The Scala Condo Review – latest 2023 review for resale buyer

Who is this article meant for ?

Most condo reviews articles are created during the new launch phase of a condo. That is when incentive to produce content is at its greatest, with buyers interest at its peak and property agents addressing it with abundance of reviews and “official” developer microsites.

This article was created with the resale buyer in mind, providing an updated review of The Scala condo development several years after its launch.

While there are many articles out there that talk about amenities and facilities, this article focuses on the money making aspect of the property.

We will tackle the million dollar question every savvy resale condo buyer has in mind. “Will I make money if I purchase this property now”

Property in focus

In our previous article we reviewed Forest Woods, a condo development that was identified as a top performer amongst new launches that have recently achieved its TOP status. The Scala, situated one MRT stop away from Forest Woods came up as a close comparable.

And upon further review, we realise that The Scala holds its own weight as the youngest condo in the Lorong Chuan area. Its unparalleled proximity to MRT puts it in the spotlight of many resale property buyers.

We thought it would be interesting to dive into the numbers to see if The Scala lived up to its hype.

Did existing owners of The Scala make money ? – Historical Performance

Pretext. As this article is meant to review the performance of The Scala as a resale property.

We intentionally removed all transactions that involved owners that purchase the property directly from the developer during the new launch phase. We isolated all transactions that involved a buyer that purchased the property as a resale property and sold it to another buyer down the road.

As an overview, the number of profitable vs non-profitable transactions did not review any abnormalities. It showed that 96% of the buyers actually made money selling their unit in The Scala.

Edit Table

What caught our attention is that, on average, resale property owners of The Scala only made $65,195 selling their unit at The Scala after holding for an average holding period of 5.6 years.

Edit Table

Diving deeper, breaking down performance by bedroom type, it revealed the 1 bedder units contributed to the sub optimal performance, while the 2 bedder and 3 bedders performance remains lacklustre.

Edit Table

We will make more sense out of this as we compare The Scala performance with its peers in the section that follows.

How did The Scala fare when compared to its peers ?

Now, let’s map The Scala’s performance against its peers, let’s see if the neighbouring developments performed the same as The Scala.

Springbloom and Amaranda Gardens are two prominent developments that are located at close proximity to The Scala.

They are both older developments that TOP in the 2000s, to ensure we make a fair comparison, we only include transaction data from 2013 onwards. In the early 2000s, due to less stringent cooling measures, profit quantum were much larger and may result in an unfair comparison with The Scala.

Owners of neighbouring developments made more money than owners of The Scala

Interestingly, the owners of both Springbloom and Amaranda Gardens made significantly more profit than the owners of The Scala.

On average if a resale property buyer were to hold their unit for 6 years, they would have gotten away with an average $300,000 gain, with an average price appreciation of 20%, over a 5 year period.

Edit Table

Similar trend when comparing The Scala performance with developments in Bishan and Serangoon

We investigated further by comparing The Scala performance with other developments one MRT stop away in Bishan and Serangoon.

It is noted that the pattern remains consistent, The Scala performance was not on par with other developments in Bishan and Serangoon.

Resale property owners purchasing a unit in Sky Vue, Thomson Three or even the much older Sunglade in Serangoon would have netted an average profit of between $111,344 and $176,140. The Scala’s $65,195 average profits remain suboptimal in comparison.

Edit Table

If you bought into The Scala Condo today, would you have a chance to make money ?

Now let’s take our analysis of The Scala further. Let’s look ahead and consider if you would make money if you were to purchase a unit in The Scala today.

To do this, we will utilise the following set of evaluation criterias to review The Scala. Quick note. As we consider all the criterias, we will only mention noteworthy ones to keep the write-up concise.

Evaluation Criterias

• Development’s age – considering the risk of price plateauing due to lease decay
• Size of development – directly impacting transaction volume
• Pricing – price competitiveness of development vs comparable properties
• Quantum – the overall price to be paid for a specific unit, affecting affordability
• Supply – the no of comparable competing properties in the vicinity
• Exit audience – the size prospective exit buyers
• URA Master Plan – future plan or competing properties for the area
• Proximity to MRT – affects rentability and buyer’s demand
• Proximity to Reputable School – major factor valued by families
• Proximity to amenities
• Rental demand
• Density of development – consider no. of units sharing common space and facilities
• Quality of facilities
• Unit Layout – reviewing for efficiency in layout

Summary – SWOT Analysis, The Scala Condo

Prior to elaborating on the noteworthy factors to consider for The Scala. We shall provide you with the TLDR, summarising the key pointers from a perspective of strength, weakness, opportunity and threat for the development.

Strength

• Age – Newest development with greatest proximity to Lorong Chuan MRT.
• Layout – Efficient layout with sizeable, regular shaped living room.
• Rental – Strong rental demand due to proximity to Australian International School.
• Proximity to MRT – located next to Lorong Chuan MRT

Weakness

• Current Supply – abundance of older competing developments with comparable strengths. With several competing developments with freehold tenure.
• Future Supply – upcoming development of a new launch on a neighbouring plot of land that just got enbloc.
• Pricing – expensive, The Scala is priced at a premium.

Opportunity

• New launch pushing up price for The Scala – if upcoming new launch is priced much higher than The Scala, there may be opportunity for price appreciation

Threat

• Ample competitive alternatives – Given The Scala’s premium pricing, buyers could consider alternative developments in Bishan, Serangoon and Kovan.

General information about The Scala

Before moving on to elaborate on noteworthy evaluation criterias for the development, let’s lay out the general information for The Scala.

Edit Table

Elaboration on specific factors that contributes to the SWOT of The Scala

In the sections that follow, we will expand on the factors that had an impact on the future price appreciation of the development.

Age of development

One of the key strengths of The Scala is that it is the youngest development in the Lorong Chuan area. Aside from Cardiff Residence which is a boutique development, the average age of competing developments in the Lorong Chuan areas are between 19 to 39 years old.

As a development that just hit its 10 year mark, potential buyers of The Scala do not need to be worried about price plateauing due to lease decay.

Sidenote, property prices show a tendency to plateau or decline after its passes its 25 year mark.

List of Comparable Developments in the Lorong Chuan Area

Edit Table

Supply – Current

As will all assets, scarcity coupled with demand drives price appreciation. Unfortunately, supply is not in The Scala’s favour.

In the Lorong Chuan area, with an acceptable walking distance from Lorong Chuan MRT, buyers are spoilt for choice. Referring back to the table in the section above, Freehold development Amaranda Gardens and older leasehold Springbloom had proven to be better performers than The Scala.

Supply – Future

Looking into the future. The Scala key proposition as the youngest development in the Lorong Chuan area is threatened by the launch of a new development.

Chuan Park, a 39 year old development, situated 106m away from MRT, just got enbloc. In place of the current Chuan Park, a new condo development will be developed by developers Kingsford and MCC.

Pricing

From a pricing standpoint, we will first compare The Scala with its peer in the Lorong Chuan area.

Comparing The Scala against its older 99 year leasehold counterparts, reveal a price gap of between $239 to $459 psf. Meaning it cost around $400 psf more to purchase The Scala versus its older counterparts like Chitern Park, Springbloom and The SunnyDale.

Price Comparison – Leasehold Developments in Lorong Chuan Area

Edit Table

This price gap remains reasonable, using another younger development Forest Woods price comparison with its older peers in the Serangoon area. You would observe a smaller price gap of around $400 psf

Price Comparison – Forest Woods and other developments in Serangoon Area

Edit Table

Sub-optimal price gap between The Scala and comparable Freehold Developments

The challenge for Scala pricing comes when you compare its pricing with other Freehold developments in the area.

Referencing the table below, you see a very narrow price gap, paying between $2 psf more could land you a Freehold property in Amaranda Gardens.

Price Comparison – Freehold development in Lorong Chuan

Edit Table

To some extent, this explains the heightened price appreciation experience by Amaranda Gardens. The launch of premium priced Scala, pushed up prices of the freehold and older leasehold developments in the area.

Narrow price gap between The Scala and other developments in Bishan and Serangoon

Another downside to The Scala pricing is that, when compared to other equally young or younger developments in the Bishan and Serangoon area. The Scala being situated further away from the centre is not significantly cheaper from a price per sqft perspective.

In fact, if buyers were willing to pay $142 psf more, they would be able to purchase a unit in Forest Woods which is 7 years younger than The Scala and is walking distance away from MRT interchange, Serangoon MRT.

Price Comparison – The Scala with developments in Bishan and Serangoon

Edit Table

Quantum

While price per sq ft, is an important factor of consideration. The overall price tag of purchasing a unit in the development is an important factor that impacts buyer’s affordability and indirectly impacts demand.

From a quantum perspective, The Scala has an advantage over comparable development in both Lorong Chuan and further out in areas like Bishan and Serangoon.

Coupled with its efficient layout, at current average psf pricing, buyers would be able to get their hands on a 3 bedder unit at The Scala within the $1.8 million price range.

We will elaborate further on The Scala’s layout in later sections.

Quantum Comparison – 3 Bedder

Edit Table

Quantum Comparison – 2 Bedder

Edit Table

Proximity to Reputable Schools

The Scala is within a 1km radius to St Gabriel Primary School, Yang Zheng Primary School and CHIJ Our Lady of Good Counsel.

This serves as a good selling point for home owners with young children, but as we compare comparables to properties in Bishan and Serangoon like Sky Vue, and Forest Woods, the selling point is somewhat diluted.
The comparison table charting the popularity of different schools in different area, explains the point.

The draw for parents to purchase The Scala due to its proximity to the three schools listed above may not be as strong as the draw to purchase Sky Vue for Catholic High Primary school and the draw to purchase Forest Woods for Maris Stella Primary School.

Comparison Popularity of Different Primary Schools

Edit Table

As a sidenote, we have written extensively about finding investment properties around reputable schools. Check out the following article to learn more

• Condo near rosyth primary
• Condo 1km from Nan Chiau primary school
• Condos within 1km of Catholic high
• Parc Esta Review – Is it worth buying as a resale property ?

Rental Demand

Rental demand is one of The Scala’s greatest strengths, being situated next to the Australian International School, sees great rental demand for units in The Scala.

From a rental yield perspective, The Scala also trumps comparable developments.

Rental Demand Comparison – Scala and other developments

Edit Table

Floor Plan

Analysis the floor plan of The Scala with older developments like SpringBloom and Amaranda Gardens.

The Scala shows great efficiency in its layout, the regular rectangular shaped living room, aligned with a single sizable balcony would be much sought after by homeowners.

Inline with older developments both Springbloom and Amaranda Gardens both consisted of planter boxes and bay windows that are deemed inefficient being incorporated into its layout.

Final Words

This concludes our review of The Scala. While the development performed poorly in several factors that have had an impact on price appreciation, it showed strength in factors that affect liveability and affordability.

If you are interested in purchasing a unit in The Scala, identifying a undervalue unit would be ideal to ensure opportunities in future capital appreciation.

More Reads Regarding Resale Condo Research

• Stirling Residences Review
• JadeScape Condo Review
• Clavon Condo Review
• Best Resale Condo Singapore