Union Square Residences Review: Is the ~$3,107 PSF River Address Worth It?

Union Square Residences is a buy for one kind of buyer: the city professional or CBD-fringe investor who wants a central Singapore River address wrapped in ready-made buzz — and a pass if you value quiet, a big private estate, or the security of freehold. Its entire case is that you are not betting on a location; you are buying into one that already works.

That is the real point of difference. This is CDL redeveloping the old Central Mall / Fireman's Estate site on Havelock Road into a mixed-use address on the Singapore River — 366 homes above a 20-storey Grade A office tower, a co-living block, and retail, dining and conserved shophouses — right where the CBD meets Clarke Quay and Chinatown. You wake up inside a functioning precinct with an MRT interchange (Chinatown), the North East Line (Clarke Quay) and the Downtown Line (Fort Canning) all within reach, not a construction frontier waiting a decade to mature.

The numbers frame the trade cleanly. Across 187 developer-sale caveats, Union Square is pricing at about $3,107 psf (median unit near $2.30M) — roughly 57% above District 1's median resale. That gap looks large until you place it against other prime launches: the ultra-luxury towers next door price far higher, and Union Square lands close to One Marina Gardens' launch pricing. The difference is what you get for it — a finished, buzzing riverside precinct versus a new Marina South masterplan that is still filling in.

So the verdict turns on one honest question: do you want to live inside the city's energy, or beside its calm? If you want to step out of your lobby into restaurants, offices and river life — and you are buying central convenience and rentability, not a serene retreat — Union Square is a genuinely rare product. If tourist footfall, nightlife noise and traffic would wear on you, or you need a large-estate feel, the money buys more peace elsewhere. You are paying for the buzz — make sure you actually want it.

This review shows the full 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.

Two of these figures deserve a note. The developer, tenure, expected completion, site and unit mix are taken from CDL's own launch materials, not our directory — our automated records carry a completion year of 2027 for this site, which is wrong: the developer's disclosure gives expected vacant possession as 15 March 2031. We have used the brochure. The pricing is our own, computed from URA developer-sale caveats. Independent coverage from EdgeProp corroborates the launch: CDL sold about 20% of the project (roughly 75 units) at an average of $3,200 psf on the first day of sales.

Union Square is CDL's reinvention of an established stretch of the Singapore River rather than a new district built from scratch — and that framing is the single most important thing to understand before you judge the price.

The site sits on Havelock Road at what the developer calls the seam "where dynamic CBD meets historic Singapore River meets bustling Clarke Quay meets vibrant Chinatown." Instead of a standalone condo, CDL is building an integrated address: Union Square Residences (366 homes over 40 storeys), Union Square Central (a 20-storey Grade A office tower with ground-floor retail and a rooftop restaurant), a co-living block, and a spread of shops, restaurants and conserved shophouses, knitted together by public spaces like a Central Plaza and Grand Stand for food-truck events and outdoor performances.

The reason this matters for a buyer: the surrounding lifestyle already exists and is being upgraded, not conjured. Clarke Quay — the riverside nightlife and dining belt on your doorstep — has just been through a rejuvenation, and the adjacent CanningHill development adds more retail. You are steps from Boat Quay, Robertson Quay, Fort Canning Park, the museum belt and, a short ride away, Raffles Place and Marina Bay. This is the opposite of a frontier bet: the amenities that a new-town launch promises you in ten years, Union Square largely hands you on day one. The trade-off — and there is always one — is that an established entertainment precinct comes with tourists, nightlife and traffic, which we weigh honestly further down.

Across the 187 developer-sale caveats lodged so far, Union Square Residences' median is about $3,107 psf, with the middle of the market running between roughly $2,960 psf (cheaper quartile) and $3,243 psf (pricier quartile). The median transacted price works out to about $2.30M. That sits neatly under the ~$3,200 psf launch-day average EdgeProp reported — a useful cross-check that our caveat read matches the market, and a sign that later releases have transacted a touch below the opening batch.

Two things stand out. First, this is a small-format, investor-friendly stack: the bulk of demand (134 of 187 caveats) is in units at or below 750 sqft, and the entry quantum is genuinely accessible for District 1 — the smallest homes have a median near $1.52M (independent listings show units advertised from around $1.38M). Second, PSF is fairly flat through the one- and two-bedroom bands ($3,059–$3,120) and then jumps for the large-format 1,500 sqft-plus homes ($3,449 psf), where the penthouse and Sky Suites carry a top-floor, best-view premium. The practical read: a smaller unit lowers your quantum but not really your entry PSF — the per-square-foot price only climbs when you move up to the marquee large units. If PSF discipline matters to you, read quantum vs PSF when buying a condo.

On paper, Union Square's ~57% premium over District 1's median resale (~$1,981 psf, from 258 caveats) looks steep. But that comparison is unfair to any new launch: you are pitting a brand-new leasehold tower with fresh finishes and a full facilities deck against a district-wide pool of older, lived-in stock on shorter remaining leases. Part of that premium is simply the price of new. The honest benchmark is how Union Square prices against the launches a District 1 buyer would actually cross-shop:

Read against its true peers, the picture flips. Union Square ($3,107 psf) is nowhere near the ultra-luxury tier — Skywaters Residences, the Shenton Way super-prime tower, launched at almost double the PSF. Where it lands is just **above One Marina Gardens ($2,958 psf)**, the big Marina South first-mover — a difference of roughly $150 psf, or about 5%. And that small gap is the whole argument: One Marina Gardens is a bet on a future Marina South precinct that is still being built out, while Union Square puts you inside an already-established, working riverside district. You are paying a modest premium not for a better tower, but for a neighbourhood you can use from day one. Whether that is worth it is a location-and-lifestyle judgement, not an overpricing verdict — and it is exactly the kind of prime-versus-prime call worked through in the CCR, RCR and OCR buying guide and how much a new-launch premium should be. To put two shortlisted projects side by side on your own criteria, use our two-project comparison scorecard.

Union Square Residences is a 366-unit tower rising to 40 storeys, with a spread that runs from 1-bedroom homes up to 4-bedroom Premium units, plus two expansive Sky Suites and a single Penthouse. As the by-size caveats show, the project leans small-format — one- and two-bedders dominate the transacted mix — which fits its positioning as a central, rentable, lock-up-and-go city home rather than a large-family estate product.

The fit-out is pitched at the prime end. CDL specifies a Corten induction hob with V-Zug cooker hood and oven, a Liebherr fridge and De Dietrich washer-dryer as standard, with selected units upgrading to a V-Zug combi steamer oven, gas hob, De Dietrich dishwasher and Liebherr wine chiller. Bathrooms use Hansgrohe and Geberit fittings with engineered stone vanity tops, and the 4-bedroom Premium, Sky Suites and Penthouse add a Rimadesio walk-in closet. The development is also BCA Green Mark Platinum (Super Low Energy) and comes with a full smart-home gateway — remote air-con, lighting, digital lockset, video doorbell and energy monitoring — plus concierge-style Residential Host services.

One caveat on the pricing table above: the bedroom labels are size proxies reconstructed from our own URA caveats, not CDL's official unit schedule. They are reliable for reading how PSF moves with size, but for the exact unit mix, stack layouts and floor plans, you would confirm against the developer's price list — see how to read a new-launch price list and unit chart.

Union Square 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 actually 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 shape Union Square's own odds specifically. On the upside, its rental demand profile is unusually deep for a launch: a central river-and-CBD address, walking distance to Raffles Place, Clarke Quay, offices in its own podium and three MRT lines, in a small-format stack that tenants and expatriates actively seek — that is a genuine leasing catchment, not a hopeful one. On the caution side, the CCR has historically been the slower-moving of Singapore's three regions for capital gains, and this is a 99-year leasehold, so the lease clock runs from day one. We do not quote a rental yield figure here, because a reliable one depends on the specific unit, floor, quantum and achievable rent — to model rent against price and your own costs, run a unit through the PropKaki profitability model, and read how to tell if a property will be profitable.

What the riverside address puts at your door:

• A finished, buzzing location on day one — the Singapore River / Clarke Quay precinct already exists and is being upgraded, not built from scratch.
• True live-work-play — offices (Union Square Central), retail, dining and conserved shophouses in the same development; you can commute by lift.
• Exceptional connectivity — Chinatown (interchange), Clarke Quay (North East Line) and Fort Canning (Downtown Line) all nearby, with Raffles Place and Marina Bay minutes away.
• Deep rental catchment — a central, small-format stack in a CBD-fringe river address that tenants actively want.
• Prime-grade product — V-Zug/Liebherr/Hansgrohe/Rimadesio finishes, BCA Green Mark Platinum, full smart home, CDL's 60-year track record.

What the round-the-clock buzz costs you:

• Buzz cuts both ways — an entertainment precinct means tourist footfall, nightlife noise and peak-hour traffic; user reviews flag exactly these.
• 99-year leasehold — the lease runs from October 2024, so lease decay is in play over a long hold, unlike a freehold.
• A visible premium — ~57% over District 1 resale, and priced above One Marina Gardens.
• A city-home footprint — small-format units and a dense central site, not a sprawling resort-style estate.
• A 2031 completion — you fund interim housing while you wait.

The right buyer here: city professionals who want to live inside the action, CBD-fringe investors chasing rentability and a central river address, and lock-up-and-go owners. This isn't your home if: you want quiet and privacy, a large private estate, freehold tenure, or the lowest possible premium. For the tenure question specifically, read freehold vs leasehold condo.

Union Square Residences is on Havelock Road in District 1, on the Singapore River beside Clarke Quay, at the seam where the CBD meets the historic quay and Chinatown. It is part of a mixed-use development that also includes a Grade A office tower, co-living, retail and dining. Three MRT stations are within reach — Chinatown (interchange), Clarke Quay (North East Line) and Fort Canning (Downtown Line) — with Raffles Place, Marina Bay, Boat Quay, Robertson Quay, Fort Canning Park and the museum belt all nearby.

Based on 187 URA developer-sale caveats, Union Square Residences' indicative pricing is about $3,107 psf (median unit ~$2.30M), with most units between $2,960 and $3,243 psf, and the smallest homes from roughly $1.52M. That aligns with the ~$3,200 psf average CDL reported on the first day of sales. Pricing is a live snapshot and moves as more units and stacks are released.

Per CDL's launch materials, Union Square Residences' expected date of vacant possession is 15 March 2031 (legal completion 15 March 2034), so a TOP around 2031. Note that automated property directories may show an earlier or wrong completion year for this site — our own records list 2027, which the developer's own disclosure contradicts, so we have used the brochure figure.

Union Square Residences is 99-year leasehold, with the lease commencing on 11 October 2024. It is developed by CDL (vendor CDL Libra Pte. Ltd.) on Havelock Road in District 1. Because the lease runs from 2024, lease decay is a factor to weigh over a long hold — unlike a freehold property, where tenure is perpetual.

Where the figures come from. Union Square Residences' indicative pricing is the median of 187 URA private-sale caveats flagged New Sale for the project (window 8 November 2024 to 20 June 2026), from PropKaki's own transaction data; the cheaper and pricier quartiles are the 25th and 75th percentiles of that set. The ~57% premium compares that median to the median PSF of Resale caveats in District 1 over the last ~18 months (258 caveats). The comparable-launch PSFs are the medians of each rival project's own New-Sale caveats in District 1 over the last ~30 months, deduped per project. The 80.7% segment resale odds and 21.2% median gross gain come from matched private buy→sell pairs in the Core Central Region (CCR) via PropKaki's profitability model. Developer, tenure, expected completion, site and unit mix are from CDL's official launch materials — not our directory, whose completion field (2027) is contradicted by the developer's own disclosure of 15 March 2031 vacant possession. External context is cited inline: EdgeProp for the launch-day sales and average PSF.

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, and given the location, an evening and weekend site visit is especially worth doing. Indicative PSF is a dated snapshot that moves as more units sell; PSF is price ÷ area, so the median shifts with which units transact. The resale benchmark is a district median, not a unit-matched valuation, and resale stock is older and on shorter leases, so some launch premium is expected and is not proof of overpricing. Segment profit odds are gross (before commission, stamp duties, any SSD and interest) and are a base rate, not a forecast — Union Square has never been resold. We deliberately do not state a rental yield, because a reliable figure depends on the specific unit, floor and achievable rent. Nothing here is financial advice; verify current rules and figures with URA, IRAS and HDB.