Leicester Suites is a new project along Leicester Road in Potong Pasir area. Located at 10 Leicester Road, it is situated between residential developments Platinum Edge and Intero developments. Just across the Leicester Road, it sits the One Leicester development by Centrepoint Properties.

One Leicester

Leicester Suites is developed by Macly Capital Pte Ltd. Macly Capital Pte Ltd is the developer of Wilkie 80, Zedge, and Newton Edge. You will realise that their projects are mostly boutique project with small units. It is the same case for Leicester Suites. With 14 storeys high, it has a total of 47 units ranging from 420 to 1087 sqft. All units are 1 bedder suites, targeting at professional singles or young couples with no kids.

Location

3 storey apartments which has been demolished

The site used to be occupied by a 3 storey high private apartments with long carpark garage. Though an enbloc exercise, the developer acquired the land and propose Leicester Suites. It takes 10 minutes walk from the site to Potong Pasir MRT station, which makes the location rather convenient and strategic. Educational institutions like Saint Andrew’s Secondary School, Saint Andrew’s Junior School and Saint Andrew’s Junior College are located nearby.

If you are driving, the area has easy access to CTE & PIE highways. In addition, we are looking forward to the state land above the Potong Pasir MRT Station to be developed soon. It is potentially a big shopping mall for the residents around. As for the moment now, we could visit the HDB retails and amenities in the Potong Pasir Estate.

Shoebox Development

Shoebox units are getting popular with many buyers, with affordability becoming an issue. Therefore units with small area, though at higher selling cost per sq foot, appear rather affordable as the lump sum is still manageable to many buyers. To many small developer players, selling units of smaller areas equates to faster disposal for the units. In a way it reduces their risk in the business and eases their financing during the construction period.

For Leicester Suites, each unit costs ranging from $400k onwards, translating to an estimated $1000 psf. The price tags may appear attractive to some buyers,  especially to singles and young couples looking at alternatives other than HDB yet could not fork out more than $1mil per unit.

Units Layout

Each units will not enjoy much view as it is located beside the developments same height or higher than Leicester Suites.

Kitchen is an open counter concept, with a single bowl sink and a 2 zone induction hod. For a shoebox unit, you cannot really do a heavy cooking with limited space granted.

There is no yard in the development. And this is common in shoebox apartments as the end users are young professionals who are used to using washer and dryer. Therefore it maybe ‘interesting’ for you to  note that the washer/dryer is placed at the balcony, which I wonder how the developer is able to shelter it away from the weather.

Many units come with study space. I would have thought that the space will be much more efficient with the study room removed, so we could a larger and more efficient living/dining area, and a more spacious bedroom.

Household Shelter

All units come with household shelter. Though the end users could use household shelter as store room, the space is considered not so well utilized especially with its thick structural wall wasted.

You may want to note that developers have the option to provide either household shelters within each individual unit, or storey shelters in the common property area on each storey in the development. Storey shelter is normally housed within the staircase, where it double-up as a shelter. Therefore in some new developments, you do not see any household shelters in each of dwelling unit.

Therefore many buyers prefer to purchase units with no household shelter which takes up much space with its thick wall, as the same time the space is not so functional except being used as a store room. It may be especially valid to Leicester Suites where the internal space is already very tight.

Carpark

There are 47 units in the developments, however there are only 38 carpark lots are provided. It seems that the residents have to try their luck through balloting in getting their carpark lots. And out of the 38 carpark lots, there are 27 of them are mechanical lots. To be frank, mechanical carpark is not something I fancy:(

Leicester Suites

If you are looking at rental return as investment, Leicester Suites may be a development that you want to consider in view of its relatively low entry price as well as its proximity to MRT station and town.

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