Bukit Merah 5-room flat sold for S$1.588M, sets new HDB resale record

SINGAPORE: A recent sale in Bukit Merah has set a new record for the highest-priced Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale unit in Singapore.

Real estate agency PropNex announced on Tuesday (30 April) that a five-room flat at 9B Boon Tiong Road was sold for S$1.588 million, surpassing the previous record of $1.569 million set in January this year for a five-room DBSS flat at 139A Lorong 1A Toa Payoh.

PropNex revealed that the record-setting flat is situated on a floor above the 35th floor of block 9B Boon Tiong Road. Spanning 112 sqm (1,206 sq ft), it is part of the HDB project Tiong Bahru View, with a 99-year lease starting from January 2016.

Tiong Bahru View replaced blocks at 110, 111, 113, and 114 Bukit Merah View, which were subsequently demolished under the Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS).

PropNex’s key executive officer, Lim Yong Hock, noted that the flat boasts several desirable attributes, including its proximity to the city and amenities, its elevated position with panoramic views, and its lengthy lease.

Despite the $1.59 million resale price not yet reflected in HDB’s transaction data, sales data up to Monday indicates that since July 2018, 43 units at Tiong Bahru View have been resold for at least $1 million. Block 9B alone saw the sale of 13 million-dollar flats, ranging from four-room to five-room units.

Additionally, 10 five-room units in the block fetched prices between $1.05 million and $1.4 million.

Before this record-breaking sale, three other HDB flats were resold for $1.5 million.

Two of these were in Toa Payoh and sold in January 2024, while the third was in Moh Guan Terrace, Bukit Merah, and sold in June 2023.

PropNex anticipates that the number of million-dollar resale flats will continue to rise this year, surpassing the 2023 figure of 469 units.

Despite this trend, Lim highlighted that million-dollar flats constitute only a small fraction of overall HDB resale transactions, accounting for around 2.8% in the first four months of this year.

He added that the demand for HDB resale flats remains healthy.

470 HDB resale flats sold for at least S$1 million in 2023

In March, a total of 61 flats exchanged ownership for at least a million dollars, constituting three percent of the overall resale transactions for that month.

In 2023, there were 470 HDB resale flats sold for at least S$1 million, up from the 369 units sold in 2022, as disclosed by data from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) on 7 January.

These million-dollar transactions constituted approximately 1.8% of the total resale transactions in 2023.

According to statistics released earlier by the HDB, the prices of HDB resale flats experienced a more modest increase of 4.9% in 2023, compared to the substantial 10.4% surge observed in 2022.

HDB says the rate of increase in HDB resale prices has “continued to moderate”

HDB in the 26 January statement claimed that the rate of increase in HDB resale prices has continued to moderate following the Government’s implementation of a strong pipeline of housing supply, as well as cooling measures to promote a stable and sustainable property market.

“More broadly, as global economic activities are expected to ease further in 2024, and domestic mortgage interest rates remain elevated, households should continue to exercise financial prudence in their flat purchases. ”

HDB added that to meet the increased housing demand in recent years, HDB has ramped up the supply of Build-To-Order (BTO) flats and offered more than 63,000 flats in the last 3 years.

Another 19,600 BTO flats will be launched in 2024, of which 2,800 flats will have a shorter waiting time of less than 3 years.

“HDB will conduct three BTO exercises in February, June and October 2024. With three BTO launches this year instead of four, home buyers can look forward to a bigger housing supply at each launch. ”