Trendale Tower En Bloc 2026: Back at S$168M With a Serviced Apartment Conversion Angle

Trendale Tower is not a new story, it is a persistent one. A freehold block that has tried and failed three times is back at S$168 million, and the difference this round is not the price but the plan: an option to keep the building as long-stay serviced apartments instead of tearing it down.

The Cairnhill enclave rarely stays quiet for long. In September 2026 the freehold Trendale Tower at 79 Cairnhill Road returned to the collective sale market, and for owners, developers and District 9 buyers watching prime Core Central Region pricing, the relaunch is worth reading carefully. The headline number is familiar. The strategy attached to it is not.

What is happening at Trendale Tower in 2026

URA zoning and marketing releases point to a well-defined site. Trendale Tower spans 21,709 sq ft and carries a guide price of $168 million, and this translates to a land rate of approximately $2,248 psf per plot ratio after factoring in the 7% bonus gross floor area allowed for balconies. Built in the early 1980s, it is a 20-storey development with 18 apartments, and the property has a GFA of about 72,691 sq ft, zoned for residential use with a gross plot ratio of 2.8 under URA's Master Plan 2025.

This is not the first ask. It is the fourth time the owners of the freehold development have attempted a collective sale, with a previous 2023 attempt at the same $168 million guide price ending without a buyer. Before that it was marketed in 2022 at $178 million and in 2018 at $163.5 million, both without success. The pattern matters, because a site that has failed three previous cycles has to convince buyers that something structural has changed rather than just the sticker.

The serviced apartment conversion angle changes the maths

The genuinely new element this round is optionality. For the first time the redevelopment plans include an option for a Serviced Apartment 2 scheme, and URA has indicated it would support an Outline Planning Permission for the proposed SA2 use, subject to approvals. Just as important for the deal economics, the marketing agent has flagged a possible remission of Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty for serviced apartment use, with SA2 being a long-stay serviced accommodation concept introduced by URA in December 2023 that lets an investor retain an entire block for recurring income.

Why does this matter for a site that keeps stalling? A conventional en bloc redevelopment forces a developer to build, sell and clear the whole project within the ABSD remission clawback window, a high-pressure model in a soft prime market. An SA2 conversion offers a different exit: a scheme where the entire block can be retained for recurring income rather than sold unit by unit. That reframes the buyer from a pure residential developer racing a sales timeline to a longer-horizon investor who values yield. The development charge is a known cost too: the charge payable for the 7% bonus GFA is approximately $7.6 million.

Whether $2,248 psf ppr is expensive depends entirely on your comparison. Because the quoted rate is inflated by the balcony bonus, it does not sit on the same footing as recent state land tenders. Last year a Bukit Timah Road GLS site was awarded at $1,820 psf ppr. Anyone weighing this against new-build economics should read our note on how OCR land bids climbed 57% to $1,537 psf ppr to see how differently the mass market and the prime district are priced right now.

Location and why Cairnhill still commands a premium

Site quality is the reason this block keeps coming back rather than being written off. Located in the Newton Planning Area within prime District 9, Trendale Tower is within a five-minute walk of Newton MRT Interchange, one stop from Orchard Road, and about a 10-minute drive from HealthCity Novena. The Newton area is set to become a vibrant mixed-use urban village under the URA Master Plan 2025, with sustained developer interest in the precinct. Newton MRT sits on both the North-South and Downtown lines, which is exactly the kind of dual-line connectivity that underpins long-stay serviced apartment demand from relocating executives and medical visitors.

What a Trendale owner actually faces next

For the 18 households, a successful sale is only step one. At a $168 million distribution across 18 units, the average gross share is roughly $9.33 million before legal and marketing deductions, and the real question is where that money goes next. A like-for-like freehold replacement in the same enclave is not cheap, and the stamp duty on a prime resale is often underestimated.

Consider an owner buying a $4,000,000 District 9 resale condo as a replacement home. Before you even reach Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty, the Buyer's Stamp Duty alone is substantial. It is always worth checking the exact figure with the stamp duty calculator rather than estimating, because the top bands catch people out.

That $179,600 is Buyer's Stamp Duty only. A Singapore Citizen who already owns and does not sell within the six-month remission window would add 20% ABSD, another $800,000 on a $4,000,000 purchase. This is why timing the sale of the current home against the new purchase is not a detail. You can read how the BSD and ABSD bands stack, and confirm the official position on the IRAS Buyer's Stamp Duty page and the IRAS ABSD page.

Opportunities and risks in plain terms

The opportunities are real. The SA2 option widens the buyer pool beyond developers who need to sell everything quickly, the freehold prime CCR land is genuinely scarce, and the possible ABSD remission for serviced apartment use removes one of the biggest deal-killers of the last few tender cycles. Newton's dual-line MRT access and the Master Plan 2025 urban-village vision support long-term value.

The risks are equally concrete. This is a fourth attempt at a price that failed in 2023, and previous attempts coincided with cooling measures and heightened development costs that raised the overall risk profile of en bloc deals. SA2 support is an indication subject to approvals, not a guarantee, and the ABSD remission is described as possible. Prime resale demand has been soft, so an owner banking on an expensive replacement should model the numbers conservatively before signing. If you are weighing a brand-new prime alternative instead of a resale, our review of The Collective at One Sophia covers current central-region launch pricing, though remember to check which floor-area measurement convention each project uses before comparing psf across a new launch and an older resale block like Trendale.

Run your own numbers: try the Intrinsic Value Tool to check whether an asking price is fair (free, no sign-up).

Trendale Tower is a useful case study in how the market is adapting: when a straight redevelopment keeps stalling, an income-holding SA2 structure can reopen a deal that price cuts alone could not. If you own in an ageing prime block, are watching a nearby en bloc, or are simply trying to work out what your own home is worth in today's market, the team at PropertyNet.SG can run the numbers with you independently, from stamp duty exposure to timing your sale and purchase. Reach out for a personalised, no-obligation conversation before you commit to anything.