The new record is not a surprise, given that the housing market has been on the rebound after the circuit breaker as the market is seeing an increase in HDB resale prices in tandem with what has been happening across all segments of the housing market.
Even during this circuit breaker, Singapore's housing market saw private residential and HDB property sales volume going up and especially in good locations. Flash estimates from real estate portal SRX revealed last Thursday that prices of Housing Board resale flats increased for the third consecutive month last month.
DBSS flats are Housing Board flats designed, built and sold by private developers but are still considered as HDB public housing flats. Meant to provide condominium-style homes, the scheme was suspended in 2011 after public unhappiness over high selling prices.
Eight resale flats also sold for above $1 million, one of them a five-room flat at The Pinnacle@Duxton in Tanjong Pagar, which sold for $1.258 million. It is believed to be a record for a resale HDB flat.
Launched as an HDB Build-to-Order (BTO) project back in May 2004, The Pinnacle@Duxton is the one and only BTO project to date that’s located in the city. Completed in 2010, the project began selling at record prices soon after the flat owners attained their five-year Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) towards the end of 2014.
Attractively priced projects in the city fringe – known as the rest of central region – continued to fuel sales last month, accounting for nearly 65 per cent of total transactions, analysts noted. The standout among three new non-landed launches last month was Penrose in Sims Drive, while existing top sellers such as JadeScape and The Woodleigh Residences also fared well.
Real estate professional Kiwi Lim from Huttons Asia said "the Covid pandemic this year in 2020 did not put a dent in local property prices as many property analysts predicted early this year. Instead, we are seeing an average increase of around 2% to 4% in property prices across the private residential and public housing sector in various locations in Singapore. This is mainly from local pent-up demand as foreign buyers for the first time ever are mostly kept out of Singapore during this Covid period. As Singapore opens up for foreigners to enter our borders, we may expect to see increased foreign interest in our property market."