Chencharu Grove BTO Review: A 31-Month Flat, and No Date for the Hub Planned Next to It

Chencharu Grove is a sound Standard flat on a short clock, sold inside an estate that exists mostly on HDB's plans. Start with the parts HDB puts numbers on. It has 826 flats in six blocks. It is a Standard project, so the Minimum Occupation Period is 5 years and there is no subsidy recovery when you sell. HDB estimates 31 months from flat selection, which ties with Yishun Glade for the shortest wait in the October 2025 BTO exercise. The prices include floor finishes, internal doors and sanitary fittings, and its 4-room flats, at $358,000 to $439,000 before grants, sit below HDB's resale comparables nearby, at $590,000 to $660,000.

Now the parts HDB does not put numbers on. The brochure's case for Chencharu is an "upcoming mixed-use Integrated Development next to the project" with a new bus interchange, hawker centre and shops; a new road, Chencharu Link, that "will be a dedicated bus-only corridor"; and 2 planned bus stops. HDB's site plan marks both roads that bound the project as "future road" and labels the Integrated Development's plot "site sold". It gives no date for any of them, and a note on the same plan says the homes may be completed ahead of the precinct's facilities. HDB's 31 months is an estimate for the project's blocks, not for the estate around it.

If you hold an October 2025 Yishun queue number (the 3-room and 5-room rows were Chencharu's alone; the 2-room Flexi and 4-room rows also cover Yishun Glade):

• 5-room: book, if the flat and the wait suit you. Your number came out of the stiffest family queue in the October 2025 BTO exercise, on a row that was Chencharu's alone: 3.7 applications per flat set aside for first-timer families and 37.7 for second-timer families. Chencharu was the only Yishun project with 5-room flats that October, and on HDB's own income ladder a family earning $7,000 a month could buy one at typical prices with little or no cash payment.
• 4-room: know what the other Yishun project offered. Yishun Glade had the same 31-month estimate, the same finishes and the same 93 sqm 4-room flat, from $343,000 to $415,000 against Chencharu's $358,000 to $439,000. The two share HDB's Yishun 4-room rate row, where first-timer families faced 1.8. HDB does not explain the price gap. On HDB's own descriptions the two differ most in setting: Chencharu is served by Khatib MRT and has a hub and bus-only road planned around it, while Glade is served by bus services along Yishun Street 31 and Yishun Ring Road and by Yishun MRT.
• 3-room: book, if a 3-room fits. Chencharu's own row drew 2.1 from first-timer families, the highest 3-room rate for that group in the October 2025 BTO exercise, and Glade had no 3-room flats.
• 2-room Flexi: on the row shared with Glade, first-timer singles faced 4.9, below HDB's median of 7.4 for singles in that exercise, and buyers aged 55 and above can take a short lease from $54,000.

Who should look elsewhere. If your household's routine depends on the bus interchange or the hawker centre being open when you move in, or you want a settled neighbourhood rather than one still being built, resale elsewhere in Yishun is the other route: young 4-room flats (lease from 2015) resold at a median of $608,000 in the year to June 2026, most often on Yishun Avenue 4, Yishun Street 51 and Yishun Avenue 11. If you missed October 2025, HDB's November 2026 exercise lists 1,580 preliminary Yishun flats, with no project, classification or wait published until launch day. This review is as of September 2026; every rate in it is HDB's final figure.

Source: HDB's October 2025 Annex A price list; blocks from the sales brochure. Prices exclude grants, the resale levy and any additional payments. Price per sqm is PropKaki's arithmetic: the middle of each range over the floor area with the ledge.

The 4-room and 5-room flats make up most of the project, 276 and 236 of the 826. Buyers aged 55 and above can also take a 2-room Flexi flat on a lease of 15 to 45 years, from $54,000 for the smaller type on 15 years, provided the lease covers every buyer and spouse to at least age 95.

Per square metre, the 5-room is Chencharu's dearest flat, $4,898 at the midpoint, against $4,285 for the 4-room; it still drew the project's stiffest family queue.

HDB's brochure sells the estate as much as the flats. At the heart of Chencharu, it says, an east-west community avenue "will connect a new park to the existing neighbourhood park near Khatib MRT", and an upcoming mixed-use Integrated Development along that avenue "will house a new bus interchange, hawker centre, and shops". Chencharu Grove is "next to" it. A new road, Chencharu Link, "will run north-south through the centre of the estate", with housing and amenities on both sides, and will be a dedicated bus-only corridor "to facilitate smoother bus journeys". Walking and cycling paths are to connect the estate to a wider network reaching Sembawang, Khatib Bongsu, Lower Seletar Reservoir and the upcoming North-South Corridor.

Here is each piece in HDB's words, set against what its site plan and location map show:

Source: the Chencharu Grove sales brochure, October 2025 (estate pages, transport line, site plan and location map, read on the rendered pages). HDB: everything shown is "subject to change and planning approval".

Inside the project, HDB lists fitness corners, children's playgrounds, and a rooftop garden on the multi-storey car park with more fitness stations, resting shelters and a communal garden; a preschool is planned on the car park's first storey. Apart from the rental block's own shared facilities, all of it will be open to the public. The name, HDB says, "complements nearby developments such as Chencharu Hills and Chencharu Green". Around the site, the site plan shows public housing under construction across Chencharu Link, a neighbourhood park under construction, and land across Bah Soon Pah Road reserved for future high-rise housing.

Two readings:

• Most of the transport case is future. Khatib MRT is the one piece HDB calls existing, with the bus services on Yishun Avenue 2 and Sembawang Road beside it; the interchange, the bus-only corridor and the 2 planned bus stops are not built. HDB states no walking time to the station, and neither do we.
• The hub has no timetable in the brochure. Its plot is marked "site sold" on HDB's site plan, and the brochure says nothing about when it will be built or open.

Of everything HDB lists for getting around Chencharu, only Khatib MRT and the buses on Yishun Avenue 2 and Sembawang Road are in the present tense; the interchange, the bus-only road and the 2 planned bus stops are drawn, not dated.

HDB's description of Chencharu Grove includes a sentence worth reading slowly: "In addition, there will be a Single Room Shared Facilities (SRSF) rental block with 418 units and shared facilities within that block for the rental tenants." HDB adds nothing about the units beyond that sentence and the block's name.

What the brochure tells you, and no more:

• It is part of the project, not the sale. The site plan draws the rental block inside Chencharu Grove's boundary, among the six blocks for sale, and its colour key reads "rental (not available for sale)". Its 418 units are not among the 826 flats, and HDB's application rates cover only the flats that were for sale.
• Its facilities are its own; the rest are everyone's. HDB says the shared facilities in the rental block "are specifically for the rental tenants", and that every other facility in the project "will be accessible to the public", from the playgrounds to the rooftop garden on the car park.
• It changes nothing in your purchase. Your flat's classification, MOP and finishes are set by HDB's price list and brochure, and the rental block appears in neither the price list nor the rate rows.

What we do not claim: anything about who the tenants will be, how the block will be run, or any effect it may have on the flats around it. The brochure says nothing on the first two, and on the third there is no evidence to weigh: Chencharu Grove has never been resold or rented, and we forecast nothing. Whether a rental block inside the project matters to you is your own call. HDB encourages applicants to visit the place before booking a flat, and its site plan shows where the rental block stands against each block for sale, so check it against the unit you are considering.

Chencharu Grove's site plan shows seven residential blocks and only six are for sale: the seventh is a 418-unit rental block that shares the estate.

The 31 months is HDB's Annex A estimate: the time from the median month of flat selection in this launch to the median month HDB projects for completing the project's blocks. The brochure puts it as "a shorter waiting time of less than 3 years", which makes Chencharu Grove one of HDB's Shorter Waiting Time projects, those under 36 months. HDB publishes no completion date, and we do not work one out. The clock also starts well after your application: HDB told October 2025 applicants their queue positions in December 2025 and invites them to book in queue order. Once you have booked, the Probable Completion Date on MyHDB Page is the date to watch, and it too is an estimate that can move (see BTO construction progress and wait times).

HDB's release counted "3,294 Shorter Waiting Time (SWT) flats at Ping Yi Court, Fernvale Plains, Yishun Glade and Chencharu Grove", "more than a third of the flats launched". Against the whole exercise:

Source: HDB's October 2025 Annex A and final application rates, sorted by waiting time. "Finishes in the price" means floor finishes, internal doors and sanitary fittings, as HDB marked its price lists (see our BTO renovation guide).

• On the clock, Chencharu and Glade tie at 31 months, a month ahead of Fernvale Plains and two ahead of Ping Yi Court, the exercise's other Shorter Waiting Time projects. Every Plus and Prime project was estimated at 47 months or more, and Teban Heights, the one Standard project outside the fast group, at 48.
• On 4-room price, Chencharu had the third-cheapest start in the October 2025 BTO exercise, $358,000, behind Glade's $343,000 and Fernvale Plains' $344,000, all three with finishes in the price. Against a basic-flat project it is cheaper even on that project's terms: without its finishes Chencharu's 4-room is $350,000 to $430,000, against Teban Heights' $397,000 to $539,000.
• On the 4-room queue, Chencharu cannot be separated from Glade. HDB printed one Yishun 4-room row for both, at 1.8 for first-timer families: below Teban Heights (2.0), Fernvale Plains (2.5) and the Prime projects (3.1 to 3.5), above Ping Yi Court (1.7) and the Plus Oak Ville @ AMK (0.7).

Chencharu or Glade. The two Yishun projects share a clock, a classification, the finishes and two rate rows, and differ on the rest:

For the same 93 sqm 4-room, Chencharu asks $15,000 more at the bottom of the range and $24,000 more at the top. HDB does not say what sets the gap. On the two brochures, Chencharu comes with the hub, bus-only road and park HDB has planned around it; Glade's brochure points instead to bus services along Yishun Street 31 and Yishun Ring Road and to Yishun MRT Station.

If you missed October 2025. HDB's November 2026 exercise has about 7,960 flats in six towns, 1,580 of them in Yishun, in 2-room Flexi, 3-room, 4-room and 5-room types. Those figures are preliminary, and HDB names no project, classification or waiting time until launch day (see our BTO launch schedule). The last Sale of Balance Flats, in February 2026, offered 4,320 flats, and as at 18 September 2026 HDB had announced no other; every row Chencharu appears on drew more applications than flats, so leftovers from it are not something to plan around. Resale, the third route, is covered in the prices answer below.

Chencharu does not beat Glade on time; its case is the flat types Glade did not offer and the estate HDB has planned around it.

An application rate is the number of applications from one group of buyers divided by the flats HDB set aside for that group. It measures crowding, not your chance. HDB says about 20% of applications come from people who applied in earlier launches and may still be waiting to book, and it shortlists up to 200% of the flats, so a queue number beyond the supply is a place in line that depends on people ahead of you not booking. HDB also publishes one row per town and flat type, which is why Yishun Glade shares two of Chencharu's four rows.

Source: HDB's final figures for the October 2025 exercise (application window 15 to 22 October 2025). A dash means the group cannot apply or HDB printed no rate. HDB's medians for the whole exercise: 1.9 for first-timer families and 15.9 for second-timer families (3-room and bigger), 7.4 for first-timer singles (2-room Flexi).

• The 5-room row is Chencharu's alone, and no row in the October 2025 BTO exercise carried higher family rates. First-timer families faced 3.7, against HDB's median of 1.9, and second-timer families 37.7, more than twice the median of 15.9. HDB does not say why. Three things were public during the application window, and any of them may have played a part, though none is proven: Chencharu was the only Yishun project with 5-room flats, and one of four projects in that BTO exercise selling 5-room flats; it shared the exercise's shortest estimated wait; and HDB's launch release named Chencharu's 5-room, with Fernvale Plains', as within reach "with little or no cash payment" for a family earning $7,000 a month. A low price per square metre is not on that list: by that measure the 5-room is the project's dearest flat.
• The 3-room row is Chencharu's own too. No other Yishun project sold 3-room flats that October. First-timer families faced 2.1, above the 1.9 median and the highest 3-room rate for that group in the October 2025 BTO exercise; second-timer families faced 20.1.
• The 4-room row is shared with Glade: 1,533 applications for 439 flats across the two projects, with first-timer families at 1.8, just under the median, and second-timer families at 19.1. A shared row cannot tell you whether Chencharu's flats or Glade's cheaper ones drew more of those applications.
• The 2-room Flexi row is shared with Glade as well. First-timer singles faced 4.9, below HDB's singles median of 7.4; seniors faced 2.6, first-timer families 0.2 and second-timer families 0.9.

Ballot chances, under HDB's current rules. Chencharu is Standard, where HDB's ballot help is fullest. Families in the First-Timer (Parents & Married Couples) category get three ballot chances, plus first priority under the Family and Parenthood Priority Scheme when applying for a 4-room or smaller Standard flat; other first-timer families get two, and second-timer families one. A first-timer family unsuccessful in two or more Standard applications gets one more chance for each later Standard application, capped at five chances in all for Parents & Married Couples families and four for other first-timer families. HDB's own advice for next time, from its June 2026 release, is to "consider applying to projects with lower application rates, such as those with an application rate of around one or lower". Every project's rates are in BTO application rates and results.

Before you book: what changing your mind costs. At booking you pay an option fee of $500 for a 2-room Flexi, $1,000 for a 3-room and $2,000 for a 4-room or 5-room. Cancel after booking and you lose the option fee; cancel after signing the Agreement for Lease and you lose 5% of the price instead; either way you then wait out a year before applying again. Not choosing a flat when your number is called also costs a year: first-timer families are "placed in the second-timer category for a 1-year period", and singles and second-timer families cannot take part in any sales exercise for a year, unless 10 or fewer BTO flats were left to choose from. The full sequence is in how to apply for a BTO flat.

Chencharu's 5-room row carried the October 2025 BTO exercise's highest family rates; if you hold a number on it, decide on the flat and the wait, not on how many others wanted one.

The finishes. Chencharu's prices carry HDB's "~" mark: the flats "will come with full floor finishes, internal doors, and sanitary fittings". In the 3-, 4- and 5-room flats that means vinyl strip flooring in the bedrooms; floor tiles in the living and dining area, bathrooms, household shelter and kitchen (and the service yard in 4- and 5-room flats); wall tiles in the bathrooms and kitchen; bedroom doors and folding bathroom doors; and a wash basin with tap mixer, a shower set with bath/shower mixer and a water closet suite. HDB also prints the prices without them:

Source: HDB's October 2025 Annex A; the last column is our subtraction, low end against low end and high end against high end.

The general specifications for the 99-year flats list no kitchen cabinets, wardrobes, lighting, water heater or window grilles, so those stay in your budget. At Chencharu, HDB's opt-in Optional Component Scheme is for seniors buying short-lease 2-room Flexi flats only (see our BTO renovation guide).

After the grant. The Enhanced CPF Housing Grant (EHG) depends on your household's average gross monthly income over the 12 months before your HFE application: up to $120,000 for a first-timer family earning up to $1,500 a month, and nothing above $9,000. On Chencharu's cheapest flat of each type:

Source: HDB's EHG bands for first-timer families, applied by PropKaki to Chencharu's lowest prices. The full grant needs the lease to cover the youngest buyer to age 95.

Chencharu for one, or for a senior. A first-timer single aged 35 or older can buy a 2-room Flexi here and pays HDB's additional $15,000, built into the price, so the cheapest becomes $169,000. After the EHG for singles (at most $60,000, and none once your own income passes $4,500) that is $129,000 on $2,000 a month (EHG $40,000), $144,000 on $3,000 (EHG $25,000) and $159,000 on $4,000 (EHG $10,000). Buyers aged 55 and above can take a short-lease 2-room Flexi from $54,000. HDB's launch release also flagged an enhanced Silver Housing Bonus of up to $40,000 for eligible seniors right-sizing to a 2-room Flexi flat, when the enhancement was due to take effect in December 2025, and a cash bonus of up to $30,000 for seniors buying a 3-room flat in this exercise.

HDB's own after-grant table mixes Chencharu with Glade. HDB prints one Yishun row per flat type for both Standard projects, and the starting price is the lower of the two:

HDB calls these figures illustrative. Its headline for the whole exercise, "a 4-room Standard flat starting from $263,000", matches this Yishun row, so it is Glade's flat. At Chencharu's cheapest 4-room, a first-timer family reaches $263,000 on $3,000 a month, with a $95,000 grant.

What HDB's income ladder said. In its launch release HDB set out what households could buy "with little or no cash payment" at typical selling prices: a family earning $4,000 (EHG $80,000) could buy a 4-room Standard flat in Yishun Glade and Chencharu Grove; at $7,000 (EHG $30,000), a 5-room Standard flat in Fernvale Plains and Chencharu Grove; and at $9,000 (EHG $5,000), a 5-room Standard flat in Teban Heights, Fernvale Plains and Chencharu Grove, or a 3-room flat in any project, which is why the $9,000 column above applies to Chencharu's 3-room.

Income ceilings are dated. October 2025 applicants were assessed on the ceilings of the time: $14,000 a month for families buying a 4-room or bigger flat, $21,000 for extended families and $7,000 for a 99-year 2-room Flexi flat. HDB raised these to $16,000, $24,000 and $8,000 for HFE letters applied for on or after 24 August 2026.

PropKaki arithmetic on HDB's loan rules: a 75% HDB loan over 25 years, sized at HDB's 3.0% assessment floor, with instalments capped at 30% of income. A grant lowers both the price and the loan, and the rate HDB actually charges is below that 3.0% floor. Your HFE letter decides your grant and loan.

HDB's headline $263,000 4-room is Yishun Glade's flat; at Chencharu, a first-timer family reaches that price on a household income of $3,000, with a $95,000 grant.

With every launch HDB prints nearby resale flats it picked as comparables. For Chencharu Grove:

Source: HDB's October 2025 Annex A; the gap is our arithmetic, done as in our BTO prices guide. HDB named no resale comparable for the 2-room Flexi.

HDB's own caution applies: "The differences in attributes between the resale comparables and the new flats should be taken into account when making a comparison." A resale flat has no 31-month wait, and it comes with whatever its estate already has.

For the wider town, here is PropKaki's analysis of HDB resale registrations in Yishun, July 2025 to June 2026:

Read the last column first. The young-flat medians describe blocks on Yishun Avenue 4, Yishun Street 51 and Yishun Avenue 11 above all: Yishun Avenue 4 alone accounts for 57 of the 278 young 4-room resales. None of those streets is one of Chencharu's new roads, and no flat in Chencharu Grove has changed hands. These are prices other flats achieved, not a value for this project: we give no resale price, rent or forecast for Chencharu Grove.

HDB's comparables sit closest to Chencharu on the 5-room, a 26% gap, against 35% and 36% on the 3-room and 4-room.

Standard is the least restrictive of HDB's three classifications. For a Chencharu Grove owner:

• Selling. You must live in the flat for the 5-year Minimum Occupation Period before selling it or renting it out whole. The MOP runs from your own legal completion, which for a new flat is key collection, and time you do not live there does not count (see HDB flats reaching MOP). Selling a Standard flat carries no subsidy recovery and none of the 10-year MOP that Plus and Prime owners face.
• Your buyer. A resale Standard flat bought without the CPF Housing Grant has no income ceiling, so whoever buys from you is not held to one unless they take that grant, or an HDB housing loan, which has its own ceiling ($16,000 a month for families applying for an HFE letter from 24 August 2026).
• Renting out the whole flat. Only after the MOP, only if the owner is a Singapore Citizen, and only with HDB's approval. HDB caps the number of occupants by flat type and applies a non-citizen quota; once the quota is reached, the flat can be let only to Singaporeans and Malaysians.
• Renting out bedrooms. Owners of a 3-room or bigger flat may let spare bedrooms before the MOP, whether they are Citizens or Permanent Residents. A 2-room Flexi flat may not let out any bedroom.

These are HDB's rules, not a forecast: we give no resale price or rent for Chencharu Grove, which has neither. Check the current conditions with HDB before you plan around them.

At Chencharu the classification is the simple part: five years, then the open market with no clawback.

The documents behind the numbers. HDB's October 2025 launch release and its Annex A price list (flats, prices with and without finishes, the estimated waiting time and HDB's resale comparables); the Chencharu Grove sales brochure (setting, blocks, facilities, transport, finishes, the rental block, and the site plan and location map, which we read on the rendered PDF pages); HDB's final application rates for the October 2025 exercise; PropKaki's property_rules for grants, income ceilings, ballot chances, the MOP and HDB's renting rules; and PropKaki's analysis of HDB resale registrations in Yishun, July 2025 to June 2026. Yishun Glade's figures come from the same HDB documents. Whether each October 2025 project's prices include finishes is as HDB marked its price lists, as summarised in our renovation guide. Yishun's earlier launches in our data, Chencharu Green and Chencharu Vines (both Standard, February 2025), are named only.

The arithmetic. Price per square metre divides the middle of each price range by the floor area with the air-con ledge. The cost of the finishes is HDB's price with them less its price without them. The resale gap compares midpoints. The loan table assumes a 75% HDB loan over 25 years at HDB's 3.0% assessment floor, with a 30% cap on income. Grant figures apply HDB's EHG bands to Chencharu's lowest prices.

Not claimed, and why. No completion date or year for the flats, the Integrated Development, the bus-only corridor or anything else HDB has planned: HDB publishes none, and adding a wait to a launch month would be an inference. No resale price, rent or return for Chencharu Grove, which has not been built or resold; the resale figures describe other flats. Nothing about the rental block's tenants or any effect it may have. No forecast of any kind. This is a desktop analysis of HDB's documents and data, not a site or showflat visit. Application rates are HDB's final figures for a closed exercise and do not predict the next one; two of Chencharu's four rows are shared with Yishun Glade. Grant figures are illustrations, and your HFE letter decides your grant and loan. Nothing here is financial advice: verify every figure and rule with HDB before you book.