Showflats are, by design, the best version of a unit you'll ever see it, perfect lighting, staged furniture scaled slightly smaller to make rooms feel bigger, and a sales gallery that walks you past the best facilities first. None of that is dishonest, it's just marketing doing its job. My job is to look past it. Here's my actual checklist, roughly in the order I go through it.
1. Developer track record
Before I look at a single floor plan, I look at who's building it. Has this developer delivered on time on previous projects? Is build quality consistent with what they promised at launch, based on completed projects nearby? A great location can't save you from years of defect disputes with a developer who consistently under-delivers.
2. Land bid economics, why the price is what it is
Every new launch has a breakeven cost baked in from what the developer paid for the land, plus construction and financing costs. Understanding roughly where a project's price sits relative to that breakeven tells you how much room the developer actually has to move on price, and how the project is likely to be positioned against nearby launches. This is less about getting a "steal" and more about knowing whether you're buying at a sensible point in the pricing cycle for that specific site.
3. Stack orientation, the thing that matters most and gets discussed least
This is where I spend the most time with clients, because it's the hardest thing to undo after you've bought. A few questions I always walk through stack by stack:
- Sun path, west-facing units in Singapore take direct afternoon sun, which means higher cooling costs and hotter rooms in the late afternoon, every single day, for as long as you live there.
- Privacy and sightlines, does this stack face directly into a neighbouring block's units, or the pool deck where facility noise carries up? Site plans make this easy to check before you commit.
- Noise exposure, proximity to the main road, MRT lines, or facility areas like function rooms and gyms that get used at all hours.
- View permanence, is that unblocked view actually protected, or is there a future plot nearby zoned for development that could block it in a few years? This is checkable via URA's master plan, and worth checking before you pay a premium for a "view."
4. Floor level trade-offs
Higher floors aren't automatically the right call, they cost more per square foot, and depending on the stack, a mid-floor unit with a better-protected view can be a smarter buy than a high floor with a compromised orientation. I look at this together with the stack analysis above, not as a separate decision.
5. Unit layout efficiency
Two units with the same headline square footage can have meaningfully different amounts of actual usable space, depending on how much is eaten up by air-con ledges, bay windows, and awkward corridors. I look at the efficiency ratio, usable space versus total square footage, not just the topline number on the brochure.
6. Facilities crowding, do the math on unit count
A stunning 50m lap pool sounds great until you learn the development has 800 units sharing it. I look at the ratio of units to key facilities (pool, gym, function rooms) to get a realistic sense of what daily life will actually feel like, not just what the render promises.
7. Future supply nearby
Is there a competing launch expected in the same area within the next year or two? A wave of new supply nearby can affect both resale value and rental competition down the line. This is worth checking via URA's Government Land Sales programme and upcoming site releases before you commit.
8. Exit liquidity, who buys this from you later?
Every purchase eventually has an exit, whether that's five years or twenty-five years out. Unit types that appeal to the widest pool of future buyers (family-sized layouts in good school zones, for instance) tend to transact more easily than niche configurations, even if the niche unit felt special when you bought it.
My honest take
None of this is about talking clients out of new launches, I sell them, and plenty are genuinely excellent buys. It's about making sure the decision is based on the stack, the numbers, and the site plan, not just how good the showflat made you feel on a Saturday afternoon. If a launch still checks out after all of this, that's when I'll actually recommend it.