SDG955,000 for a 14-year old flat in Singapore

If you have a family, working in Singapore and simply love a certain area in Singapore, how much would you be willing to pay? Well, according to an article in PropertyGuru.com.sg, a 5-room HDB resale flat in Toa Payoh recently changed hands for $955,000. The sale even happened in the Ghost Month which is usually a quiet period for anything and everything for the Chinese. Size of the unit is 124 sqm. (+/-1335sq ft) It’s a 14-year old flat and located at Block 154 in To a Payoh between the 22nd and 24th storeys, according to HDB data.
8 years ago, in July 2007, a 5-room resale flat on the 28th storey of the same block was sold for $650,000. At that time, it was also a record. Well, the current price showed that records are meant to be broken again and again. One key reason according to Eugene Lim, Key Executive Officer at ERA Realty is that the particular unit enjoys an excellent location. It is opposite the To a Payoh Town centre, near to the Toa Payoh MRT station with an underpass directly linking the flat to it. As the unit is on a high floor, it is not blocked by other surrounding flats too, thus having unobstructed views. Fortunately, he said that the deal is more likely an exception than a norm. He does not foresee such deals to become a trend.
I personally think when the richer middle class gets richer, some of them may set some of these new records. This is not happening only in Singapore but also in some of the more popular areas in Greater KL. The super-rich ones would never consider buying a HDB flat and the super-wealthy ones in KL would never buy a RM950,000 condo of 1,000sf.  They would definitely be buying a gated and guarded landed property with club house for RM1.8 million instead. The typical middle class? Well, they would most likely stick to the much lower priced ones, perhaps giving a lower consideration weightage to the actual area and put the actual needs in terms of schools, malls etc on a higher scale instead. People may ‘smile’ at you for staying in a lesser known area but at least you have a decent-sized home and not those exceptionally small units in popular areas. Yes, I am quite proud about this fact; decent-sized home in a lesser popular area. This has been be the same philosophy for me since my first home at the age of 25. Haha. I don’t really mind people ‘smiling’ at me. Happy buying your favourite unit and enjoying it.
written on 16 Sept 2015
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