30 April 2024, Singapore – PropNex Realty, Singapore's largest real estate agency is pleased to share that one of its property agents, who had represented the seller of an HDB resale flat has transacted a 5-room unit at 9B Boon Tiong Road in Bukit Merah estate for a record price of $1.588 million on 28 April 2024 (being the date that the option to purchase was exercised) – making it the priciest HDB flat ever resold in Singapore. This transacted price has smashed the previous record of about $1.569 million achieved for the resale of a 5-room DBSS (design, build, and sell scheme) flat at 139A Lorong 1A Toa Payoh in January 2024.

The 112-sq m (1,206 sq ft) unit is located on a storey above the 35^th floor and has a 99-year lease commencing from January 2016. The HDB project at Boon Tiong Road comprising blocks 9A, 9B, 10A, and 10B – collectively known as Tiong Bahru View - is a replacement housing site under the Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS) for blocks at 110, 111, 113 and 114 Bukit Merah View, which have been demolished.

Lim Yong Hock, Key Executive Officer at PropNex, said, "We have seen home buyers who are willing to pay more than $1 million for a resale flat with top attributes, such as being located near the city, being on a high floor with spectacular views, having a relatively lengthy lease balance, and being in an estate that offers convenience in terms of amenities, and within walking distance to the MRT station. The Boon Tiong Road flat essentially checks all the boxes. Furthermore, we also observe steady demand for 5-room resale flats in city fringe locations, as 5-room flats are typically not offered in HDB's build-to-order (BTO) projects in choice locations closer to the city. We are heartened that our salesperson, who acted for the seller has garnered an optimal outcome for his client."

At the time of writing, the $1.588-million resale flat deal is yet to be reflected in the transaction data from the HDB. Based on sales data retrieved on 30 April, there have been 43 HDB flats at the four blocks in Tiong Bahru View that were resold for at least $1 million since July 2018. Specifically, in block 9B Boon Tiong Road, 13 million-dollar resale flats were sold - comprising three 4-room flats and 10 units of 5-room flats (excluding the latest record-breaking deal). The 10 units of 5-room flats resold in the block had fetched a resale price of between $1.05 million and $1.4 million.

Prior to the sale of the said $1.588-million resale flat in Boon Tiong Road, three other HDB flats were resold for $1.5 million or more (see Table 1). Two of the flats are in Toa Payoh and were resold in January 2024, while the other is an adjoined flat in Moh Guan Terrace in Bukit Merah which was transacted in June 2023.

Table 1: Top five HDB resale transactions by price and record deal in Boon Tiong Road

Source: PropNex Research, data.gov.sg (retrieved on 30 April 2024)

In recent years, there has been a continued increase in the number of HDB flats resold for at least $1 million, with 369 such flats resold in 2022, and 469 units sold in 2023. In Q1 2024, 185 units of million-dollar resale flats changed hands - marking the highest such sales in a quarter. According to transaction data (retrieved on 30 April), 63 such flats were resold in April, taking the total to 248 units in roughly the first four months of 2024. PropNex anticipates that the number of million-dollar resale flats in 2024 will remain elevated, potentially surpassing 2023's figure.

Mr Lim added, "Despite the higher number of million-dollar flats sold, they still accounted for a small fraction of the overall HDB resale flat transactions, at around 2.8% in the first four months of 2024. Million-dollar resale flats aside, we observe that the general demand for HDB resale flats remains healthy, with the transaction volume rising by 8% QOQ to 7,068 flats in Q1 2024. For the whole of 2024, we are projecting HDB resale volume to trend at around 26,000 to 27,000 units."