The Florentine

Overview & Key Facts

The Florentine is a compact boutique development tucked along Florence Road in District 19, within a quiet residential pocket sandwiched between Kovan and Hougang MRT stations. Developed by Roxy Homes Pte Ltd, the project was completed in 2010 and comprises just 34 units — placing it firmly in the small-scale boutique tier rather than the mass-market mega-condo bracket that defines much of the Kovan/Hougang corridor.

The address itself matters more than the facade. Florence Road runs parallel to Upper Serangoon Road and sits inside an established residential grid that is half landed housing, half small-scale condo infill. The tagline for this pocket could reasonably be “heartland convenience without the crowding” — you are within five minutes’ walk of the Kovan hawker centre and wet market, yet on a low-traffic residential street that sees almost no through-traffic.

The single most important piece of context for any Florentine buyer, however, is the tenure structure. The development sits on a 947-year lease that commenced in 1934 — an unusually long head lease, but one that has been running for over nine decades. In practical terms, the effective remaining lease is far shorter than the headline number suggests, and this single factor shapes every downstream consideration: financing, ABSD clawback planning, yield analysis, and exit strategy. This is not a freehold or fresh 99-year asset — it is a specialised tenure product that requires specific buyer literacy.

Location & Connectivity

The Florentine sits roughly 700 metres from Kovan MRT on the North-East Line and about 910 metres from Hougang MRT interchange. Kovan is the closer and more walkable of the two — a genuine 8 to 10 minute walk along Upper Serangoon Road, with sheltered walkways for most of the route. Hougang MRT is more of a short bus or drive, but it adds future-value since Hougang is being upgraded as a Cross Island Line interchange later this decade, which will compress commutes to Jurong, Punggol, and Changi meaningfully.

For drivers, the CTE is a 3-minute drive away via Upper Serangoon Road, placing the CBD within a 15 to 20 minute drive off-peak. Paya Lebar, Toa Payoh, and the Kallang-Paya Lebar commercial belt are all inside 12 minutes. This is a location that rewards households with at least one car — the Kovan MRT station gets you to the city, but the road network unlocks the rest of the island.

Everyday amenities are a major strength. Kovan Hougang Hawker Centre and Market is within walking distance, as is Heartland Mall at Kovan with its FairPrice, food court, and basic retail. Hougang Mall, the NEX mega-mall at Serangoon, and the Hougang Green shop cluster extend the retail footprint considerably within a 5-minute drive. The shophouse dining strip along Upper Serangoon Road is one of the better suburban F&B clusters in the north-east — zi char, cafes, Cantonese roasts, and a handful of craft coffee spots all sit within a 10-minute walk.

Schools & Education

6 primary schools within the 1 km Priority Phase balloting radius.

Facilities

At 34 units on a compact site, The Florentine takes the inevitable boutique-scale approach to amenities — a carefully curated short list rather than the resort-style amenity belts of nearby mega-condos. Expect a lap pool, a basic gym room, landscaped communal gardens, a BBQ pit or two, and a small function space. There is no tennis court, no air-conditioned indoor court, no onsen, no clubhouse. Buyers here are explicitly trading breadth of facilities for a quieter, more intimate compound.

“Facilities are minimal but honestly you don’t need much at 34 units — the pool is always empty and we know almost every neighbour by sight. It feels more like a large condo-townhouse than a conventional development.”

— Resident sentiment via PropertyGuru

Maintenance fees in boutique developments of this size run higher on a per-unit basis than at mega-condos, simply because fixed costs (security, landscaping, pool upkeep, lift servicing) are divided across far fewer owners. Prospective buyers should request the most recent MCST accounts and sinking-fund balance before committing. The upside is straightforward: no booking contention for facilities, no crowd, and a much more neighbourly atmosphere. For the right household, that is genuine day-to-day luxury.

Unit Sizes & Layout

With only 34 units in total, The Florentine’s stack distribution is tight and quickly memorised. Unit sizes skew toward the family-friendly mid-range — expect 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom configurations with the occasional penthouse at the top of the stack. Floor areas are generally more generous than you would find at a contemporary new launch at the same PSF, simply because this was built before the great compression of unit sizes that defined the 2015-onwards era.

Orientation matters more here than at larger developments because there are fewer stacks to choose from. Units facing Florence Road itself carry some residential-street noise but are the brightest; units facing the internal pool and landscaping are the quietest and most private. A handful of stacks look out toward the neighbouring low-rise landed and small-condo cluster — these enjoy a reasonable outlook that is unlikely to be obstructed by redevelopment in the medium term, given the zoning of the immediate surroundings.

With a TOP year of 2010, interiors will reflect the finishings of that era — decent mid-market fittings, but almost certainly due for a refresh if the unit has not been renovated in the last five to seven years. Buyers should budget meaningfully for kitchen and bathroom updates, and factor that into the all-in cost-of-acquisition rather than comparing headline PSF with a post-renovation unit at a newer development.

Pricing & Market Position

Based on 14 recorded transactions, sale prices range from $1,250,000 to $2,288,000, averaging $1,680,376 (~$1,350 psf).

Rents range from $2,150 to $5,000 per month across 21 rental transactions. Current rental yield sits at approximately 2.3%.

Price Appreciation

From 2021 to 2026, the average PSF has appreciated by 22.6% (from $1,044 to $1,280 psf).

Neighbourhood Comparison

Within District 19, The Florentine sits at a meaningful PSF discount to every major comparable, but the discount reflects the lease situation rather than any defect in the product itself. Chuan Park (916 units, 99-year from 2024, ~S$2,596 psf) and The Florence Residences (1,410 units, 99-year from 2018, ~S$1,743 psf) both sit at substantial premiums with fresher leases and full-scale facilities. Riverfront Residences (~S$1,586 psf) and Affinity at Serangoon (~S$1,698 psf) follow the same pattern — newer lease, larger scale, higher PSF.

The cleanest like-for-like comparison is actually not another condo but the Serangoon Garden Estate freehold landed cluster (~S$1,734 psf equivalent) — which gives a sense of what a buyer gets for giving up the apartment format entirely. Against the condo competition, the Florentine buyer is effectively accepting the tenure risk in exchange for a 20 to 40% PSF discount plus a boutique scale. For an owner-occupier with a long holding horizon, that trade can make sense. For a yield-and-exit investor, the fresher-lease alternatives remain the safer structural choice despite the higher entry price.

Lease Decay Analysis

The 99-year lease runs from 1934, meaning approximately 92 years have already been consumed. Roughly 7 years remain.

ShiokNest Scores

Our proprietary scoring system evaluates THE FLORENTINE across multiple dimensions.

What Residents Say

“Great quiet little development, walking distance to Kovan MRT and the hawker centre. You don’t realise how much you appreciate a small condo until you’ve lived in a 1,000-unit one — no queues for the lift, no booking fights.”

— Resident sentiment via EdgeProp

“Facilities are basic — just a pool and a tiny gym — but the location saves it. Holy Innocents’ is five minutes’ walk for school drop-off, and we hardly ever drive for groceries.”

— Owner review via PropertyGuru

“Do your homework on the lease before you commit. We love living here but resale took longer than we expected because buyers kept pulling out at the mortgage stage once their banker ran the lease numbers.”

— Former owner commentary via 99.co

The pattern across resident feedback is consistent: the day-to-day lived experience is strong — quiet, well-located, walkable to food and schools — but the sophisticated buyers repeatedly flag the exit-liquidity question. That consistent tension between “great to live in” and “tricky to sell” is the signature of a leasehold asset where the lease clock has genuinely started to matter. Residents who bought with a long own-stay horizon tend to report high satisfaction; those who treated it as a flexible investment report mixed experiences.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Verdict

The Florentine is a very specific product for a very specific buyer. For a single-person, couple, or small-family owner-occupier who values the Kovan location, wants a quiet boutique scale, and is either planning to hold for own-stay without worrying about exit, or is prepared to do the lease-remaining math carefully — the proposition at around S$1,385 psf is genuinely competitive against the surrounding mega-condos priced well above S$1,600 psf. You are paying less per foot for a quieter environment in an identical postcode.

For investors and multi-cycle buyers, however, the calculus is considerably more uncomfortable. A gross yield around 2.33% is below the market-wide threshold most yield-oriented investors use, and the short effective remaining lease will shape both financing access (CPF usage rules and bank LTV tighten as remaining lease falls) and exit liquidity. This is not a product to buy purely on yield, and it is not a product to buy if the exit horizon is uncertain.

The honest framing is this: The Florentine is a specialised tenure product with a good location and a boutique scale. The location is genuinely strong. The scale suits specific households. But the tenure is the defining feature, and every buyer must run their own lease-decay math before committing. If that math works for you, the development rewards patient occupiers. If it does not, the nearby leasehold alternatives (Riverfront Residences, Affinity at Serangoon, The Florence Residences) offer fresher 99-year leases at higher but more conventional entry prices.