Serious 82 New HDB Millionaires! HDB Property Rise By 6.4%! Even John Tan Finally Sold Off HDB Flat For A Massive Profit!

[JohnTan]

SINGAPORE - The number of Housing Board resale flats sold for at least $1 million each hit a new high last year amid a strong showing by the market despite the Covid-19 pandemic, according to flash data from real estate portal SRX released on Thursday (Jan 7).

There were 82 million-dollar flats transacted in 2020, compared with 64 for 2019, after December saw 10 more of such transactions. They make up about 0.35 per cent of the total number of HDB resale flats sold last year.

SRX's flash estimates for December also reveal that overall HDB resale prices rose for the sixth consecutive month, bringing the total price rise for 2020 to 6.4 per cent, much more than the 0.3 per cent increase seen in 2019.

SINGAPORE - The number of Housing Board resale flats sold for at least $1 million each hit a new high last year amid a strong showing by the market despite the Covid-19 pandemic, according to flash data from real estate portal SRX released on Thursday (Jan 7).

There were 82 million-dollar flats transacted in 2020, compared with 64 for 2019, after December saw 10 more of such transactions. They make up about 0.35 per cent of the total number of HDB resale flats sold last year.

SRX's flash estimates for December also reveal that overall HDB resale prices rose for the sixth consecutive month, bringing the total price rise for 2020 to 6.4 per cent, much more than the 0.3 per cent increase seen in 2019.

Some of the locations with new resale flats that were transacted at higher prices are Dawson, Punggol and in Boon Tiong Road, he said.

Meanwhile, monthly sales hit 2,489 units in December, according to SRX estimates. This is the seventh straight month where resale flat transactions surpassed the 2,000-unit mark, mitigating the sharp drop in sales in April and May during the circuit breaker.

Based on SRX's figures, the string of strong monthly sales took the total resale flat volume to 23,427 units for the full year of 2020, which is 4.3 per cent higher than in 2019.

Mr Mak said the pandemic actually fuelled that expansion of the HDB resale market.

"Before Covid-19 became a household word, applicants for HDB Build-To-Order (BTO) flats may have had to wait about three years to get the keys to their new flats. The pandemic led to bottlenecks and delays in the construction of many public housing projects, which could add another one to two years to the completion of the flats. As a result, some potential HDB BTO applicants are turning to the resale market for their home purchases."

He added that December is also usually a lull period in the property market, but the travel restrictions that kept many Singaporeans at home mean that the HDB resale market continued to operate as normal.

Propnex head of research and content Wong Siew Ying added: "Our market observations suggest that buying interest remains keen and the rebound in sales in recent months have prompted some sellers to increase their asking price. OrangeTee & Tie head of research and consultancy Christine Sun noted that the unexpected housing boom is also likely to be "fuelled by the record-low mortgage rates, huge fiscal stimulus programmes designed to fend off an economic disaster and the slew of policy changes made to improve the HDB market conditions over the past two years."

"In addition, stiff competition for choice flats also saw buyers offering a higher price in order to secure the unit."

Areas such as Bishan Street 24 and Dawson Road saw some of the million-dollar HDB resale transactions last month.

The highest transacted price for a resale flat last month was achieved at $1,218,888 by a five-room Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) unit at Natura Loft.

The HDB resale market is likely to stay strong this year, experts said.

Ms Sun said: "We may expect demand for HDB resale market to continue to do well this year. We anticipate that the prices of resale flats may rise further by 2 per cent to 5 per cent."

Resale volume may also increase by another 3 per cent to 5 per cent to around 24,000 to 26,000 units for the whole of 2021, she said.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...t-1m-in-2020-as-overall-prices-sales-rise-srx

 

[Hypocrite-The]

The 1.2 million transacted flat is DBSS..so not really a hdb n there were of higher pricing in the 1st place. Wat about the price of normal hdb resale etc?

DBSS flats: Why were there so many issues that arose?
DBSS flats: Why were there so many issues?
Now that the Design, Build, and Sell Scheme (DBSS) flats are over, most of us can agree they were a disaster. First there was controversy when a five-room DBSS at Tampines had a price of $880,000 (we still want to know who was crazy enough to buy that). Then, Trivelis units had glass shower panels that shattered, and Centrale 8 in Tampines had burst water pipes.

Pasir Ris One is a DBSS project that had its fair share of complaints from buyers
Pasir Ris One is a DBSS project that had its fair share of complaints from buyers
In 2013, owners at The Peak complained that all the “high end fittings” looked like cheap knock-offs, and sometimes the lamination peeled. The cherry on top of this nonsense cake was Pasir Ris One, which attracted media attention for how narrow its corridors were. Residents could barely open a front door without smacking a neighbour in the face.

The question is, why?

DBSS flats and ECs are both built by private developers
It’s unlikely that this is due to private developers being incompetent. Executive Condominiums (ECs) are also built by private developers, and they do just fine – in fact they are almost constantly in high demand. We can also see, from the private condos everywhere, that customer dissatisfaction is fairly rare (Seaview is a special case, let’s not go there).

This leads us to speculate on the following reasons why many DBSS projects went wrong; and the key lessons buyers should take from it:

“Neither here-nor-there” budget
The HDB screen
Subjectivity of improvements
“Neither here-nor-there” budget
DBSS flats were expensive, compared to the typical HDB flat. It was not unusual to see prices like $660,000 to $770,000 for five-room units. This is a strange pricing point: it is frankly too expensive for a basic residence (no pool, no BBQ, no tennis courts, etc.), but too low for a private condo (even a mass market condo will usually sell for over $800,000).

We suspect this led to a rather strange budget for developers to work within. It would have been too limited for them to use their usual suppliers and contractors; but at the same time they could not use the cheaper products and services for more economical developments.

Now developers don’t do everything themselves: they rely on a range of suppliers and sub-contractors, and try to pick the right team based on the budget they have. Most of the time, developers are careful to use firms they have worked with in the past.

But the unusual new budget, which was neither low nor high end, probably sent them scrambling for new suppliers and sub-contractors; firms they had never worked with before. Many of these would be new firms, eager to build their portfolio, and willing to underprice their services for a shot at playing with big time developers.

In developments like Trivelis, those sub-contractors probably realised they’d over-promised; and by then it was too late to replace them.

The HDB screen
We don’t mean to cast aspersions on any developer, but there is the “HDB screen” for them to rely on, when it comes to DBSS. That is, most developers know that there is little chance of a DBSS development failing to sell: Because HDB’s name is more firmly affixed to these projects (even compared to Executive Condos), the presence of buyers is almost a given.

Most developers would have pictured DBSS as a safe bet. If they put up a private condo, there’s a risk of not selling the units. But if they build a unit for HDB, there’s sure to be buyers (which also explained their increasingly overconfident pricing).

This could have caused some laxity in the building process. When it’s a foregone conclusion that your product will sell, many businesses will slacken a bit, or start to cut corners here and there. In this case, some developers cruised on HDB’s brand to assure sales, and may have gotten lazy.

We’re pretty sure the super-narrow corridors in Pasir Ris One would not have happened, had it been a private condo the developer had to sell on their own power.

This is also the reason there was so much outrage when the flats turned out to be bad. Notice that many buyers were shocked not just at the workmanship, but at the fact that this could happen in a HDB project.

Subjectivity of improvements
With regard to some flaws, the buyers were absolutely right that the workmanship sucked. If a water pipe can burst, or shower glass can shatter on its own, then it’s crap by any standard. The most basic requirement of any new unit is that things won’t break as soon as you’ve moved in.

But with regard to finishings “looking cheap”, or edges and corners not being as exact as the buyer likes, it could be subjective. The argument is that, because of the high price of DBSS flats, the finishings should be of a higher standard.

But what exactly is $50,000 to $100,000 “higher” in standards? It’s really hard to say. To some buyers it means the dining room should resemble Buckingham Palace during a coronation. To others, it just means wood flooring instead of vinyl.

The “sandwich” nature of DBSS units – neither affordable nor expensive – confuses buyer expectations. It is not helped by co-existing with the EC scheme: if a DBSS costs $700,000 and an EC costs $800,000, then should it be judged by EC standards? If so, many look like terrible deals in comparison.

In any case, HDB has probably made the right decision to suspend the DBSS scheme. It is frankly unnecessary to have multiple “sandwich” classes of flats.

 

[JohnTan]

DBSS flats: Why were there so many issues that arose?
DBSS flats: Why were there so many issues?

What issue with DBSS? Willing buyer, willing seller for over $1 million. Sell HDB soon and buy private property!!

 

[laksaboy]

A house is not a home. Refer to the old lady who died alone (with her flat) in her Amber Road condo. Dead for two years and no one knew.

 

[rocket]

Most stoopig are those who bought private condo as first house.