One of our readers had asked
us about The Skywoods. Given that it has been awhile since we last visited the Dairy Farm area, the wife and I decided to make our way there
last week.
The sales gallery of The
Skywoods is located at Petir
Road, just before you hit Foresque Residences and
Tree House if you are coming by Dairy
Farm Road. However, the actual site of The
Skywoods is along Dairy
Farm Road - next door to Dairy Farm Estate.
The 99-year leasehold site
was purchased via a government land sales programme back in September 2012. A
consortium that included Hock Lian Seng Holdings, King Wan Corporation and TA
Corporation - the same folks that are responsible for projects such as Starlight Suites, The Inspira and Parc Seabreeze - paid $616psf
ppr for the 188,000+sqft plot.
A quick check indicated that
The
Skywoods was launched back in September 2013 so the project has been
selling for exactly a year now.
The sales gallery was
largely empty on the day of our visit. The Skywoods consist of 420 units
spread over 6 tower blocks of 15-storey each. Unit types available range from
1+Study to 4-bedroom penthouses. Access to the development will be via Dairy
Farm Heights
- you will not find this stretch of road on any road directory (yet) as it is
purposefully built by the developers for this project.
Facility wise, The
Skywoods is quite generous with its offerings - the facilities are
grouped under different "zones" within the development and you get
your fair share of different themed swimming pools, fitness court & jogging
trails, Clubhouse with fully equipped (even kitchenette) function rooms and Cabanas with outdoor
dining options. The developers have even thrown in a tennis court for good
measures.
In terms of parking, the
development has 420 lots (the usual "1 to 1") plus 4 handicapped
parking.
The sales gallery featured showflats for the 2-, 3- and 4-bedroom unit type. We
will focus on the 4-bedder layout for this review.
The unit concerned is a Type
4(S1) of 1,346sqft. As you enter the main door, you arrived into the
living/dining area. The space you get is actually pretty decent relative to the unit size, as
evident from the photo we took.
One unique feature of the apartments within The Skywoods is their high ceilings
- the typical ceiling height is 3.25m while ground-floor units go up to a
whopping 4.65m! And unlike most other developments, you do not have to pay for the
"double volume" space that comes with the ground-floor units. The
much higher ceiling definitely makes the units at The Skywoods feel more
spacious and with a bit of creativity, the "double
volume" within the ground-floor units can actually be converted into more physical space at no additional purchase cost.
You also get compressed
marble flooring in the living/dining area.
Unlikely many of the new
projects that we have seen recently, you do not get the "kitchen view"
immediately upon entering the apartment (which is a welcomed change in our opinion).
The kitchen is again pretty good-sized and comes fully equipped with appliances
(hood/hob, fridge, oven from Electrolux
and a full set of top/bottom cabinets). However, we are not particularly impressed
with the workmanship of the cabinets.
There is no yard to speak of
so your washing machine will have to share real estate with the kitchen (you do
get a Electrolux washer/dryer as
consolation though). The utility room is a narrow strip of space located at the end of
the kitchen and is really more suited for storage of goods rather than housing
human (aka your helper), especially since the only ventilation you get is via
the entrance. The bathroom next door is again tiny so expect everything (toilet
bowl, wash basin etc) to be wet once someone decides to take a shower inside.
On one side (nearer to the
main door) of the living/dining area is the junior master suite. The only
reason for calling this bedroom a "suite" is that
it's en-suite (attached bathroom), because the size of the bedroom is far from
"suite-like" - you put in a Queen-bed and all that's left is just
walking space around the room.
The other 3 bedrooms are all
across the hall from the junior master suite. The two common bedroom are really
tiny - the developers weren't kidding when they displayed a cot in one of the
bedrooms because that's about all the space you get. The only saving grace with
the bedrooms are the timber flooring, which looked more than decent in
quality.
The common bathroom is ...
functional. That is probably the best way to put it given the nondescript
design and quality of fittings you get.
Finally, the master bedroom.
This is the largest of the four bedrooms (stating the obvious) but do not expect very much more space. Maybe the developers should have dispensed with the
long-bath in the attached bathroom and convert this into more bedroom space.
But at least they have gotten things right by having a separate shower cubicle
(instead of making you climb over and into the long-bath when you merely want a
quick shower). Again we weren't particular impressed with the bathroom fittings
and the standard "rail" shower in the cubicle.
Pricing wise, a 4-bedder
unit {Type 4(S1)A} of 1,292sqft on the 6th floor is currently asking about
$1.51 million. Price is after a 3% discount and translates to around $1,168psf.
The wife and I were told that despite the project being launched for a year
now, it is less than 30% sold.
What we like:
1. The high ceiling offered for apartments within The
Skywoods, especially with the ground-floor units. The fact that they do
not charge you extra for it is a significant selling point.
2. The development is supposedly about 600m
away from the upcoming Hillview MRT station on the Downtown Line Stage 2, which
is scheduled to come into service sometime in 1Q2016.
What we do not quite like:
1. The quality aspect of the project (from what we can gauged
in the showflat) is average at best.
2. We are resigned to the fact that the bedrooms in new
developments these days are small but those we had seen (especially the common
bedrooms) at The
Skywoods have
given new perspective to the meaning of "small".
3. When comes to the kitchen, the wife has particular
concern with the rubbish chute, which is located in the kitchen and directly
opposite to the cooking area. Not very hygienic, she said, which I cannot help
but agree (and not just because she is the wife).
4. For those who need to put their kids into primary
school in 2015 or after, your only two options within 1-km of The
Skywoods are
Bukit Panjang Primary (co-ed) and CHIJ Our Lady Queen of Peace (all-girls). So
get ready your affiliations or pray very hard that the parcel of land next-door
- supposedly slated for "educational facilities" - is for building of
another primary school.
Our parting shot
After visiting The
Skywoods, the wife and I can appreciate the reasons for its dismal
sales thus far. There is really very little going for the project. And not helping
the developers' cause is the fact that there are quite a few land parcels
surrounding the project that are slated for private residential developments.
So unless market sentiments
improved significantly, we reckon that The Skywoods will have to drop prices by alot more than the 3% than they had already done so in order to move units.
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