Bloomsbury Residences
Media Circle, one-north · Qingjian Realty + Forsea Holdings + ZACD Group
The first residential tower inside Mediapolis, a tech/biomed workplace catchment with unusually thin private housing supply on its doorstep.
Location & neighbourhood
Where this sits on the one-north map.
Bloomsbury sits at 61 Media Circle, in the Mediapolis pocket of one-north, the JTC planned research and media cluster bordered by Portsdown Road, the Wessex black and white bungalow estate and the Ayer Rajah Expressway. This is a workplace first precinct: Mediacorp, Infinite Studios, Lucasfilm, Star Vista and the cluster of biomed tenants at Biopolis are all within a short radius. Private residential stock in the immediate pocket is thin, most of the existing catchment is workforce housing, student accommodation or the older Dover Parkview/Parc Imperial condos.
The development is mixed use, with ground floor retail designed to anchor foot traffic in what is otherwise an office dominant pocket after dark. Character wise this is closer to a live work urban product than a suburban condo, closer in DNA to Bedok Beacon Interchange or Jewel adjacent living than to a typical RCR family condo.
MRT & transport
- one-north MRT (CCL), indicative 8 to 10 min walk
- Buona Vista MRT (CCL/EWL interchange), short drive / 1 stop
- Expressways: AYE at doorstep, easy CTE linkage
- To Raffles Place / Orchard: ~15 min by CCL/EWL
The developer
A three name consortium led by Qingjian.
The joint venture is led by Qingjian Realty, one of the more prolific mid market Singapore developers of the last decade, together with Forsea Holdings and ZACD Group. Qingjian's Singapore track record spans The Visionaire EC, iNz Residence EC, Le Quest mixed use at Bukit Batok, and the AltaVista/Ecopolitan line. Forsea is a smaller but established Singapore based player; ZACD runs both development and fund management arms. The mix of JV partners is typical of mid sized tenders, shared capital, faster financing, but occasionally less coordinated after sales than a pure blue chip consortium.
Build quality from Qingjian is adequate, functional layouts, smart home fit out in recent projects, but nothing particularly custom. Watch for standard spec level finishes rather than the premium fit out you'd expect at this PSF from a top tier developer. Verify interior materials and appliance brands at showflat.
Recent SG track record
- Le Quest (Bukit Batok mixed use, 2020)
- JadeScape (Bishan, 2018, Qingjian)
- The Arden (Phoenix Road, 2024)
- AltaVista / iNz Residence EC
Unit mix & layouts
What's inside the 358 units.
The mix is weighted towards the 1BR / 2BR end, unsurprising given the workforce and rental tenant catchment at one-north and Mediapolis. 3BR and 4BR are present but form a smaller share of the stack count. Expect compact efficient layouts designed around the rental yield story rather than family living. Specific sqft bands and stack by stack efficiency are indicative, to be confirmed at showflat.
Efficiency read: verify balcony and bay window loss per stack, typical 4 to 6% on Qingjian layouts.
Indicative pricing & PSF context
What the numbers actually say.
Launch PSF
S$2,474 avg
About 90 units (25.1%) sold on launch weekend at an average S$2,474 psf. Slower initial take up compared with The Orie's 86% first weekend clearance, signals the market is pricing in the niche catchment nature of the site rather than treating it as a mass market upgrader play.
Resale & comp comparison
Nearby comps to benchmark: One-North Residences (a decade old, CCL doorstep) and The Rochester, both trading indicative S$1,700 to 1,900 psf. More recent launches at Pasir Panjang and Dover (Blossoms by the Park, The Hill @ One-North) have cleared at the S$2,400 to 2,600 psf band. Bloomsbury sits in that new launch zone but with a workplace proximity story that older resale stock lacks.
Schools, amenities, connectivity
The catchment that matters.
Primary schools (within 1 to 2km)
- Fairfield Methodist School (Primary)
- New Town Primary
- Queenstown Primary (slightly beyond 2km)
Secondary & beyond
- Fairfield Methodist Secondary
- Anglo-Chinese Junior College (via AYE)
- NUS, INSEAD, Singapore Polytechnic, all in the catchment
Malls, F&B, healthcare
- Star Vista, Rochester Mall, Holland Village
- Timbre+, F&B along Portsdown Rd
- NUH (Kent Ridge), via AYE
Investment thesis
Why someone would actually buy here.
Rental catchment that writes itself
Mediapolis, Biopolis, Fusionopolis, NUS and INSEAD together employ tens of thousands of skilled professionals. One-North Residences and The Rochester have sustained 3 to 4% gross yields for years; Bloomsbury plugs directly into the same tenant pool with newer product.
First mixed use at one-north
Retail at ground level genuinely matters in a workplace dominant precinct, it adds weekday foot traffic the existing condos lack. First mover status on mixed use in this pocket is a structural differentiator rather than just a marketing line.
CCL connectivity
Circle Line access at one-north and Buona Vista puts the CBD, Marina Bay, Orchard and Harbourfront all within a 20 minute ride, that is genuinely good transport optionality for a non-central location.
Thin new launch pipeline in D5
The one-north / Pasir Panjang pocket has few remaining GLS sites. Once Bloomsbury and the 2024 Media Circle neighbours complete, new build supply in this specific catchment dries up for a while, supports resale liquidity in 2028 to 2032.
Risks & what to stress test
Where this could bite you.
Slower launch absorption
~25% sold at launch is not alarming but is not the 70 to 90% benchmark that stamps a project. If absorption stays slow into 2026/27, developer discounts and star buy stacks can compress early buyer paper gains.
Single catchment concentration risk
Rental demand is heavily tied to tech/biomed/media tenants at one-north. A slowdown in those sectors, global tech layoffs, biomed funding reset, hits this catchment harder than a diversified residential suburb.
AYE noise & industrial edge
The site is bordered by the AYE and a working media/industrial zone. Noise and the general character of the immediate ground level environment are not family residential, verify carefully if you are owner occupying with young kids.
Weaker family school catchment
Primary school options within 1 km are limited vs mature estates. Upgraders prioritising school enrolment will find stronger catchments in Clementi, Queenstown or the Bukit Timah belt, this affects 3BR/4BR resale pool specifically.
Winfred's take
The honest read.
My read on Bloomsbury is that it is fundamentally a yield story dressed up as a new launch capital play. The Mediapolis catchment is genuinely strong for rental, you are not competing with a thousand other condos within walking distance of the same job clusters, which is unusual in Singapore. But the PSF already prices in that thesis. At S$2,474 average, you are not buying at a discount to the catchment, you are paying full freight and betting that the tenant demand and the thin local supply keep grinding the yield math up over five to seven years.
This suits a yield focused investor buying 1BR or compact 2BR with rental in mind, someone who already understands how to hold through a slower ramp up and doesn't need paper gain validation in year one. It also works for the tech/biomed professional who wants to live next to work with a TEL/CCL commute optionality. It does not suit an HDB upgrader whose priority is 3BR/4BR school catchment, there are better priced mature estate options for that profile. Run the Property Portfolio Analysis on your actual rental number before you decide.
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