This article was first published on PropertyGuru
An HDB resale executive apartment at Block 148 Mei Ling Street in Queenstown, which has a balance lease of about 76 years, was sold this month for an eye-popping $1.08 million, which works out to about $669 psf on the built-up area.
The 1,615 sq ft corner unit located on the 13th floor is close to Queenstown MRT station and Anchorpoint mall.
It is understood that the sellers have been staying there since 1995 and plan to upgrade to a nearby condominium.
ERA Realty property agent Mohamed Ameen helped broker the sale. He revealed that the unit was listed on PropertyGuru with an asking price of $1.1 million for less than two weeks.
More than five groups of buyers viewed the flat during this period before it was sold to a Singaporean woman who was looking to downgrade after her house went en bloc.
“The buyer was willing to pay a premium for the unit due to its large size and proximity to an MRT station,” said Ameen.
Comparatively, a 5-room flat at the iconic Pinnacle@Duxton in Tanjong Pagar is smaller at 1,141 sq ft.
Another major selling point is the limited supply of HDB executive apartments as such flats are no longer being built, noted Ameen.
He expects to see a pick-up in demand for executive apartments and executive mansionettes this year as many owners of en bloc properties will be looking for big replacement homes.
Citing data from HDB, Ameen shared that there have been 10 resale flat deals of more than $1 million concluded so far in 2018; seven at Pinnacle@Duxton, two in Mei Ling Street and one at City View @ Boon Keng, a Design, Build and Sell Scheme development.
This is higher than the three million-dollar deals recorded in Q1 2017, all at the Pinnacle.
As such, he expects to see more record-breaking prices in future, especially in Queenstown, once the HDB flats in nearby Dawson estate reach their five-year minimum occupation period in 2020.
“The high-floor flats there offer beautiful unblocked views, and we can expect to see transactions breaching the million-dollar mark,” said Ameen.
Meanwhile, PropNex Realty CEO Ismail Gafoor reckons HDB resale prices could rise by 1.0 percent in 2018 due to positive sentiment in the residential market and the ongoing collective sales fever.
This reverses a trend of falling resale flat prices since their peak in 2013 following the introduction of measures to stabilize the public housing market, including the Mortgage Servicing Ratio cap of 30 percent and the maximum loan term of 25 years for HDB mortgage loans.
Text by Romesh Navaratnarajah via PropertyGuru
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