Advertisement

Geylang HDB flat with city views sold for $910,000

News Roundup (March 2018)
Our top Singapore property stories...

The high floor unit at Pine Close offers unblocked views of the Singapore Sports Hub and city skyline. (Photo: Dulcie Liu)

UPDATED: A 5-room HDB resale flat on a high floor in Geylang with sweeping views of the Singapore Sports Hub and city skyline was sold in January for a sky-high price of $910,000.

The sale price for the 1,184 sq ft corner unit works out to about $769 psf on the floor area.

More: 3 HDB flats resold for over $1mil

Located at Block 3 Pine Close, the 18-year-old flat is close to Mountbatten MRT station, famous eateries, supermarkets and Kallang Wave Mall.

The unit was listed on PropertyGuru with an asking price of $920,000. It was snapped up after two days by a Singaporean couple who recently sold their property in an en bloc sale, said ERA Realty property agent Dulcie Liu, who brokered the deal. This makes it the most expensive 5-room flat ever sold in Pine Close.

According to Liu, the couple was willing to pay a premium for the flat due to its ideal location. “Such well-located flats will never waver in demand and price,” she said.

The area doesn’t usually see such high-priced sales, with over half of the 30 5-room flats transacted in Pine Close going for below the $850,000 mark since the start of 2014, according to HDB data.

Other recent deals in Pine Close include the $890,000 sale of a 1,216 sq ft unit at Block 7 in March, and the $830,000 sale of a 1,292 sq ft flat at Block 9 in February.

Meanwhile, analysts are of the view that such high prices are not the norm for public housing. In fact, HDB resale flat prices have been declining in the past five years, with a 1.5 percent drop in 2017.

Despite this, Liu noted that buyer enquiries have picked up and sellers can look to make a profit, especially with the recent spike in en bloc sales.

“Many en bloc sellers are now looking to use their sales proceeds to retire in mature HDB estates,” she said.

Ismail Gafoor, CEO of PropNex Realty, agrees. “The en bloc boom in 2017, alongside the positive sentiment in the residential market, is set to increase the demand for HDB resale properties as some of the displaced homeowners might consider purchasing resale flats as their new home,” he said.

As such, he expects HDB resale prices to register growth of 1.0 to 2.0 percent in 2018.

Check out more HDB flats for sale in Geylang!

 

Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg