The Arcady at Boon Keng's $2,843 psf High: What a New Peak Really Means

“New price peak” is one of the most common property headlines. It is also one of the easiest to misread. The latest example is worth slowing down on, because the record moved by $6.

As Ashley Lo reported for EdgeProp Singapore, The Arcady at Boon Keng topped the list of private non-landed projects that set fresh psf-price highs in the week of Oct 6 to 13. On Oct 10, the developer sold a 678 sq ft two-bedroom unit on the 22nd floor for $1.93 million, or $2,843 psf. That edged past the project’s previous high of $2,837 psf, set in November last year, when the developer sold a 764 sq ft two-bedder for $2.17 million.

The Arcady at Boon Keng is a freehold, 172-unit condo along Saint Barnabas Lane in District 12, on the site of the former Euro-Asia Apartments. It has one- to four-bedroom units from 527 to 1,625 sq ft, plus two penthouses of 2,433 and 2,583 sq ft. Over its launch weekend in January 2024, it sold 29.7 per cent of its units at an average of $2,570 psf. Based on caveats lodged as at Oct 20, it is 65.6 per cent sold, with 59 units left. Its temporary occupation permit is expected in 2027.

The next three on the week’s list were Scotts 28 at $2,511 psf, Caribbean at Keppel Bay at $2,339 psf and City Square Residences at $2,294 psf. EdgeProp recorded no new psf lows that week.

I have spent 17 years helping families buy homes they expect to live in for a decade or more, often with more than one generation in the decision. Here is how I would read a headline like this one.

What does a “new price peak” actually mean here?

Start with who set the price. Both the latest high at The Arcady at Boon Keng and the one before it were developer sales. So the record does not show an owner selling for more than anyone paid before. It shows the developer’s own price for one unit, and a buyer who agreed to it.

That difference matters. In a resale, an owner and a buyer settle on a price between them. In a developer sale, the seller writes the price list. A new high tells you where the developer has chosen to price that unit, and that one buyer accepted. It is real information. But it is information about the developer’s pricing, not a verdict from the open market.

Then look at the size of the move. $2,843 against $2,837 psf is a difference of $6 psf, about 0.2 per cent by my arithmetic. Against the $2,570 psf launch-weekend average, the new high is about 11 per cent higher. But that average dates from January 2024, more than two and a half years ago. It also covers all the units sold that weekend, not one 22nd-floor unit, so it is not a like-for-like comparison.

A record set by $6 psf, by the seller who writes the price list, is a data point. It is not a trend.

Why do psf records keep landing on smaller units?

Here is the detail most headlines skip. The buyer of the new record paid less than the buyer of the old one: $1.93 million against $2.17 million. That is about $240,000 less, for a unit 86 sq ft smaller. The psf went up. The cheque went down.

The same pattern ran through the week’s list. At Scotts 28, the new high of $2,511 psf came from a 1,636 sq ft three-bedder sold for $4.11 million. The previous high, $2,481 psf in May 2023, was a larger 1,733 sq ft three-bedder at $4.3 million. At City Square Residences, the new $2,294 psf high was a 1,238 sq ft three-bedder at nearly $2.84 million. The previous one, $2,278 psf in March 2025, was a 1,496 sq ft unit at about $3.41 million. In every case where EdgeProp gives the earlier record, the new high came on a smaller unit at a lower total price.

Scotts 28 makes the point from the other side too. Its highest price in dollars so far was a sub-sale of a 3,466 sq ft three-bedder for $6.86 million in 1996, at $1,979 psf. The biggest cheque and the highest psf are often different sales.

Why does this happen? In my experience, buyers think in total budget first. A smaller home keeps the total price within reach of more buyers, so its psf can stretch further. A large unit at the same psf needs a much bigger cheque, and fewer buyers can write it. So when you read “record psf”, ask two questions first. What size was the unit? And what was the total price?

How should you read developer prices with 59 units left?

For anyone looking at The Arcady at Boon Keng now, the more practical number is not the record. It is the 59 units still unsold, and how each is priced.

A developer with stock left decides which units to offer, and at what price. The record was a 22nd-floor two-bedder. If you are shown a different stack, a lower floor or a larger layout, the record tells you little about your unit. Neither does the launch-weekend average, which covered whatever mix sold in those first days in January 2024.

When I sit with a family looking at a project that is still selling, I want three things on the table:

• Recent transacted prices for the same unit type, ideally the same stack, with floor levels.
• How the unit on offer compares with those, in total dollars and in psf.
• Which units remain. Fifty-nine unsold homes could be spread across the project or concentrated in certain types. You won’t know until you ask, and it changes how you read the price list.

Then do the sum that matters for a home you will hold for a decade: the total price, the loan and the monthly instalment. A record psf does not change your budget. The total price does.

Your budget is set in dollars, not in psf. Start every comparison from the cheque you will actually write.

What do the week’s other records tell us?

The other three records were set in projects with a resale history, and they read differently.

Scotts 28 is a freehold, 136-unit condo just off Orchard Road, next to Goodwood Park Hotel in District 9. It was completed in 1998. Its Oct 9 sale was the first time a unit there transacted above $2,500 psf. In a building with that much history, a new high is set against decades of earlier sales.

At Caribbean at Keppel Bay, a 99-year leasehold condo of 969 units completed in 2004, a 2,390 sq ft four-bedder on the third floor changed hands for $5.59 million on Oct 13. That was a record $2,339 psf. Based on caveats compiled by EdgeProp, resale prices there averaged $1,924 psf over the past 12 months. By my arithmetic, the record sits about 22 per cent above that average. This is why I never price a home off a project’s record. One sale can sit well clear of what most owners there actually achieve.

City Square Residences, a freehold condo on Kitchener Link, set its new high when a 17th-floor three-bedder was resold on Oct 12. It beat the old record by $16 psf, again on a smaller unit.

Records in projects with a resale history tell you something a developer sale cannot: what a buyer paid, measured against earlier sales between owners in the same building. But each is still one sale. At Caribbean at Keppel Bay, the 12-month average is a better guide to what an owner can expect than the record.

What would I take from this as a buyer?

Three things, whether you are looking at Boon Keng or anywhere else.

First, ask who set the price. A developer sale in a project that is still selling reflects the developer’s pricing. A resale reflects what an owner and a buyer agreed. Both are useful, but they are not the same signal.

Second, read psf and total price together. In the week of Oct 6 to 13, three new highs came with lower total prices than the records they replaced. A psf record on a small unit tells you very little about a larger one.

Third, compare like with like: same project, same unit type, similar floor, recent dates. A record is the far edge of that range, not its middle.

None of this says The Arcady at Boon Keng is a good or a bad buy. That depends on the unit, the price and your family’s plans for the next ten years or more. It simply means a “new peak” headline should start your questions, not answer them.

If you are weighing a new launch against a resale and want help reading the numbers for the unit you would actually buy, I am always glad to talk it through.