TMW Maxwell: The CBD Studio Bet, Repriced
Most launches we review are a story about a queue. TMW Maxwell is a story about the absence of one. In August 2023 the consortium of CEL Development, SingHaiyi and Chuan Investments opened sales on the redevelopment of Maxwell House, and URA's records show six homes sold that month, at $3,143 to $3,739 psf; three years later the developer's chart shows six sold and 318 available, 1.85 percent of the tower. The tower kept rising anyway, the 99-year lease kept running from April 2023, and in 2026 the developer did what its balance sheet allowed it to avoid for three years: it cut. The 2026 relaunch puts a 474 sq ft Flip/Switch studio two minutes from Maxwell MRT at $1.316 million, 12 percent below the $1.5 million the same type asked in 2023. Whether that is an opportunity or a warning depends on which pillar you weigh, so we score all four.
Scored against the same independent 100-point framework used across the PropertyNet Insider Benchmark. No developer fees, no sponsored placements.
Why This Score
The 2026 relaunch is the first honest floor this project has carried: a 474 sq ft studio at $1.316M is 12 percent below the $1.5M the same type asked in 2023, and it sits below One Bernam's upper-floor sales of $3,001 to $3,351 psf next door and Newport Residences from about $3,500 psf. The deductions: the cut is a floor, not a list, because the one-bedroom ladder still climbs to $3,580 psf, above the 2023 average of $3,334 in URA's records; $2,776 psf still buys 474 sq ft of which about 409 sq ft is internal floor; and the purchase price alone was $1,183 psf ppr before the lease top-up and the differential premium, so the margin at the new level is invisible to a buyer.
Few addresses pack this much daily amenity into two minutes: Maxwell MRT on the Thomson-East Coast Line, Tanjong Pagar MRT four minutes away, Maxwell Food Centre across the road, Ann Siang Hill, Club Street, Duxton and Keong Saik as the evening playground, and the CBD on foot. The stacked-garden facilities, from the fourth-storey Courtyard to the rooftop infinity pool, are generous for 324 homes. The deductions: 62 percent of the tower is studios of 474 to 484 sq ft, the largest home is a 872 sq ft dual-key, and the product speaks to singles, couples and landlords rather than families, which narrows the buyer pool at a time when ABSD already narrows it.
URA wants people living in the CBD again, and the Tanjong Pagar edge is where it is happening: One Bernam completed in 2026, Newport Residences, Skywaters Residences and W Residences Marina View are following, and the Thomson-East Coast Line has put Maxwell one stop from Shenton Way and Outram Park. District 2 already commands some of the island's highest small-unit rents, with one-bedroom leases at One Bernam signed at a median $4,250 a month over the past year, in URA's rental records. The deduction: that same pipeline is a wall of compact CBD homes competing for the same tenants, and TMW's own demand evidence will not exist until keys in 2028.
A buyer at the 2026 price holds a lower basis than the 2023 buyers and a lower basis than most of the surrounding new supply, on a lease that runs to 2122 with rail at the door. The deductions are structural: a 474 sq ft studio resells to investors, not families; with 318 of 324 homes unsold the developer will hold the bulk of the tower for years and, because the site was commercial-zoned, carries no ABSD deadline forcing it to clear; the four-year seller's stamp duty means a 2026 buyer's earliest clean exit is 2030; and every resale here will be priced against whatever the developer is still offering downstairs.
What Exactly Is TMW Maxwell?
TMW Maxwell is the redevelopment of Maxwell House, a 13-storey 1971 office and showroom block at 20 Maxwell Road that a 40:30:30 joint venture of Chip Eng Seng's CEL Development, SingHaiyi Group and Chuan Investments bought en bloc for $276.8 million in May 2021, above the $268 million reserve. URA had given Outline Advice in September 2020 to lift the plot ratio from 4.3 to 5.6, so the 3,883 sqm site now carries about 234,000 sq ft of GFA, with up to 20 percent commercial. On the purchase price alone that is about $1,183 psf ppr; the lease top-up to a fresh 99 years from 28 April 2023 and the differential premium for the uplift were not disclosed and sit on top.
The site straddles two worlds, and the address change matters. As 20 Maxwell Road it was District 1 and Core Central Region. Re-entered from the quieter Tras Street, flanked by conservation shophouses, it is now 31 Tras Street, District 2, Outram planning area, Rest of Central Region. Formwerkz Architects answered URA's design panel with a 20-storey tower of vertically stacked gardens: an 11-unit retail and F&B podium from the basement to the third storey that the developer will lease and curate rather than strata-sell, and 324 homes from the fourth to the twentieth storey above it. Homes are 99-year leasehold from April 2023, with vacant possession expected by 30 June 2028.
What Happened in 2023, and What Changed in 2026?
Sales opened in August 2023. URA's records show six sales that month: four studios, one one-bedder and one two-bedder, at $1.498 million to $2.47 million, or $3,143 to $3,739 psf, an average of $3,334 psf. Against the whole tower that was under 2 percent, and it barely moved. The developer's chart on 19 September 2026 shows six units sold in total, four studios, one one-bedroom suite and one two-bedroom Premium, and 318 available: 1.85 percent of the tower, three years in. The only recent caveat is a 474 sq ft studio in August 2026 at $2,852 psf, about 23 percent under the 2023 high.
The 2026 price bands tell the rest. The one-bedroom category, which covers the studios, suites, study units and lofts, runs $2,640 to $3,580 psf, or $1.316 million to $2.331 million; the two-bedders run $2,833 to $3,222 psf, or $2.227 million to $2.805 million. The entry studio at $1.316 million is 12 percent below the $1.5 million floor of 2023, but the top of the one-bedroom ladder, at $3,580 psf, still sits above the 2023 average of $3,334. In other words the relaunch resets the floor, not the whole list, and the value is concentrated in the lower and mid stacks. Two facts frame how to read the cut. First, the developer was never on a clock: because Maxwell House was zoned Commercial when it was bought, the purchase attracted no ABSD and no five-year sell-out deadline, which is why it could sit on the 2023 prices for three years. Second, it chose to cut anyway, 12 percent at the entry, with construction well advanced and keys two years out. That is a developer trading price for velocity, and it is the one moment in this project's life when the pricing has been set by buyers rather than by the land cost.
What Will a Unit Cost?
The six types, their sizes, availability and 2026 price bands from the developer's chart of 19 September 2026. The developer publishes bands by bedroom category rather than by type, so the studios, suites, study units and lofts share one band:
| Type | Size (sq ft) | Available | 2026 Price Band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flip/Switch studio (A1 to A4) | 474 to 484 | 197 of 201 | 1BR band: $2,640 to $3,580 psf ($1.316M to $2.331M) |
| 1 Bedroom Suite (1B1, 1B2) | 517 | 33 of 34 | 1BR band |
| 1 Bedroom + Study (1S1, 1S2) | 549 to 570 | 34 of 34 | 1BR band |
| 1 Bedroom Loft (BL1, BL2) | 850 to 883 | 5 of 5 | 1BR band |
| 2 Bedroom Premium (2C1) | 786 | 15 of 16 | 2BR band: $2,833 to $3,222 psf ($2.227M to $2.805M) |
| 2 Bedroom Dual Key (2DK1, 2DK2) | 861 to 872 | 34 of 34 | 2BR band |
Read the mix before the price. 201 of the 324 homes are studios, 68 more are one-bedders of 517 to 570 sq ft, five are lofts, and only 50 homes in the tower have a second bedroom at all. That is by design: the developer built for the CBD professional who wants to walk to work and treat the podium and the sky gardens as the rest of the apartment. The Flip/Switch fit-out is the concept made physical, with a movable walk-in wardrobe, a queen-size Murphy bed integrated with the sofa, a pull-out counter at the kitchen and a fold-down table on the balcony. For a buyer it means the studio is the product, and the studio's price is the number to negotiate.
Project Snapshot
- Project name: TMW Maxwell
- Developer: Maxwell Residential Pte Ltd and Maxwell Commercial Pte Ltd, the joint venture of CEL Development (40%), SingHaiyi (30%) and Chuan Investments (30%)
- Location: 31 Tras Street, Tanjong Pagar, District 2, Outram planning area (RCR)
- Tenure: 99 years from 28 April 2023 (former Maxwell House, bought en bloc for $276.8M in 2021, about $1,183 psf ppr on the purchase price before premiums)
- Scale: one 20-storey tower on a 3,883 sqm site; 324 homes on storeys 4 to 20 over an 11-unit retail and F&B podium from basement 1 to storey 3, retained and curated by the developer
- Unit mix: 201 Flip/Switch studios (474 to 484 sq ft), 34 one-bedroom suites (517), 34 one-bedroom + study (549 to 570), 5 one-bedroom lofts (850 to 883), 16 two-bedroom Premium (786), 34 two-bedroom dual-key (861 to 872)
- Facilities: vertically stacked gardens from the 4th-storey Courtyard (festival lawn, courtyard dining, farm-to-fork garden) through the TMW Study, Outdoor Living Room, Social Garden, Bar Lounge, Sky Pool with jacuzzi, Wellness Terrace and Sky Bar to the 20th-storey Sky Lounge and the rooftop TMW Haven with infinity pool and sky gym; amphitheatre and through-block link at podium level
- Fit-out: Flip/Switch convertible furniture in the studios, smart home hub, digital lockset, IP camera and smart air-conditioning control; Smeg, Gessi and Roca fittings
- Connectivity: Maxwell MRT (TE18) 2 minutes, Tanjong Pagar MRT (EW15) 4 minutes, Telok Ayer (DT18) 9, Chinatown (NE4, DT19) 10, Outram Park (EW16, NE3, TE17) 10, Shenton Way (TE19) 12; Ayer Rajah Expressway and Central Boulevard by car
- Consultants: Formwerkz Architects (architect), CO2 (landscape architect), FARM (interiors and sales gallery); Compound Collaborative designed the public realm at podium level
- Launch: August 2023: 6 sales that month at $3,143 to $3,739 psf (average $3,334, URA); 2026 relaunch with the entry studio at $1.316M ($2,776 psf)
- Status (19 Sep 2026): 6 of 324 sold (1.85%), 318 available: 197 studios, 33 one-bedroom suites, 34 one-bedroom + study, 5 lofts, 15 two-bedroom Premium, 34 dual-key; 2026 bands 1BR category $2,640 to $3,580 psf ($1.316M to $2.331M), 2BR $2,833 to $3,222 psf ($2.227M to $2.805M)
- Completion: vacant possession expected by 30 June 2028 (developer's legal disclaimer); legal completion by 30 June 2031
Why This Location Matters
Tras Street is the seam between three things buyers pay for separately elsewhere. To the north-east, across Maxwell Road, is the CBD: Guoco Tower at Tanjong Pagar Centre and the Robinson Road and Cecil Street office stock within a ten-minute walk. To the west and south is conservation Singapore: the Tanjong Pagar and Duxton shophouse rows, Ann Siang Hill, Club Street and Keong Saik, which together hold the densest bar and restaurant scene on the island. Underneath it all is rail: Maxwell station on the Thomson-East Coast Line is a two-minute walk, one stop from Shenton Way and Outram Park, and Tanjong Pagar on the East-West Line is four minutes, one stop from Raffles Place.
The everyday layer is unusually complete for a city address. Maxwell Food Centre is directly across the road, Amoy Street and Tanjong Pagar Plaza food centres are within ten minutes, and Lau Pa Sat and Market Street are on the walk to Raffles Place. Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Chinatown Complex and the Singapore General Hospital campus at Outram sit in the same radius. The honest caveat is the same as the attraction: this is a loud, dense, late-night quarter with Maxwell Road traffic on one side and a working F&B podium below, and the tower's upper storeys will be the quiet ones.
The Product and Facilities
The idea is a park stacked vertically. Instead of one ground-level deck, the resident facilities climb the Maxwell Road face of the tower in tiers: the Courtyard on the 4th storey with a festival lawn, courtyard dining and a farm-to-fork garden; the TMW Study on 6 and 7; the Outdoor Living Room on 9 and 10 with breakout pods and an executive lounge; the Social Garden and TMW Social Club on 12 and 13; the Sky Pool with jacuzzi and lazy deck on 15 and 16; a wellness terrace on 17, a sky bar on 18 and 19, the Panorama sky lounge on 20, and the rooftop TMW Haven with the infinity sky pool and sky gym. Below the homes, the podium's amphitheatre, through-block link and shopfronts are public, which is the part URA cared most about.
Floor Plans: What You Are Actually Buying
The floor plan brochure settles a question the lifestyle brochure avoids. Every plan states its area inclusive of the air-con ledge and the balcony, which is the pre-harmonisation convention URA retired for projects approved after June 2023. A Type A1 studio's 44 sqm (474 sq ft) is 2 sqm of ledge, 4 sqm of balcony and about 38 sqm, or 409 sq ft, of internal floor; the dual-key 2DK1's 81 sqm carries a 7 sqm ledge. Two consequences follow. First, compare TMW against a 2024 or 2025 launch on internal area and quantum, never on headline psf, because the newer project's psf is measured on a smaller denominator. Second, the Flip/Switch furniture is not a gimmick here; it is how 409 sq ft is made to work. The ten plans below cover every type a buyer can choose from, with live availability from the 19 September 2026 chart; the brochure's ground-floor PES variants (A3-G, 1B1-G, 2DK1-G, 2DK2-G) follow the same layouts with a terrace in place of the balcony.
The Investment Case
The bull case is yield and basis. A 474 sq ft studio at $1.316 million, let at the $4,250 median monthly rent that one-bedroom leases at the newly completed One Bernam have signed for in URA's rental records, grosses roughly 3.9 percent before costs, which is a full point above what most new central launches pencil out to at their launch prices. The buyer's basis is below the 2023 buyers, below Newport Residences and One Bernam's upper floors, and roughly level with One Marina Gardens, on an address with rail at the door and a podium the developer has a direct interest in keeping alive. Keys in 2028 also land before Newport Residences (2030), Skywaters Residences (2030) and W Residences Marina View (2029), so TMW's tenants arrive ahead of the pipeline's.
The bear case is the same set of facts read the other way. The relaunch is a price cut on a tower that is 98 percent unsold, and price cuts tell you the market has already voted once. The mix is 62 percent studios in a rule regime that taxes second homes at 20 percent ABSD for citizens and 60 percent for foreigners, so the natural buyer is a single first-timer or an investor paying the surcharge. The developer will be the dominant seller in this tower until well after TOP, with no ABSD deadline pushing it to clear, and the four-year seller's stamp duty means the earliest clean resale for a 2026 buyer is 2030, into a CBD that will by then have several hundred more new compact homes to rent and sell against. This is a hold-for-income purchase, not a flip. To map the progressive payments, use the Progressive Payment Calculator.
Who TMW Maxwell Is For
First, the CBD professional buying a first home: for someone who works within a fifteen-minute walk and lives out of the podium and the sky gardens, the repriced studio is the cheapest new key to this postcode.
Second, the yield investor who wants a small, lettable central unit at a basis the market set rather than the land cost, and who can hold through 2030 without needing to sell.
Third, the dual-key buyer: the 34 two-bedroom dual-key units at 861 to 872 sq ft are the one format here that lets an owner-occupier live in one half and let the other.
It is a poorer fit for families, for anyone who needs quiet at street level, for buyers who dislike living above an F&B podium, and for quick-cycle investors who cannot carry a four-year SSD window.
Related reviews: for the Anson Road tower two streets away see Newport Residences in D2, for the Marina South comparison at a similar psf see One Marina Gardens in D1, or browse the full Insider Benchmark.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is TMW Maxwell, and how many units are there?
How much does a TMW Maxwell unit cost in 2026?
Why did only 6 units sell at the 2023 launch, and how many are sold now?
Is the 2026 price cut a red flag?
Is TMW Maxwell in District 1 or District 2, CCR or RCR?
How far is Maxwell MRT from TMW Maxwell?
Are there floor plans for TMW Maxwell?
What are the main risks with TMW Maxwell?
The Bottom Line
TMW Maxwell was a good idea launched at the wrong price into the wrong month, and it has taken three years and a cut for the idea to get a fair hearing. The idea is still good: a curated podium, a tower of gardens and a rooftop pool two minutes from a Thomson-East Coast Line station, on the seam between the CBD and the best shophouse quarter in Singapore. The 2026 pricing is the first time the numbers come close to matching it, with an entry studio at $1.316 million and rents next door that make the yield arithmetic work, even if the upper stacks still ask 2023 money. The score is honest about why it is not higher: this is a studio tower for investors and singles, the developer will hold most of it for years with no clock forcing a clearance, and the CBD pipeline behind it is deep. That is what a Selective Buy at 74/100 means: for the CBD professional or the yield-minded investor who can hold to 2030, one of the sharpest entries on this edge of the city; for the family buyer or the quick-cycle investor, one of its larger-format neighbours is the better fit. Either way, go in knowing the price you pay is the one the market set, not the developer, and negotiate from there.
Information herein is based on the developer's January 2026 e-brochure and floor plan brochure, the developer's sales chart and price bands as communicated on 19 September 2026, URA's private residential transaction and rental records, and Cushman & Wakefield's announcement of the 2021 en bloc, and is subject to change without prior notice. Availability and pricing move continuously; confirm current status before acting. PSF figures vary by unit, storey and facing. Unit areas are approximate and subject to final survey. Renderings are artist impressions and the completed development may differ. Walking times are the developer's estimates and vary by route and pace. Rental figures cited are contract rents at neighbouring developments from URA's records, not achieved rents at TMW Maxwell, which has not yet been completed. Please verify all figures, plans and timelines with the official sales team before making any purchase decision. This article is for general information only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Please consult your banker, lawyer, and a licensed property professional before committing to any purchase. PropertyNet Insider Benchmark scoring is the independent opinion of PropertyNet.SG based on the framework published at /insider-benchmark/, with no developer affiliation or sponsorship.