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Singapore's biggest road project since the CTE is being built right now. Here's who profits.
By James Ong CEA Reg No. R008385F PropNex Realty mychoicehomez.comThe North-South Corridor is Singapore's most ambitious road project in a generation. Here's which property corridors will benefit most. And how to position ahead of completion.🛣️
The Expressway That Will Add 15 Minutes Back to 200,000 Daily Lives
+ The Yishun-AMK-Bishan CTE Commute, Before and After →− Collapse
Every working day, hundreds of thousands of residents in the Yishun-AMK-Bishan belt sit in northbound CTE traffic. The 45-minute commute to the CBD becomes 55 minutes. The 30-minute journey becomes 40. Over a year, that's weeks of life spent stationary on a highway. The North-South Corridor changes this permanently. And the property market always prices infrastructure improvements before the ribbon is cut. For buyers in D20 and D26, the question isn't whether NSC adds value. It's whether that value is fully in the price yet.
What the NSC Is and When It Opens
The North-South Corridor (NSC) is a 21.5km transit-priority expressway from Woodlands to the city centre, featuring dedicated bus lanes and cycling paths alongside the main carriageway. Unlike traditional expressways, the NSC is designed to significantly reduce travel times for public bus commuters, not just private car users. Phased opening: 2027 (first phase) through 2031 (full corridor).
Estimated Travel Time Savings: NSC vs Current CTE (Peak Hour)From residential zones to Raffles Place / CBD, private car and express bus. Estimates based on LTA projections.
Which Districts Gain Most
The Property Value Mechanism
Transport infrastructure creates property value through one channel: reducing effective distance between residential areas and employment centres. MRT stations generate documented 5–15% premiums within 500m in Singapore. Road infrastructure effects are typically smaller but more broadly distributed across a corridor. The NSC's primary impact will be felt across the Yishun–AMK–Bishan axis. A significant swath of OCR and lower-end RCR real estate. The 2027 first-phase opening is a potential price catalyst.
How JadeScape, Clover By The Park, Thomson 800 and Thomson Reserve Are Actually Positioned
Four named projects sit along this corridor, and they are not equally positioned. Two are living through active NSC construction right now. Two are further from it, for different reasons.
+ Where each of the four actually sits on the corridor →− Collapse
JadeScape (Shunfu Road, Marymount, D20, 1,206 units, TOP 2023) sits closest to where the NSC is physically being built. The Marymount Road, Sin Ming Avenue and Bishan Street 22 junction, a short walk away, has had a tunnel under construction beneath it since 2023, and the adjacent Marymount Flyover has been closed for NSC works since 8 October 2023, not due to reopen until 2029 (LTA, Oct 2023). Resale has run $1,856 to $2,652 psf, averaging around $2,325 psf, up roughly 35% since 2018 (EdgeProp, PropertyGuru, 2026). Some of that is the NSC premium already priced in. How much of the remaining six years of construction is priced in is a separate question.
Clover By The Park (Bishan Street 25, D20, 616 units, 99-year leasehold) sits on the same side of the same junction as JadeScape, at a comparable distance from the tunnel works. Resale has run $1,671 to $2,129 psf, averaging about $1,920 psf (EdgeProp, PropertyGuru, 2026), a meaningfully lower entry point for a similar location and the same construction exposure. Worth asking why before assuming it is simply trading cheaper for no reason.
Thomson 800 (798 Thomson Road, D11, freehold, 390 units, built 1999) sits further south on the same Thomson Road corridor, closer to the Novena end than to Marymount. LTA's joint release with SLA and BCA in April 2021 confirms tunnel excavation on this stretch required the acquisition and demolition of a separate building at 68-74 Thomson Road, after a structural study found it unsafe to reinforce so close to the works. Thomson 800 is not that building, but it sits on the same corridor where NSC tunnelling is an active, multi-year reality. Freehold on a 27-year-old building changes the calculus versus a fresh launch: tenure security against a sinking fund absorbing years of nearby heavy construction, exactly what an AGM minutes review should be checking, not just the psf.
Thomson Reserve (Bright Hill Drive, D20, 1,268 units, UOL and CapitaLand, launching October 2026) sits furthest north, next to MacRitchie Reservoir and about two minutes from Upper Thomson MRT. It is closer to the northern, still-under-construction phase of the NSC, targeted for partial opening in 2027 (LTA), than to the active tunnelling around Marymount and Novena. Buyers here are further from the disruption the other three are living through right now, and also further from being able to verify how much of the eventual benefit is already sitting in the launch price versus how much reflects new supply and a fresh lease.
Proximity to the finished NSC and proximity to the construction site are two different things, and the market does not always price them the same way. James's Note above still holds. What is less priced, in my view, is which of these buildings is absorbing the excavation right now, and which is simply waiting for a ribbon to be cut elsewhere on the corridor.
What to Buy Ahead of NSC Completion
The NSC investment thesis: buy in corridors where the infrastructure benefit is confirmed but not yet fully priced. In 2025, the gap between current PSF and post-NSC assessed values in the Bishan-Thomson-Lentor belt has narrowed but hasn't fully closed. Particularly for units in the $1.5M–$2.2M range targeted by HDB upgraders. Cross Island Line (CRL) stations along the AMK-Serangoon corridor represent a 5–10-year infrastructure capture story stacked on top of NSC benefits.
Read Next
- District 20: How NSC Changes Bishan and Thomson Values
- District 26: NSC Plus TEL — A Dual Infrastructure Story
- 2026 Outlook: Infrastructure as a Price Driver
James's Note
I've tracked infrastructure-driven property premiums across multiple projects over the years. The most reliable pattern: buy when the project is confirmed by the government, not when the station or road opens. By the time the ribbon is cut, the price has moved. For the NSC, the confirmation came years ago. The 2027 partial opening is the next catalyst. The question is whether the market has fully priced the northern corridor impact. And in D26 specifically, I don't believe it has.
Sources: LTA, North-South Corridor Project Details; LTA/SLA/BCA Joint Release, 68-74 Thomson Road (Apr 2021); URA; EdgeProp, PropertyGuru and SRX transaction data (2026); PropNex Research; Infrastructure Impact Studies
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Disclaimer+
James Ong | CEA Reg No. R008385F | PropNex Realty Pte Ltd | mychoicehomez.com
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Property investments involve risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Please consult a qualified professional before making any property decision.
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This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Property investments involve risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Readers should seek independent advice from licensed professionals before making any property or financial decision. James Ong is a licensed real estate salesperson (CEA Reg No. R008385F) with PropNex Realty Pte Ltd and is not a licensed financial adviser.
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