For the second time this year, a unit at City View @ Boon Keng has set a new record price for a resale HDB flat in Singapore. The 1,281 sq ft, five-room unit on the 39th floor changed hands for $1.205 million ($940.7 psf) earlier this month.
The transacted unit is at Block 8 Boon Keng Road, one of a trio of 40-storey residential blocks that forms City View @ Boon Keng. The 714-unit development was completed in 2011, and was developed under the Design, Build, and Sell Scheme (DBSS). It has 90 years left to its lease.
It is the second time this year a unit at City View @ Boon Keng has broken the resale HDB record (Picture: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
City View @ Boon Keng also made news in January this year when a 1,259 sq ft, five-room unit from the adjacent Block 9 was sold for $1.185 million ($941 psf). At the time, this was the highest transaction for a resale HDB flat. But the record was toppled three months later when a 1,206 sq ft, five-room unit at 9A Tiong Bahru View, Boon Tiong Road, fetched $1.2 million ($995 psf), according to HDB resale data.
The family who owned the $1.205 million unit at City View @ Boon Keng were not in a rush to sell their home when the development reached its Minimum Occupancy Period (MOP) in 2016, as they were living comfortably there, says Victor The, associate marketing director at PropNex Realty and the agent who represented the sellers.
However, they decided to find a new home close to Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) for the benefit of the children, and settled on another unit along Kampong Java Road, he says.
City View @ Boon Keng’s record-breaking transactions are attributed to its city-fringe location, unblocked views of Kallang, spacious layout, and proximity to Bendemeer MRT Station on the Downtown Line and Boon Keng MRT Station on the North-East Line.
Based on the $1.185 million deal recorded for the DBSS unit in January, The was “confident” he could close the deal above $1.2 million. Interested buyers knew the attractiveness of the development’s location and the prices they would be expected to pay based on past transactions, he says.
The view from the $1.205 mil HDB unit at City View @ Boon Keng (Picture: Victor The/PropNex Realty)
According to him, the buyer of the unit was willing to shell out a cash-over-valuation (COV) of $55,000. COV is the cash premium a buyer pays in addition to the official valuation of the flat. HDB had valued the unit at $1.15 million, but the buyer was prepared to pay the eventual sum of $1.205 million for the property.
This year, the number of million-dollar resale HDB transactions is expected to exceed the 71 recorded last year, says Christine Sun, head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee & Tie. Close to 30,000 HDB flats are expected to reach their five-year MOP this year, and many are located in well-sought-after locations such as Bukit Merah, Queenstown, and Ang Mo Kio, she adds.