Jervois Prive Review: A Freehold District 10 Condo, and the 60% Tax That Decides It

Jervois Prive is a completed, freehold boutique condominium of 43 units at 100A Jervois Road in District 10, Singapore, built by Midas Land and granted its Temporary Occupation Permit in 2023. For a foreign buyer, the two facts that matter most are already settled: it is freehold, and it is finished. You are buying a real, standing unit you can inspect, not an off-plan promise. That changes the entire risk profile, so here is the honest review.

What it is

Jervois Prive, formerly marketed under the Jervois Green site, is a single five-storey block holding just 43 residences on roughly 27,109 square feet of land. The unit mix runs from one-bedroom-plus-study through to four-bedroom layouts, with two- and three-bedroom configurations forming the core. It was designed by Ipli Architects, a Singapore firm, and the facilities are the boutique-development standard: a lap pool, gym, landscaped gardens, BBQ and dining areas, a children's play area, function rooms, and co-working space.

This is a small, low-density project by design. Forty-three units across five storeys means no tower crowding and a higher land share per unit, which is part of what buyers in this pocket of District 10 are paying for.

The project entity is Jervois Midas Pte Ltd, a single-project vehicle rather than a portfolio developer, behind which sits a group led by Singapore restaurant proprietor and investor Mike Ho. Interiors are by Peter Tay Studio, and Ipli Architects is led by Yip Yuen Hong, a four-time recipient of the President's Design Award. On a delivered building the single-project structure matters far less than it would off-plan, because the verification work sits on the title and the approvals rather than on a pipeline.

Why District 10 and freehold matter

District 10 is one of Singapore's prime residential districts, and the Jervois Estate specifically is one of its quieter, more established corners, surrounded by conserved black-and-white colonial houses, Good Class Bungalow plots, and embassies. It is a low-rise, low-traffic enclave close to the Orchard Road belt and the Singapore Botanic Gardens without sitting on top of them.

The nearest MRT station is roughly 700 metres away, walkable but short of the dual-line connectivity some District 10 addresses offer. The surrounding land is largely Good Class Bungalow restricted or conservation protected, so meaningful new supply is unlikely to enter this micro-corridor. The competition is older freehold stock nearby and comparable boutique freeholds on Robin Drive, Leonie Hill, and Cuscaden.

Freehold tenure is the other half of the appeal. Most new Singapore launches are 99-year leasehold because the state controls most land release. Freehold sites in prime districts are scarce and command a premium precisely because the tenure does not decay. For a foreign buyer thinking in generational terms, a freehold title in District 10 is a genuinely different asset from a 99-year unit, even on the same street.

The cost foreign buyers cannot ignore

Here is the part that determines whether Jervois Prive makes sense for you, and it has nothing to do with the building. Singapore charges foreigners Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) of 60% on residential property purchases, layered on top of the standard Buyer's Stamp Duty. That 60% rate, set in the April 2023 cooling measures, is among the highest property entry taxes in the world for non-residents.

There are exceptions. Nationals of countries with a relevant free trade agreement, currently the United States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, are treated as Singapore citizens for ABSD and pay the citizen rate rather than the foreigner rate under those treaties. If you do not hold one of those nationalities, budget for the 60% before you fall in love with any unit, because it dwarfs every other transaction cost.

Run it on real numbers. At S$2.5 million the ABSD alone is S$1.5 million; at S$4 million it is S$2.4 million. FTA nationals pay zero ABSD on a first Singapore residential property. Separately, the Residential Property Act permits foreigners to buy units in approved condominium developments without approval from the Land Dealings Approval Unit, so Jervois Prive transacts on stamp duty alone with no ownership-consent step.

How it stacks up

Against other boutique freehold options in the district, Jervois Prive's selling points are its completion, its low unit count, and its location inside a conserved enclave rather than on an arterial road. Its limitations are the same as any small development: fewer facilities than a large condo, and resale liquidity that depends on a thinner pool of buyers who specifically want a 43-unit freehold block. A completed project also means you are buying at today's price with no construction discount, but you are also carrying zero completion risk.

Listings at Jervois Prive have run from roughly S$1,529,000 to S$4,415,000, with pricing in the S$2,785 to S$3,292 per square foot band. That sits materially above 99-year leasehold competitors in adjacent districts and below the Robin Drive and Holland ultra-prime tier. Trailing resale volume has been a handful of transactions rather than dozens, which is structural for a 43-unit block and argues for a multi-year hold rather than a 24 to 36 month exit.

Because the building is already standing, the usual off-plan developer due diligence is less critical here than tenure and pricing checks. Where developer track record does matter in Singapore is the new-launch market, and Bektu (https://bektu.com) is built for verifying a developer's delivery history before you buy into anything still under construction.

The records worth pulling before you sign: the Singapore Land Authority's INLIS for title, registered owner, mortgages, and caveats; the Urban Redevelopment Authority master plan for zoning and redevelopment constraints; Building and Construction Authority records for the construction approval and Temporary Occupation Permit; URA Realis for recent caveats lodged in the development, which is the sharpest secondary-market pricing signal; the IRAS stamp duty calculator for the exact ABSD payable on your nationality; and the MCST records for the management corporation's financial standing and any pending special levies.

The bottom line

Jervois Prive is a finished, freehold, 43-unit boutique condo in a prime, low-rise pocket of District 10, developed by Midas Land and completed in 2023. The building itself is a sound, well-located product. The decision for a foreign buyer turns almost entirely on the 60% Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty, unless you hold a treaty nationality that brings you down to the citizen rate. Run that number first; it will tell you more about whether this purchase works than any floor plan can.

For comparison, see our review of the Giverny Residences on Robin Drive, another freehold District 10 boutique development.

Sources

- Jervois Prive (former Jervois Green), freehold District 10 listing (NewLaunches.sg)

- Jervois Prive official sales by Midas Land

- Jervois Prive project details and facilities (PropertyReview.sg)

- Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates (Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore))

- Foreigners eligible for ABSD remission under Free Trade Agreements (IRAS))