Newport Residences Review: Is Freehold in the CBD Worth ~$3,078 PSF?

Newport Residences is a buy if you want the one thing it uniquely offers — a freehold home you can walk to work from in the financial district — and a pass if you are shopping on space or price. Everything about the case turns on where it sits. The Central Business District is, almost without exception, a 99-year world: the offices, the newer condos, the serviced apartments around it are nearly all leasehold. A freehold home at the corner of Anson Road and Tanjong Pagar is close to a category of one, and that is precisely what you are paying for.

The headline numbers set the frame. Across 216 developer-sale caveats, Newport Residences is pricing at about $3,078 psf, with a median unit near $2.08M — roughly 43% above District 2's median resale (~$2,159 psf). That gap looks large until you remember what it compares: a brand-new freehold tower against a district-wide pool of older, mostly leasehold, lived-in stock. The premium is real, but a chunk of it is simply the price of new, freehold, and in the CBD.

So the verdict comes down to one question: do you actually want to live in, or hold in, the financial district — for a long time? If you are a city professional who values a five-minute commute and a freehold title, or an investor betting on the deep, permanent tenant pool the CBD generates, Newport is a genuinely distinctive asset with no real like-for-like rival. If you want a family-sized home, a quiet neighbourhood, or the most square feet for your money, the city core is the wrong postcode and this is the wrong buy. In the CBD, freehold is not a nice-to-have — it is the entire pitch.

The rest of this review shows the workings. For the market-wide picture, see our roundup of every 2026 new launch benchmarked against resale. You can also browse every 2026 launch in the Singapore new launches directory.

Freehold sites are scarce everywhere in Singapore, but in the financial district they are close to non-existent — and understanding why is the key to pricing Newport Residences.

Most of the CBD was assembled by the state and sold on 99-year leases to build the office towers that make up the financial core. When those older offices are redeveloped into homes today, they almost always stay leasehold. Newport Residences is the exception because of how it came about: it sits on the former Fuji Xerox Towers site, and the redevelopment was done under the URA's CBD Incentive (CBDI) Scheme — a policy that encourages owners of ageing CBD office blocks to convert them into mixed-use developments with a residential component. Per EdgeProp, CDL secured a roughly 25% uplift in plot ratio and gross floor area — about 655,000 sq ft more — by taking that route, and the underlying land was already an estate in perpetuity (freehold), which the homes inherit.

The practical upshot: this is not a freehold plot that came onto the market in the CBD — those effectively do not exist anymore. It is a freehold office site that a scheme allowed to become homes. That is why a review of Newport is not really a review of a condo in the usual sense; it is a review of a rarity event. You are not choosing between this freehold and the freehold next door — there is no freehold next door. You are choosing between owning freehold in the financial district and not owning it at all. If tenure is the axis you care about, start with freehold vs leasehold condo.

Across the 216 developer-sale caveats lodged so far, Newport Residences' median is about $3,078 psf, with the middle half of deals falling between roughly $2,979 and $3,245 psf. Because this is a CBD tower built around smaller, investor-friendly layouts, the median quantum is a relatively accessible ~$2.08M — you are buying an expensive per-square-foot address in a compact box, not a large home.

Two things stand out. First, the weight of demand sits in the small units — 137 of the 216 caveats are for homes under 750 sqft. That is the CBD investor signature: compact, lettable, walk-to-work stock. Second, PSF does not fall as units get bigger — the 3–4 bedroom band ($3,226 psf) actually prices above the 2–3 bedroom band ($2,979). The developer is not discounting the larger homes to move them, which tells you the big units are the scarce, view-led product here, not the volume play. The takeaway: going smaller lowers your total cheque, not your entry PSF. If that trade-off is new to you, read quantum vs PSF when buying a condo.

On paper, Newport's ~43% premium over District 2's median resale (~$2,159 psf, from 205 resale caveats) looks steep. But that comparison is unfair to any new launch: it pits a brand-new freehold CBD tower against a district-wide mix of older, mostly leasehold, lived-in homes. Some premium is simply the cost of new and freehold. The fairer question is how Newport prices against the launch a buyer would actually cross-shop in the same district:

The comparison set is thin for a reason — very little launches in this pocket of the CBD, which is itself part of Newport's scarcity. Its nearest analogue, One Bernam (a 99-year leasehold tower one street away), transacted around $2,551 psf. Newport sits roughly $500+ psf above it, about a 20% step. A meaningful slice of that gap is the freehold-versus-leasehold difference, made visible: One Bernam's clock started ticking the day it was sold; Newport's never will. Whether that permanence is worth the step is the core freehold question, worked through in freehold vs leasehold condo and how much a new-launch premium should be. What the premium is not is evidence of overpricing on its own — it is the market attaching a number to a title that genuinely cannot be replicated here.

This is the part of the pitch that either lands for you or does not. Newport Residences is at 80 Anson Road, bounded by Anson Road, Bernam Street and Tanjong Pagar Road — you are not near the financial district, you are in it.

The commute is the headline. For anyone working in the CBD or the Marina Bay financial district, this is a walk-to-work address — the kind of five-minute door-to-desk life that is normally impossible to buy freehold. On the doorstep is Tanjong Pagar, one of the city's densest and most characterful food-and-drink belts, with Duxton Hill, Maxwell and Lau Pa Sat hawker fare, and the bars and restaurants of the Tanjong Pagar–Anson stretch all within a short stroll.

Connectivity is unusually deep. Tanjong Pagar MRT (East–West Line) is walkable, and two Circle Line stations — Cantonment and Prince Edward Road — are under construction nearby, with the brochure noting a link bridge towards the upcoming Prince Edward Road station. That is three lines forming around one address.

And the location has a forward story. Newport sits across from the future Greater Southern Waterfront — the long-term redevelopment of the southern coastline from Marina Bay towards Pasir Panjang into a continuous waterfront district. That is a decades-long transformation, not a next-year amenity, so treat it as an upside thesis rather than a promise. Day to day, though, the appeal is simpler and immediate: you live where the city works and plays, and you own it outright.

Newport Residences is not a standalone condo — it is the residential portion (levels 23–45, plus a roof garden) of a single ~200-metre mixed-use tower called Newport Plaza. Below the homes sit branded serviced apartments (L10–L22), Grade-A offices (L02–L09) and restaurants at street level (L01). The whole development is also, per the developer's materials, Singapore's first private residence — and part of the first mixed-use development of serviced apartments, offices and restaurants — to receive the BCA Green Mark Platinum Super Low Energy (SLE) certification.

What does that mean for you as a buyer? The upsides are real: your address comes with F&B and services in the building, a genuinely energy-efficient design that can lower running costs, and the polish of a branded, resort-styled tower with sky gardens stitched up its height. The residential floors also sit high — from level 23 up — which lifts the homes above the street and buys light, air and city-and-sea views that a low-rise CBD site could never offer.

The trade-offs are just as real and worth naming plainly. A mixed-use tower means shared arrival and circulation with office and serviced-apartment users, so the sense of a private residential enclave is different from a standalone condo — busier, more transient, more hotel-like. And a vertical, land-scarce city site cannot offer the sprawling lawns, tennis courts and multiple pools of a large suburban development. You are buying a city-tower lifestyle: verticality, convenience and views, not grounds and space.

What makes Newport close to a category of one:

• Freehold in the CBD — effectively a category of one; permanent tenure with no lease decay, in a district that is otherwise almost entirely 99-year.
• A true walk-to-work address — inside the financial core, minutes from Tanjong Pagar MRT and two upcoming Circle Line stations.
• A branded, efficient, high-rise product — Green Mark Platinum SLE, sky gardens, and homes from level 23 up with city-and-sea views.
• Deep tenant demand — the CBD generates a permanent pool of professional renters; the launch's own take-up skewed to lettable small units.

What that rarity asks you to accept:

• A visible premium — ~43% over district resale and roughly $500+ psf above the leasehold rival next door.
• Compact, investor-weighted stock — most units are small; this is not a family-space product.
• A mixed-use, shared-circulation building — less private-enclave feel, more hotel-like, with office and serviced-apartment neighbours.
• A 2030 completion — you fund interim housing (or wait to let) while the tower is built.

Buy here if you are: city professionals who want to own where they work, freehold-first buyers who specifically want the CBD, and investors comfortable with a long hold and a compact unit let to CBD tenants. Not for you if: you need family space, you want the lowest quantum or PSF, you prefer a quiet residential neighbourhood, or you want the grounds and facilities of a large suburban condo. To pit it head-to-head against another shortlisted project, use our two-project comparison scorecard.

Newport Residences has never been resold — it is a brand-new launch — so there is no project track record to quote, and anyone promising you a return is guessing. The honest proxy is how comparable homes in its market segment have historically performed. Across matched resale pairs, 80.7% of Core Central Region (CCR) private resales sold above their purchase price, with a median gross gain of 21.2%.

Treat that as a base rate, not a forecast, and remember it is gross — before commission, buyer's and seller's stamp duties, any Seller's Stamp Duty, and loan interest. Two things tilt Newport's own odds in different directions. In its favour: freehold removes lease decay entirely, which is exactly why this is built for a long hold — over 15–20 years a freehold owner never watches the lease clock erode value the way a CBD leasehold owner eventually will. Against it: you are entering at a full CBD-freehold premium, so the appreciation has to clear a higher bar than a cheaper leasehold entry would.

On the rental side, the pack carries no yield figure and neither will we — but the demand picture is qualitatively strong: the financial district produces a deep, renewing pool of professional tenants, and the launch's own skew toward small, lettable units reflects investors pricing exactly that in. What that converts to as a yield depends entirely on your entry price, financing and holding costs — so model your specific unit rather than assume. Run it through the PropKaki profitability model, and read how to tell if a property will be profitable before you commit.

Yes. Newport Residences is freehold (the land is an estate in perpetuity), which is what makes it so unusual — it sits inside the Central Business District, where almost every site is 99-year leasehold. It is developed by CDL and Hong Leong on the former Fuji Xerox Towers site at 80 Anson Road, District 2, as the residential component of the mixed-use Newport Plaza.

Per the developer's materials, Newport Residences' expected date of vacant possession is 1 March 2030 (expected legal completion 1 March 2033), so a TOP around 2030. Note that automated property directories can show a different or wrong completion year for this address because the site was redeveloped from the earlier Fuji Xerox Towers — we take the date from the project's own documentation.

Based on 216 URA developer-sale caveats, Newport Residences' indicative pricing is about $3,078 psf (median unit ~$2.08M), with the middle half of deals between roughly $2,979 and $3,245 psf. The smallest studio/1-bedroom homes have a median around $1.39M, while the larger 3–4 bedroom units run to a median near $3.89M. Pricing is a live snapshot and moves as more units and stacks are released.

By indicative PSF, Newport Residences ($3,078) prices above One Bernam ($2,551) — both are District 2 CBD towers a street apart. The defining difference is tenure: Newport is freehold, One Bernam is 99-year leasehold, and a large part of Newport's ~$500+ psf step reflects that permanence. Both are mixed-use, high-rise, investor-friendly CBD addresses; if perpetual ownership in the financial district is what you want, Newport is effectively the only option, and One Bernam is the cheaper leasehold alternative.

Where the figures come from. Newport Residences' indicative pricing is the median of 216 URA private-sale caveats flagged New Sale for the project (window 31 January 2026 to 12 June 2026), from PropKaki's own transaction data. The ~43% premium compares that to the median PSF of Resale caveats in District 2 over the last ~18 months (205 caveats). The comparable-launch PSF for One Bernam is the median of its own New-Sale caveats over the last ~30 months, deduped per project. The 80.7% segment resale odds and +21.2% median gain come from matched private buy→sell pairs in the CCR via PropKaki's profitability model. Developer, tenure, expected completion, site/address, unit mix and the mixed-use concept are from the project's official launch materials and legal particulars — not our directory, whose completion field is unreliable for redeveloped sites. External context is cited inline: EdgeProp for the CBD Incentive Scheme and the freehold-CBD framing, EdgeProp for launch-weekend take-up and investor/rental demand, and 99.co for the launch.

What we did not do, and did not claim. This is a data and desktop analysis, not a showflat visit — we have not toured the units or verified finishes in person. Indicative PSF is a dated snapshot that moves as more units sell; PSF is price ÷ area, so a median shifts with which units transact, which the by-size table controls for. The resale benchmark is a district median, not a unit-matched valuation. Segment profit odds are gross (before commission, stamp duties, any SSD and interest) and are a base rate, not a forecast — Newport has never been resold. We quote no rental yield, because the evidence pack carries none; we describe tenant demand qualitatively only. Nothing here is financial advice; verify current rules and figures with URA, IRAS and HDB.