+65 8901 7972
中文 EN
Singapore Commercial Property
Back to Blog
Reviews Published

The Citron Review

The Citron Review
Commercial Property Review — District 08

The Citron

A freehold retail and office address anchoring the Marne–Petain Road corner of the Farrer Park precinct.

SGCPI Research Desk Updated 25 August 2026 1 Marne Road, Singapore 208380 FREEHOLD

Street-level view of The Citron, 1 Marne Road, Singapore 208380. Imagery: Google Street View (user-contributed imagery), accessed August 2026.

Project Overview

Building NameThe Citron
Address1 Marne Road, Singapore 208380
DistrictDistrict 8 (Farrer Park / Kallang)
TenureFreehold
Zoning / UseCommercial — Retail Shops & Offices (strata, ground floor of mixed development)
Built Form6-storey freehold mixed development — 36 first-storey commercial units below 54 residential apartments, with basement carparks
Land Area / GFA≈1,701 sqm (≈18,300 sqft) land area; ≈5,100 sqm (≈54,900 sqft) estimated GFA
Completion Year≈2019
Nearest MRTFarrer Park (NE8), Bendemeer (DT23), Lavender (EW11)
Key Road AccessCentral Expressway (CTE), Pan Island Expressway (PIE) via Serangoon Road
Transacted PSF Range≈S$1,300 – S$1,750 psf
Sale Price Range≈S$600,000 – S$1,750,000
Asking Rent Range≈S$1,650 – S$4,500 per month
Occupier BaseF&B kiosks, personal-care and beauty outlets, small offices and boutique retailers serving the Farrer Park / City Square Mall catchment

Location & Connectivity

The Citron sits at the junction of Marne Road and Petain Road in the Farrer Park precinct of District 8, part of the wider Kallang planning area that borders Little India and the Serangoon Road corridor. The address places its ground-floor retail and office units within an easy walk of one of the North-East Line’s busier interchange stations.

Farrer Park MRT (NE8) is roughly four minutes on foot, with Bendemeer (DT23) and Lavender (EW11) both within comfortable walking or short-drive distance for staff and delivery riders. Drivers reach the development quickly via the Central Expressway and Pan Island Expressway, both accessible through Serangoon Road and Balestier Road.

The surrounding catchment is dense and mixed: City Square Mall and Mustafa Centre sit within a few minutes’ walk, alongside Connexion Mediplex and everyday grocers such as FairPrice, Sheng Siong and Don Don Donki, giving ground-floor tenants a steady base of office workers, residents and round-the-clock shoppers.

Location of The Citron, 1 Marne Road. Map data: Google Maps, accessed August 2026.

Building & Facilities

The Citron is a six-storey freehold mixed development with two lift lobbies serving the block. The first storey is carved into 36 commercial shop and office lots, while 54 residential apartments occupy the second through sixth storeys above.

Shared facilities — basement carparking, a rooftop swimming pool and communal areas — are oriented mainly toward residents, but their upkeep reflects a well-maintained, actively managed environment that benefits ground-floor tenants seeking a presentable shopfront address rather than a bare industrial shell.

Because the building mixes commercial and residential strata, buyers should treat use approvals as unit-specific rather than assumed: verify each lot’s registered use with URA and the Management Corporation before committing to a fit-out involving cooking, extraction or extended operating hours.

Unit Types & Floor Plan Notes

Commercial strata units at The Citron are compact by design, running roughly from 230 to 740 sqft, and are best suited to specialty retail, F&B kiosks, personal-care studios and small consultancy or clinic space rather than large-format occupiers.

Compact Shop

≈230 – 320 sqft

Corner and mid-row lots suited to kiosks, specialty retail or grab-and-go F&B, with shopfront glazing facing the Marne Road pedestrian flow.

Standard Shop

≈470 – 510 sqft

The most commonly transacted format, with enough depth for a small dine-in F&B concept, salon or convenience retailer.

Corner / Dual-Frontage Unit

≈550 – 650 sqft

Positioned at the Marne / Petain Road junction with two-sided shopfront exposure, typically commanding a premium over interior lots.

Office / Studio Suite

≈600 – 740 sqft

Upper-tier first-storey suites suited to clinics, tuition centres, consultancies or beauty studios needing a self-contained floor plate.

Floor-to-Floor Height (1st Storey): ≈4.2m
Typical Unit Depth: ≈12 – 15m
Frontage Width: ≈4 – 6m per lot
Loading / Servicing: Shared rear service access; no dedicated loading bay
Fit-Out Standard: Handed over bare-shell with cement-screed flooring

Investment Case

As a freehold, first-storey retail component within an established pocket of District 8, The Citron reads less as a high-growth speculative play and more as a defensive, footfall-anchored asset for owner-operators and income-focused investors.

What Works

  • Freehold tenure removes the lease-decay pressure that limits financing tenor on nearby 99-year stock
  • Sub-five-minute walk to Farrer Park MRT interchange (NE8) underpins consistent footfall
  • Catchment overlaps directly with City Square Mall and Mustafa Centre, driving cross-shopping traffic
  • Compact quantum from roughly S$600,000 keeps entry accessible for owner-operators and small investors
  • Corner units at the Marne / Petain junction offer genuine dual-frontage visibility, rare among nearby shophouse stock

What to Weigh Carefully

  • Small strata sizes cap the range of business formats that can operate viably on-site
  • No dedicated loading bay means deliveries rely on shared rear access, a constraint for busier F&B operators
  • Residential units above bring stricter MCST by-laws on hours, noise and signage than a stand-alone commercial block
  • Transacted psf sits at a premium against older Farrer Park shophouses, moderating near-term capital-gain headroom
  • Thin transaction volumes for this unit size can lengthen resale timelines in softer markets

Who This Suits

The Citron suits owner-operators running compact F&B, retail or personal-care concepts who want long-term freehold control without lease-decay risk, and small investors seeking a defensive, MRT-anchored unit rather than a high-yield trophy asset. It is less suited to occupiers needing large floor plates, dedicated loading and logistics access, or industrial-use flexibility, given the compact strata sizes and the building’s mixed residential-commercial rules.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Citron zoned for and what businesses can operate there?
The Citron’s first-storey units are zoned Commercial, approved for retail, F&B and office or service use within URA’s framework and the development’s own use classification. Because the block sits beneath 54 residential apartments, expect stricter house rules than a stand-alone commercial building — operating hours, F&B extraction and ventilation, noise and external signage are commonly restricted. The compact lot sizes also favour specialty retail, personal-care studios, tuition or consultancy suites and small dine-in or takeaway concepts over large-format retail. Buyers or tenants should confirm a unit’s registered use description with the Management Corporation and, where relevant, URA, before committing to a fit-out involving cooking or extended hours.
Can foreigners buy a commercial unit at The Citron?
Foreign individuals and foreign-owned entities can generally purchase commercial strata units at The Citron without approval under the Residential Property Act, since that Act governs residential property rather than shops or offices. This makes the commercial component more accessible to overseas buyers than the residential apartments in the same development, which do carry restrictions. Foreign buyers should still budget for Buyer’s Stamp Duty, confirm financing eligibility with local banks (loan-to-value and tenor can differ for non-residents), and engage a Singapore-licensed conveyancing lawyer to handle the transaction and any corporate structuring considerations before exercising an option to purchase.
Does Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) apply here?
Commercial units such as the shops and offices at The Citron fall outside the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty regime, which currently targets residential property only. Buyers pay standard Buyer’s Stamp Duty on the purchase price or market value, whichever is higher, without an ABSD layer, regardless of citizenship or how many residential properties they already own. This is one reason strata commercial units attract investors who have used up their residential purchase headroom. Rules can change, and buyers structuring a purchase through an entity that also holds residential assets should have a property lawyer confirm current treatment before committing.
Is Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) a concern on resale?
Singapore’s Seller’s Stamp Duty, which claws back a share of the price on a quick resale, currently applies mainly to residential property, so commercial strata shops and offices like those at The Citron typically sit outside its scope. That gives owners more flexibility to reposition or exit a unit without a punitive SSD deduction eating into proceeds. Cooling measures are periodically revised, however, so buyers and sellers should verify the SSD framework in force on their specific transaction date with a conveyancing lawyer rather than assume the current exemption will hold indefinitely, particularly if plans call for a fast turnaround.
What Buyer’s Stamp Duty (BSD) should I budget for?
BSD at The Citron is calculated on the higher of the purchase price or valuation, using Singapore’s tiered national schedule that rises progressively across price bands. For a typical strata unit transacting between roughly S$600,000 and S$1,750,000, buyers should budget around 3% to 4% of price for BSD alone, on top of legal, agent and financing costs. This schedule is not specific to The Citron, but the compact quantum of most units here keeps the absolute BSD outlay comparatively modest next to larger commercial assets elsewhere in District 8. Use the IRAS BSD calculator or a conveyancing lawyer for an exact figure once price is agreed.
Is GST payable on a purchase or lease at The Citron?
GST treatment turns on the seller’s or landlord’s registration status rather than the property itself. Where the vendor is GST-registered, GST is generally chargeable on a commercial unit’s sale price, and likewise on rent where the landlord is GST-registered, since leasing commercial property is a taxable supply. Individual, non-GST-registered owners selling or renting a single strata unit typically need not charge GST. Buyers and tenants should clarify the counterparty’s GST status early, since it can add a further 9% to the effective cost, and factor this into comparisons against other Farrer Park commercial listings before finalising terms.
How does freehold tenure affect financing?
Freehold status works in The Citron’s favour for financing, since banks do not need to apply the remaining-lease cutoffs and shortened loan tenors that constrain older leasehold commercial stock — there is no lease-decay horizon to underwrite against. Commercial property loans in Singapore typically cap loan-to-value around 70% to 80% depending on the lender and borrower profile, with tenors commonly running up to 25 to 30 years for individuals and shorter for corporate borrowers. Given the compact, moderately priced units here, most qualified buyers should find several banks willing to lend, though final rates still depend on income, existing exposure and valuation.
What rental yield can an investor expect?
Against asking rents of roughly S$1,650 to S$4,500 a month and sale prices in the region of S$600,000 to S$1,750,000, gross rental yields at The Citron typically fall in the 3% to 5% range, broadly in line with well-located District 8 strata commercial stock rather than at the market’s high end. Corner and dual-frontage units with stronger footfall tend to command the upper end of the rent range, lifting yield slightly, while smaller interior lots sit closer to the lower end. Investors should net off MCST maintenance fees, property tax and periodic vacancy when underwriting returns, rather than relying on the gross figure alone.
How does the building’s age affect due diligence, and what are the odds of en-bloc redevelopment?
Completed around 2019, The Citron is a comparatively young freehold development, so major mechanical and structural systems should still sit well within their design life, reducing near-term capital expenditure risk versus older Farrer Park shophouse stock. Buyers should still request the latest MCST minutes and sinking-fund statement before committing. En-bloc potential looks limited in the near term: the building is young, and a mixed residential-commercial development of this scale needs a strong majority across both strata groups to agree collectively, a slower process than for older, purely commercial blocks. Treat The Citron primarily as an income and occupancy play rather than an en-bloc speculation.
Is there parking and loading access for tenants and customers?
The Citron includes basement carparking for the development, giving tenants, customers and residents dedicated lots rather than relying solely on metered street parking along Marne and Petain Roads, which is limited during peak hours. There is no dedicated loading bay for the first-storey commercial units, so deliveries and waste collection for F&B or retail operators rely on shared rear service access, which can be a constraint during busy periods or for businesses with frequent large deliveries. Prospective F&B tenants in particular should walk the service route and confirm arrangements with MCST management before signing a lease.
What MCST fees should owners expect, and how liquid is the resale market?
As a mixed residential-commercial strata development, The Citron is managed by a Management Corporation Strata Title that levies monthly maintenance fees by share value, covering common-area upkeep, the rooftop pool, lift servicing, security and the sinking fund; exact figures should be confirmed against the latest MCST budget. Resale liquidity for compact strata commercial units like these tends to be thinner than for larger, single-owner commercial assets, since the buyer pool for sub-750-sqft lots is narrower. Freehold tenure, the MRT-adjacent address and the absence of ABSD or SSD drag support steadier interest than typical leasehold alternatives, but sellers should still expect longer resale timelines in softer markets.

This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal or tax advice. Figures marked with “≈” are reasoned estimates based on publicly available data at the time of writing and may not reflect current market conditions. Prospective buyers and tenants should conduct independent due diligence and consult licensed professionals before making any decision.

© 2026 SG Commercial Property Insights. All rights reserved.

Back to Blog
WhatsApp