Singapore’s median commute is 84 minutes per workday. Over a 40-year career, that’s 14,000 hours — nearly two full years of life traded for transit. Buyers who live inside One-North don’t have that problem. Here’s why the commute math tilts so heavily in favour of nearby condos like The Hill @ One-North.
Who Works in One-North
The business park houses major tenants across four clusters:
- Biopolis — GSK, Novartis, A*STAR Bioinformatics Institute, IMCB.
- Fusionopolis — Shopee, Razer, Sea Group, IMDA, Autodesk.
- Mediapolis — Lucasfilm, Mediacorp, Infinite Studios.
- LaunchPad — startup ecosystem, BLOCK71.
The Real Commute Math
From The Hill @ One-North to Fusionopolis One is a 7-minute walk. To Biopolis, 10 minutes. Compared to the average Singapore commute, a resident here reclaims roughly 70 minutes per weekday — 300 hours per year.
At a S$100,000 annual salary, that’s S$14,400 of value per year just in time savings (before factoring in reduced transport cost, less fatigue, higher sleep).
What a Short Commute Enables
- Lunch at home — reducing F&B spend by S$3,000–5,000/year.
- Gym before work without alarm-clock punishment.
- Real family dinners on weeknights.
- Hybrid-work flexibility — swing by the office for a meeting, return home within 10 minutes.
Transport Options Beyond Walking
Residents have multiple redundancy layers: Buona Vista MRT (5-min walk), One-North MRT (8-min walk), covered link bridges through the business park, internal JTC shuttle buses, and PIE access for drivers.
Rental Implications
If you’re not an owner-occupier, this logic works for your tenant. Knowledge workers at Shopee, Grab, A*STAR and GSK consistently list “walking distance to office” as a top-three requirement. That’s why rental yields here run higher than the Singapore average — and why vacancy rates on well-located One-North condos are low.
Is the Premium Worth It?
Properties directly serving the business park command a 10–15% price premium over comparable units outside the precinct. For owner-occupiers, that premium is repaid in reclaimed time. For landlords, it’s repaid in yield and faster tenanting.
To see unit types that suit the young professional profile, view the 2 Bedroom + Study virtual tour or the 3 Bedroom + Study virtual tour.