Been meaning to blog about the latest record breaking HDB unit for a while but I’ve been busy (hey, being a baby maker/incubator is tiring man). Anyway, if you haven’t read, the most recent record breaking unit comes from Bishan, and is one of those ‘sky terrace’ units that went for $250,000 over its valuation, going at $1.05 million.
In case you don’t know what’s a ‘sky terrace’ unit, we are referring to one of those rare units on the 20th floor of point blocks in Bishan. The 150 sqm unit (approx. 1,615 sq ft) was reportedly bought by a “young professional couple”. You can read the news report here. Another article reported that the flat located in Block 190 “was listed on real estate portal PropertyGuru for about one month and attracted keen interest from three other buyers willing to pay over S$1.05 million, said DWG agent Thomas Hee who closed the deal“. You can read that article here.
Here’s a pic of these point blocks. You can see the open terraces from the pic:
And we finally have the floor plan for such units, thanks to ‘Lahyen’ from Renotalk who contributed this after exercising his OTP…
Btw click here if you want to see another rare Bishan maisonette layout.
The floor plan alone wasn’t enough to interest me to blog about it tho. What piqued my interest were the interior pics… ‘dysentry’ from Hardwarezone forum’s posted pictures that are supposedly of the record breaking unit. I suppose the renovation did play a large part in the record breaking price (apart from rarity, proximity to MRT/amenities, etc)
Enjoy…
Link to HWZ forum: read here
From the Propertyguru ad: advertised unit
As a HDB property owner, what Hee mentioned also gave me hope regarding my place despite all the news about falling HDB prices… i.e.
When asked why such buyers would not look at the executive condominium (EC) market or mass market condominiums which offered comparable prices and come with facilities, Hee said: “ECs and condos do not have such a size and such a good location. They also have higher maintenance fees to service. Bishan is still the most favoured estate in Singapore and despite the cooling measures, there are still cash-rich buyers telling me that price isn’t a problem for them and to just get them ‘good’ houses.”
“The rich are not restricted from buying. They sit above the cooling measures. While we see a downward trend in other estates, Bishan is still attracting a lot of interest from well-heeled individuals who are looking for a ‘good’ house. Currently, the situation is that we are short of ‘good’ houses in the Bishan area. It is not a question of price or the cooling measures. These factors do not affect many of them. Overall, prices in Bishan should continue to inch up if not remain strong,” he added.
I assume this works the same way for the executive HDB units in Queenstown too. After all, even with the general trend of falling HDB prices, Queenstown HDB prices continue to look fairly resilient. This news analysis of HDB median prices over 2013/Q4 2013 illustrate that pretty well via tables and charts: link to article. The reporter also wrote that:
Among the five, Queenstown stands out the most. The median price for this estate is not only the highest but it is also one of the few estate that shows price increase for 3 and 4-room flats. Buyers of HDB flats in this estate can be assured of capital gains when they sell the unit. It will seem that homebuyers see intrinsic value for HDB flats in Queenstown and are willing to pay top dollar. This could be due to Queenstown central location, plentiful amenities and a proven track record of price resilience. Home buyers with deeper pockets can consider purchasing a flat in Queenstown.
Yay. Not that I plan to sell my place soon, but hey it’s still reassuring to know that I’m not going to have a massive loss on my hands if we do plan to sell our current place. I’m guessing that many of my neighbours feel the same way too. I mean, it’s all well and good that the government is trying to provide affordable housing, but to the over-1 million HDB owners, I’m pretty sure that reports of falling HDB prices is not good news.
That’s all… kinda a rare break from reading/researching about pregnancy related stuff like maternity belly support bands and nursing bras. 🙂
Other articles you may like to read:
Our EM Renovation Experience 
The EM is located on the 2nd top with a open balcony and 3rd top level of the block? How about the unit on the most top? Singly level unit??
What level is the unit with an open balcony? Is it masionette penthouse?
The most top unit is a masionette too??