now, imagine when 3000+ more people move into the area.

The good thing is that you’ll have a bus interchange nearby, and Woodlands bus interchange is one of those that have services that can really bring you all over Singapore (161 for North East, 858 for East, 178/187 for West and 963 for South) and outside Singapore (950 for JB)

For those with vehicles, the biggest draw would be the direct road to SLE, making it convenient to access the CTE/TPE/BKE.

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Amenities

The most obvious amenity around you would be The Causeway Point.

Well, depending on which one you want to look at.

If you’re the type that loves travelling to Malaysia, then The Causeway is probably your biggest resource.

Just a 15 min bus ride that you can board from right across your house, it almost feels like you’re just travelling to another part of Singapore, and not feel the ‘hassle’ that you’re going abroad. Then again, being able to reach Malaysia in 30 mins from your home should definitely help with making it not feel like a hassle.

If you’re more of a family-drive-up-tgt-for-8-hours kind, the checkpoint is just a straight road from your house that shouldn’t take more than 10 mins (don’t quote me on this if you’re going up on peak days)

Needless to say, do try to read this while considering that you’ll only be moving in in 4-5 years when COVID is gone (famous last words).

If you lack the time or you’re not a fan of Malaysia, then Causeway Point (CWP) will probably be your most used amenity.

For the uninitiated, CWP is a 8-storey mall that has over 200 stores, a cinema, 1 out of the 2 remaining Metros in Singapore, and was where JC Kyler spent a lot of his studying time ... not studying.

Furthermore, there’s also Woodlands Civic Centre, Marsiling Mall and the up-and-coming Woods Square (although it’s mostly just food there).

If you somehow still want more, you’ll be glad to hear that the URA has plans to build 2 new malls.

There are no concrete details on when these malls will be done, but it looks to be pretty huge complexes.

(I mean, just look at the chungus that is the size of this plot.)

Other miscellaneous amenities include Woodlands stadium/swimming pool, Fuchun Community Club and Woodlands Polyclinic.

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Places of Worship

If you’re one to pray really hard that you’re not one of the 25% that has to return to working in the office, you’ll be glad to know that this BTO has a few places of worship in its vicinity.

The closest one will be St. Anthony’s Church, which is just slightly further up Woodlands Ave. 1. There are also 2 Buddhist temples, a Hindu temple and a mosque in the Woodlands area, but it’s honestly quite a distance away.

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Education

There are already tons of schools in Woodlands itself, unlike other BTO sales where you’ll have to travel out.

But I mean, ok la, you have like 6 different options at your fingertips that’s probably just a bus ride away, should be good enough right?

There are 2 things that you should take note of though.

Firstly, Innova-Yishun JC is going to return to the Woodlands compound once it’s done renovating, and will be the permanent site. For now, it’s scheduled to begin operations at the Woodlands compound in January 2026.

The main takeaway here is that my alma mater isn’t dead :’)) (Innova perspire, iykyk)

Secondly, it’s been recently reported that due to declining birth rates, MOE has decided to merge some schools, and there’s one in this area that’s affected.

Fuchun Secondary (quite near this BTO) is set to merge and move to Woodlands Ring Sec, which is closer to Admiralty.

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Investment

Firstly, I know there are some people who just scrolled down to this portion so, Hey! Welcome.

Secondly, obligatory disclaimer, everything written below is completely my own opinion. I have no real estate/investment qualifications, but I’ll be using the most big brain tool of all - Logic.

Again, I'm not telling you to sell your house.

I'm just sharing some info with you because I think it's your right to know about this before really bidding for a location
(just in case a Karen wants to find me in 5 years time.)

The core concept at play here is the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP).

Simply put, when you buy and move into a house, you need to stay for at least 5 years before you can sell it. This one Gahmen say one, not me.

For Woodlands, it’s a bit hard to express in words how I really feel, but I found the gif that pretty much summed it up.

Here’s what I think the general price lifespan will look like for this BTO.

Frankly speaking, if you’re looking to bid on Woodland in hopes to get a huge payday in 5 years time … I wouldn’t bank on it.

Having said that, let’s understand this graph.

#1: The first rise is pretty simple. All HDB units will naturally appreciate in value because it starts below market prices. What’s different for every BTO though, is how high they will appreciate.

For this BTO, I personally don’t think it’ll go too high.

Here’s why.

Firstly, the position of this BTO is in a land-locked location, with the closest amenity being a 10 min walk away.

While it will raise the price because you’ll still be in the vicinity of these amenities, it won’t raise as much as let’s say .. UrbanVille, which’ll be right across CWP with a direct sheltered walkway.

Secondly, there are no scheduled plans to introduce/upgrade anything that’s directly close to you. For example, there’s no new shopping mall right beside your estate, or a new MRT station in front of your house.

This not only means that when you move in, you’ll need to get used to the view and the environment because it looks like there won’t be any changes (for now at least), but no new changes = no value raise.

#2: Now, to be clear, there ARE plans to upgrade Woodlands that are not directly close to you, which is why this is the area that you should really look out for, particularly in the next 15 years.

The Woodlands Regional Centre is set up to be the “largest economic hub in Singapore’s North region”, being part of the Northern Agri Tech and Food Corridor.

What it basically is going to be is a new neighbourhood at Woodlands North, with a new business park, a new industrial area and a potential shopping mall.

How is this going to affect you, investment wise?

Well, depends on how successful the business park will take off.

Assuming it’s going to have businesses with agriculture and food solutions, I foresee a lot of sustainable, green, lab-grown food businesses venturing into this business park.

We all know that this initiative has taken off recently, with Impossible meat and aerial farming techniques. Whether or not this initiative will not just survive, but thrive, in Singapore, will determine how this area blossoms, and in turn, affect your property value.

Tl;dr. Dude/Dudettes, if you’re the kind that has plans to upgrade your housing situation solely through the valuation of your property, I wouldn’t recommend going for this one. This BTO is nice for settling down and starting a family, having anything and everything you’ll need in your area. There may be a small chance of values rising, but that’ll be in 15 years time, minimum.

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