What happened on Chuan Park booking day
Chuan Park is a good case study on what can happen on a busy booking day. They have ~2,800 cheques collected for a project with 916 units – 3x oversubscription! The 2BR is especially heated, with 7.8x oversubscription.
Their indicative pricing has pushed the interest, as they claim to be launching as low as ~$2,200 PSF! This later turns out to be a gimmick.
Early Access
Usually early access happens 1 day before actual public booking day. This early access is for developer’s staff and also property agent to purchase first. It also includes ex-Chuan Park owners from the enbloc.
But Chuan Park held it in the morning as they were already bringing forward their booking day by a week. That was a good move to avoid clashing with EOK & Nova Grove on the same booking day.
So they squeezed what should be done in 2 days into 1, for a mega project. Wow.
The initial price list is shockingly high, because prices are above the indicative. Those “gimmicky units” are only the few ones with the released indicative prices.
- Only one 2BR with a $1.5xM, $2,2xx PSF – #02-09 which is $1,599,800 ($2,285 PSF)
- Only one 3BR with a $2.1xM which is $2,199,800 ($2,404 PSF)
They are good prices, albeit the only ones. One floor above the cheapest unit, #03-09 is $1,734,600 – a HUGE $135k increment!
So only a few buyer got to buy that lowest price, and they are the Kingsford staffs or property agents.
Public Access: Increase 1%
Public booking started at 11am, and hold and behold, the price increased by 1%! Why? That’s because sales is good and early access buyers already snatched many.
I have a buyer with a queue number that is in the ~2,000, so already not much hope of securing a desired unit.
But even if our queue is good, the price isn’t attractive to start with. The starting price is more like $2,500 PSF. That is only fair value, but not much of a discount.
5pm: Increase 1%
Sales moved slow in the afternoon, but surprisingly, the developer increased price by another 1%!
They hit the 50% mark, giving them the confidence to make more profit.
At this point of time, if you are ever still in the queue pondering such big decision, you might have your agent/tagger saying along these lines:
Despite price increase, we should not see it as we r now buying higher than the rest, instead, we should be seeing it as we r earning slightly lesser than those few before us…
we r only at 50% mark. They will continue to increase further n further, likely again at 60%… even at this junction we r still earning alot more than those who r going to buy this development at the later stages
If we r now buying at 95% stage, probably we r buying at highest. But we r only at 50%… lots of margin further down
I am also an agent, but I have to tell you not to FOMO. Evaluate your options (which you should already do before booking day).
Are there upcoming launches that is good value? Is this project a must have? Is this price still reasonable compared to the resale in the same place?
I reviewed Chuan Park, and to me $2,500 is only a fair price. Many options in existing D15 and Lentor, and there’s upcoming Emerald of Katong – so you should not FOMO.
Waves of price increase
At 8pm, they increase 1% again. Then again, and again.
Let’s look at #02-41, a 3BR Deluxe 1,033 sqft unit that my client would consider. The price increment as such:
| Early Access | $2,553,600 | $2,472 PSF |
| Public Access +1% | $2,579,136 | $2,496 PSF |
| At 5pm +2% | $2,604,928 | $2,521 PSF |
| At 8pm +3% | $2,630,978 | $2,546 PSF |
| At 9pm +4% | $2,657,288 | $2,572 PSF |
It’s not trivial. You are paying $103k premium over a unit that got it in early access. It is going to have an effect on your exit later on. How much? In 3 years when you both sell, that $103k difference might be make or break.
Why you should not buy Chuan Park
It is easy to look at the strength, and you will likely be bombarded by agent/tagger who wants to close the sale.
So I am going to cite a few reasons so as not to make you FOMO.
- Kingsford don’t have the best track record. Just look at the CONQUAS score given by BCA.
- Some of the leftover units have poor layout, yet still priced high
- 3BR Deluxe C2 has a big foyer with a non-ideal dining space
- 3BR Premium C3 has a fridge tucked deep in the kitchen, across the WC..
- The most premium facing is Block 246, but is near the loudest road junction, and not 1km within Kuo Chuan
- Another premium facing is Block 248, but that is the only block with a bit of East-West sun, and not 1km within Kuo Chuan too
- They don’t even want to build EV lots
Developer is important, and there are some red flags from Kingsford.
Lastly, new launches will run promotion with as much as $100,000 discount, especially when sale doesn’t move. I bet a Chinese company like Kingsford will run some $88,000 CNY promo soon. There is also ABSD dateline to force them to clear their inventory 😉
