http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/...-105m-20140114

HDB maisonette bucks price trend, selling for record $1.05m

Published on Jan 14, 2014


AN HDB maisonette in Bishan sold for a record-breaking $1.05million last month, despite declining resale prices overall.

The price for the property was $250,000 over its valuation, easily trumping the median cash- over-valuation (COV) across the island of just $5,000.

The 150 sq m unit is on the 20th floor in a block near Bishan MRT. Its prime location and status as a rare maisonette contributed to its record price, said Dennis Wee Realty property agent Thomas Hee, who brokered the deal.

The new owners, a "young professional couple", declined to be interviewed.

It was the fourth HDB property to sell for at least $1 million last year. The others were another Bishan Street 13 maisonette, which went for $1.01 million, a $1 million Toh Yi Drive maisonette, and a rare corner terrace house in Whampoa that fetched $1.02 million. The terrace house is one of just 285 "landed" public homes built by HDB's predecessor, the Singapore Improvement Trust.

Unlike the latest property, those deals took place before June's tighter home loan rules.

But while new curbs have slowed the market, there have still been recent sales for over $900,000. These included an adjoined flat in Ang Mo Kio, another Bishan Street 13 maisonette, an executive flat in Toa Payoh and two maisonettes in Clementi that all sold in November, and a 150 sq m executive flat in Queenstown that went for $980,000 last month.

Still, such units buck the trend. Overall resale prices slid 4.3 per cent last year and are at their lowest level since July 2012, while the median COV plummeted 85per cent over the same period.

Mr Hee noted that the cooling has not been uniform. "In Bishan, the market has not significantly dropped," he said, adding that in a deal he brokered in the area last month, a five-room flat fetched a $200,000 COV.

Singapore Real Estate Exchange figures show that the median resale price in Bishan last month was $539,000, making it the third-priciest HDB town that month, behind pacesetter Marine Parade and Bukit Merah.

JANICE HENG