Novena Property: Singapore's Medical Hub With 591 Listings
Updated 2026-09-24
Novena sits one stop from Orchard on the North South Line and anchors Singapore's largest medical precinct. With 591 live listings averaging S$2,804 per square foot, the district draws owner-occupiers, investors and medical professionals drawn by HealthCity Novena's ongoing expansion.
What is it like living near Novena MRT?
Living near Novena MRT means being one stop from Orchard Road while paying noticeably less per square foot for the privilege. The station sits beneath Novena Square on Thomson Road and offers sheltered connections to several malls, including Velocity, United Square and Square 2, so daily errands rarely require stepping into the rain.
The neighbourhood has a settled, residential feel despite its central location in District 11. Hawker options are strong: Whampoa Makan Place and Balestier Market are both within walking distance, and Adam Road Food Centre is a short bus ride away. Balestier Road itself is one of Singapore's better-known heritage food streets, with bakeries and bak kut teh shops that have traded for decades.
For healthcare, the cluster is hard to match anywhere on the island. Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Novena, the National Skin Centre and the National Neuroscience Institute are all within a few hundred metres of the station. This medical presence shapes the tenant pool and keeps rental demand unusually steady.
Transport and connectivity
Novena MRT station (NS20) is on the North South Line, placing Orchard one stop south and City Hall two stops away. Buses along Thomson Road and Moulmein Road connect to Toa Payoh, Bishan and the East Coast.
The bigger change ahead is the North-South Corridor (NSC), a dedicated bus lane and expressway tunnel running from Lentor Avenue to the East Coast Parkway, targeted to open in 2029. Once the tunnel is operational, surface roads around Novena will be progressively redesigned with more space for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. That redesign should reduce through-traffic noise on Thomson Road and make the neighbourhood more walkable than it already is.
Housing stock and prices
The 591 current listings near Novena skew heavily towards condominiums, which account for 401 of the total. Another 184 are landed properties, mostly along the quieter roads between Thomson and Balestier, and six are HDB resale flats at the district's edges.
The average asking price across all listings is S$6,236,079, reflecting the large share of freehold and landed stock. Average size is 2,825 square feet, which points to the generous floor plates common in District 11 condominiums. At S$2,804 per square foot on average, Novena sits below the prime districts of 9 and 10 but commands a premium over the rest of the island. Freehold condos in the area have held between S$2,600 and S$3,200 psf through early 2026, while newer 99-year leasehold developments trade at roughly 15 to 20 per cent less.
Rental yields sit in the 3 to 4 per cent range, with three- and four-bedroom units typically leasing for S$8,000 to S$12,000 a month. The medical workforce provides a reliable tenant base that does not follow the usual economic cycle as closely as corporate leasing does.
Which schools are near Novena?
Several well-regarded schools sit within the Novena planning area. Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) on Barker Road and Singapore Chinese Girls' School on Dunearn Road are both within reach for families prioritising the one-kilometre primary school admission distance. St Joseph's Institution Junior and CHIJ Primary (Toa Payoh) are also nearby.
For secondary and international education, St Joseph's Institution on Malcolm Road and SJI International on Thomson Road are prominent options. The concentration of mission schools in the area is a draw for families who value that tradition.
HealthCity Novena and the area's outlook
HealthCity Novena is the single largest factor shaping the district's future. The masterplan, launched by the Ministry of Health, will expand healthcare space by 150 per cent by 2030, adding four new care buildings linked at three levels across the campus. Once complete, more than 30,000 people are expected to circulate through the precinct daily, up from current levels.
A proposed TTSH Medical Tower forms the centrepiece of the masterplan's second phase, extending development beyond 2030. The ambulatory centre at Tan Tock Seng Hospital is also being expanded to shift more care towards day surgery and specialist outpatient services.
For property values, this expansion reinforces what already makes Novena distinct: a captive population of medical professionals, patients' families and support workers who need to live or stay nearby. Combined with the North-South Corridor improvements and the area's existing school cluster, the fundamentals point to sustained demand rather than speculative upside.