Travelling time to the city for people living in the north, north-east and east will be greatly reduced when the 11 new stations of the Circle line open in coming April. This is because commuters will no longer have to pass through City Hall and Raffles interchanges. Prices of houses in estates like Serangoon, Bishan and Paya Lebar are expected to increase by 10 per cent because of this.

The increase in prices of MRT-accessible homes is likely to be due to the rising prices of petrol and increasing number of Electronic Road Pricing gantries. Hence, drivers are switching to public transport to save costs. Furthermore, homes that are near MRT are attractive to buyers with school-going children and also to investors who want to rent their units to expatriates who depend on public transport.

For example, located right next to the Kembangan MRT station, the 15-years old Astoria Park is able to fetch $720psf on average for the last few months. Meanwhile prices at the 4-year old Starville, which is 10 to 15 mins away, average at $705psf. This is in spite of the fact that Starville is a freehold development while Astoria Park is on a 99-year leasehold.

Benefits will increase as the MRT network expands and hence such properties are estimated to have high appreciation value. This may also be a reason why “future MRT stations” are being used as a key feature in new projects until it was banned last September.