The biggest launch of 2026.

James Lim · CEA Reg. R063631F · PropNex Realty Pte Ltd

Thomson Reserve opens for bookings on Saturday 31 October 2026, and it arrives with numbers no other launch this year can match. The 1,268-unit redevelopment of the former Thomson View on Upper Thomson Road drew 11,800 visitors on its first preview weekend, the highest turnout of 2026, and more than 23,000 by the end of the first week. Indicative prices start at $1.544 million for a 592 sq ft two-bedder, or $2,608 psf, with three-bedders from $2.503 million and four-bedders from $3.388 million. That entry price sits 11.5% above what JadeScape, the 1,206-unit project at Shunfu Road that was the area’s last mega launch in 2018, has averaged in resale over the past year. ERA Singapore’s chief executive Marcus Chu calls it “a rare chance to buy into a brand-new launch at resale prices”. That sentence is doing a lot of work, so this piece checks it: against the resale ladder next door, against the land price underneath the project, and against a market where developers’ sales fell by almost half last quarter.

What is launching at Thomson Reserve on 31 October?

Thomson Reserve is the redevelopment of Thomson View, which CapitaLand Development, UOL Group and Singapore Land Group bought en bloc for $810 million in November 2024, the biggest collective sale of that year. With the betterment charge and the top-up to a fresh 99-year lease, the land came to about $1,178 psf per plot ratio. The 5 ha site runs 500 m along Upper Thomson Road and sits a two-minute sheltered walk from Upper Thomson MRT on the Thomson-East Coast Line, with Thomson Plaza across the road and Ai Tong School within walking distance. The joint venture is split 50% CapitaLand Development, 40% UOL and 10% Singapore Land. PropNex, ERA and Huttons are the joint marketing agents.

The 1,268 units come in two collections. The Classic Collection puts 740 units in four 21-storey towers, two to four bedrooms. The Luxury Collection puts 528 units in two 30-storey towers, from two-bedroom premium layouts up to 28 five-bedroom suites of 1,808 sq ft, with 112 units served by private lifts. The six towers take up 12% of the land; the rest goes to more than 80 facilities across three clubhouses, including eight pools and two 50 m lap pools. Two-bedders dominate the mix at 716 units, or 56.5% of the project, followed by 350 three-bedders, 174 four-bedders and the 28 suites. VIP previews began on 16 October, the public preview on 17 October, and bookings open on 31 October. Completion is expected in the second half of 2030.

Why did 23,000 people turn up before a single unit was sold?

Three things, in order of weight. The first is scarcity in this pocket. Upper Thomson and Shunfu have not had a mega launch since JadeScape in September 2018, when Qingjian sold 411 of its first 480 units at an average of about $1,665 psf. Everything since has been smaller or further away: the Lentor cluster is one and two stops north, and nothing new has opened beside Upper Thomson station itself. A buyer who wanted a new home within a two-minute walk of this station has waited eight years, and the developers told EdgeProp the limited supply nearby is drawing an islandwide pool: first-timers, young families with school-going children, multi-generational households and right-sizers.

The second is the quantum. With 716 two-bedders from $1.544 million, more than half the project is priced where an upgrader with a Bishan, Ang Mo Kio or Toa Payoh flat to sell can reach it. Chu reports particularly strong interest in three-bedders under $3 million, which he calls the sweet spot in the current market, and PropNex chief executive Kelvin Fong expects the two-bedroom premium-plus-study layouts to appeal to owner-occupiers and investors alike. The third is the location, which Chu says is the biggest draw: the sheltered walk to the Thomson-East Coast Line, Thomson Plaza across the road, the Upper Thomson food stretch, Ai Tong within walking distance and the Central Catchment Nature Reserve as the view from the upper floors. Buyers who have watched a string of Lentor launches sell since 2022 now get the same line, closer to town, with a mall and a hawker strip already open.

How does $2,608 psf compare with JadeScape and the Thomson to Bishan resale market?

Side by side with the completed projects on the same line, $2,608 psf is a premium, not a discount. JadeScape has averaged $2,339 psf over the past 12 months on EdgeProp’s data, with deals from $1,850 to $2,710 psf, so Thomson Reserve’s entry price is 11.5% above that average. Sky Vue beside Bishan interchange has averaged $2,233, Thomson Three $2,103 and The Panorama $2,099. Only AMO Residence in Ang Mo Kio, a 2022 launch that completes this year, trades close to the new price at $2,520 psf. The premium shrinks as the units get bigger: JadeScape three-bedders changed hands at $2,612 to $2,710 psf in September, which brackets Thomson Reserve’s three-bedroom entry of $2,643.

There is a technical reason the psf gap looks a little wider than it is. Since 1 June 2023, new projects have measured strata area on URA and BCA’s harmonised basis, which leaves out air-con ledges and similar spaces that older projects counted in the saleable area. A 592 sq ft two-bedder at Thomson Reserve is therefore somewhat closer in usable terms to an older unit of the same quoted size than the headline suggests, and that is the sense in which Chu calls the pricing comparable to JadeScape and AMO Residence after adjusting for harmonisation.

Where the gap is undeniable is size for money. The $1.5 million to $1.75 million that buys 592 sq ft at the entry of Thomson Reserve has bought 646 to 764 sq ft two-bedders in the resale market this year, a short walk away.

What does the $810 million land price say about where the average will land?

Developers do not price from the resale ladder; they price from their land. The $1,178 psf ppr the joint venture paid for Thomson View is the cheapest land in this corridor in years. A month ago Malaysia’s Eco World paid $1,612 psf ppr for the Lorong Puntong and Sin Ming Avenue site, about 140 homes in the same planning area, a land cost 37% higher. In Lentor, Kingsford paid $920 psf ppr for the Lentor Gardens site in April 2025 and launched Lentor Gardens Residences in July at an average of $2,350 psf, 2.6 times its land rate. GuocoLand, Hong Leong and TID turned $985 psf ppr land into Lentor Mansion in March 2024 at $2,104 psf and up, with an average above $2,200. A Kingsford-led consortium launched One Marina Gardens at 2.1 times its $1,402 land. Recent launches, then, have sold at roughly 2.1 to 2.6 times their land rate. Apply that range to $1,178 and you get about $2,470 to $3,060 psf, so an entry price of $2,608 sits in the lower half of what the record implies, and the project average, once the higher floors, the Luxury towers and the private-lift units are in, will land above the entry. The next launch in this pocket, on Eco World’s land, will have to start higher still: property consultants polled by EdgeProp in September expect prices there from about $3,000 psf.

What does Thomson Reserve do to JadeScape and the resale market next door?

Two things that pull in opposite directions. In the short run, a new benchmark lifts the ceiling. JadeScape’s first-phase buyers paid about $1,665 psf in 2018 and the project now averages $2,339 psf, a 40% gain in eight years; its three-bedders already trade at $2,612 to $2,710 psf, inside Thomson Reserve’s three-bedroom pricing. Every visitor who walks out of the showflat with a $2,608 number in their head makes a $2,300 psf resale unit look reasonable, and sellers at JadeScape, Thomson Three and Sky Vue will be pricing against the launch within weeks. That is the classic new-launch halo, and it is real.

In the long run, the same 1,268 units are competition. When Thomson Reserve completes in 2030 the pocket gains more new homes than JadeScape holds, and most of them two-bedders. URA’s third-quarter rental contracts put JadeScape two-bedders at $4,000 to $4,600 a month and three-bedders at $5,600 to $7,600; AMO Residence let two-bedders at $3,200 to $4,600 and three-bedders at $4,800 to $5,700. On today’s JadeScape rents, a $1.544 million two-bedder at Thomson Reserve would gross 3.1% to 3.6% before costs, and a $2.503 million three-bedder 2.7% to 3.6%. Those are 2026 rents on a 2030 completion, in a market where islandwide vacancy was 7.2% in the third quarter and 716 new two-bedders will be looking for tenants at the same time as the last of the Lentor projects. The halo is immediate; the competition arrives with the keys.

Who should book on 31 October, and who should wait?

What is the catch?

Start with the market. URA’s third-quarter data, published on 23 October, showed private home prices up 1.4% in the quarter, but the Rest of Central Region, where Thomson Reserve sits, was flat at 0.0% while the Outside Central Region rose 2.3%. Developers sold 1,183 new units in the quarter, down from 2,141 in the second, and launched only 1,140. Thomson Reserve on its own carries more units than every launch in the third quarter combined. There were 20,300 unsold units with planning approval at the end of September, ECs included, and about 57,200 private homes due to complete in the coming years. A project this size launching into that is a bet that the location can clear what the wider market cannot. The first-week numbers say the bet is reasonable; they do not say it is won.

Then the fine print of the price list. The $2,608 psf is one unit, the cheapest 592 sq ft two-bedder, and the average on booking day will be higher once floors, facings and the Luxury towers are priced; the developers can also revise the list before 31 October. On size, the entry units are compact: at 592 sq ft a two-bedder is a couple’s or a single’s home, and anyone picturing a family in it should walk the showflat unit with the furniture plan in hand. On timing, a 2030 completion means four years of progressive payments at whatever rates 2027 to 2030 bring, and an exit that cannot be tested until the keys are in hand. None of this makes the launch a bad buy. It makes “a new launch at resale prices” a line to check unit by unit, which is what the tables above are for.

The bottom line

Related: every H2 2026 launch, with prices and dates →

Related: the $1,612 psf ppr Sin Ming land, and what it underwrites for this pocket →

Related: Q3 2026 rents and vacancy, region by region →

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