168 HDB flats have been sold for $1m or more since the start of 2022. It is likely to beat the record in 2021 of 200 units, which was already a big jump from the 82 units in 2020.
Let’s dig into some of the data from the million dollar HDB transactions in 2022 thus far.
The most expensive HDB transacted was at a price of $1.4m transacted in May 2022. A high-floor (40-42 storey) unit at City Vue @ Henderson (96A Henderson Road). It is a 5-room unit with a size of 1,216 sqft and sold at $1,151 psf.
The previous record was held by Pinnacle @ Duxton set in Mar 2022 at $1,388,889. I believe the record will be broken a few more times this year.
The central area yielded the most number of million dollar flats sold (27) and they were all from Pinnacle @ Duxton. The average price transacted was $1,181,097.
The second priciest town was Bishan with 25 transactions at an average price of $1,164,155.
While the million dollar transactions have been involving bigger flats, 19 4-room flats with an average size of 1,008 sqft were sold for $1m and more.
Most of these 4-room flats were from Duxton too with scattered transactions coming from Dawson, Bishan, Boon Tiong Road, Ghim Moh Link and Bendemeer. I believe more 4-room flats will enter the million dollar zone.
You might be surprised to see flats in non-central areas selling for millions too. There were 2 units in Woodlands and 3 units in Yishun that were sold for $1m and more.
These were executive apartments which were essentially 5-room plus units with size that averaged 1,959 sqft. Hence, the price psf was lower at an average of $523. Compare this to the central area where the average price psf was $1,097.
Another interesting statistic that may surprise you is that these million dollar flats were not exclusively at high floors. The highest number of sales came from storeys between 7 and 9, more mid-level to me. That said, high floors are still correlated to high prices.
The oldest flat sold was at 28 Marine Crescent. It has 52 years of lease left. It was a 5-room flat with 1,356 sqft and was sold for $1,010,888.
What would make a HDB flat worth more than $1m?
Location is definitely the key factor here – most of them are in the central region. If location is further from the central area, the flat has to compensate with larger size. But the downside is that the psf drops.
Remaining lease is a factor too – higher remaining lease fetches higher prices.
Other factors such as condition of the house, views and feng shui cannot be determined from the data. But I don’t see them as critical as the location.
Basically your chances of selling $1m or more are high if you BTO a high-floored 5-room unit in the right location.
