4-room Million-dollar HDB Flats in Singapore: Where Are They Found? (2024)
Million-dollar HDB flats are becoming less of a rarity and more of a common occurrence. Since the first HDB million-dollar resale transaction in 2012, the number of million-dollar HDB in 2024 has been growing, with 120 million-dollar HDB transactions in July 2024 alone.
Here’s some background information. The first HDB million dollar flat 12 years ago was an executive maisonette along Mei Ling Street in Queenstown. In 2022, 370 million-dollar HDB flats changed hands; while in 2023, this figure was 470. So far, as of July 2024, the number of million-dollar HDB flats that have been transacted have far exceeded previous figures, and stands at 543.
Though it’s expected that larger HDB resale flats such as executive maisonettes, jumbo or 5-room flats could easily fetch over a million dollars, especially if they are situated in mature estates, the trend is that we are also seeing more seven-figure transactions in non-mature estates, and in 4-room resale HDB flats as well.
With Sengkang finally joining the million-dollar HDB club in April 2024, it is only a matter of time before the remaining three HDB towns – Jurong West, Choa Chu Kang, and Sembawang – breach the million-dollar mark.
Perhaps this is why the BTO application rate hit an all-time high of over three times in June 2024, also in part due to the new resale restrictions that will kick in from the October 2024 BTO exercise onwards (i.e. harder to sell or fetch a high price). This includes subsidy clawback, an imposed income ceiling for resale buyers, and the rental of the whole flat even after the Minimum Occupancy Period has been fulfilled.
In the meantime, between now and when the first flats from the October 2024 BTO launch get onto the resale market (likely at least 10 to 15 years later), we should expect to see more million-dollar (or even 2 million dollar) 4-room HDB resale flats.
Read on to find out where these million-dollar 4-room HDB resale flats are located and which estates we’ll likely to see more of such transactions.
Singaporeans React to Million-dollar HDB Flats: Watch Our Video
Number of Million-dollar 4-room HDB Flats Sold from 2018 to 2024
Year | Number of million-dollar 4-room HDB flats sold |
2024* | 198* |
2023 | 125 |
2022 | 38 |
2021 | 44 |
2020 | 14 |
2019 | 10 |
2018 | 9 |
*As of 17 August 2024
Source: data.gov.sg / HDB
In June 2018, the first million-dollar 4-room HDB flat was sold for $1,028,000. It’s no surprise that this flat was located at Pinnacle @ Duxton, possibly one of the most expensive HDB flats of its time. This was a 1,033 sq ft Type S1 flat. These days, the units at Pinnacle @ Duxton can command over $1,500,000.
To date, 438 million-dollar 4-room flats have been sold. If you look at the figures in the table above, there was a surge of million-dollar 4-room HDB resale flats transacted in 2023. This figure will likely be doubled by the end of 2024.
Let’s take a closer look at where these 4-room million-dollar flats are located.
Where to Find 4-room HDB Million-dollar Flats?
HDB estate | Number of 4-room million-dollar flats transacted (from June 2018 to 17 August 2024) |
Ang Mo Kio | 7 |
Bishan | 11 |
Bukit Merah | 65 |
Central Area | 137 |
Clementi | 8 |
Geylang | 9 |
Kallang/Whampoa | 89 |
Queenstown | 63 |
Toa Payoh | 49 |
Source: data.gov.sg / HDB
As you can see, the most number of million-dollar 4-room HDB flat transactions took place in the Central Area, as well as those near the city fringe, such as Bukit Merah, Kallang/Whampoa, Queenstown and Toa Payoh. There have also been 4-room million-dollar resale HDBs emerging slightly further away, in Ang Mo Kio, Bishan and Clementi. Even Geylang, which has for a long time had an unsavoury reputation due to its red light district, has million-dollar 4-room transactions as well, due to the freshly-MOPed MacPherson Spring BTOs.
However, it can be certain that location is king when it comes to commanding high prices (including high cash over valuation (COV) amounts) as a 4-room HDB resale flat. These flats also tend to be within a 10-minute walk to the nearest MRT station(s).
In comparison, when it comes to transactions for 5-room and larger flat types over a million dollars, such as jumbo flats or executive maisonettes, buyers have sometimes been willing to go for flats in non-mature estates in order to secure a more spacious home.
Age is another factor as well. According to our dataset, the two oldest flats (1973) were located in Bukit Timah; there are three flats that were built in the late 1990s, six built from 2002 to 2008, and the remainder are all from 2011 onwards. This shows that buyers are mindful of the remaining years left on the lease (having paid a premium for their property), and they might also be factoring in the flats’ investment potential as well.
Where Are the 4-room HDB Million-dollar Flats Transacted in H1 2024?
HDB estate | Number of 4-room million-dollar flats transacted in H1 2024 |
Ang Mo Kio | 3 |
Bishan | 1 |
Bukit Merah | 16 |
Central Area | 9 |
Clementi | 3 |
Geylang | 7 |
Kallang/Whampoa | 44 |
Queenstown | 18 |
Toa Payoh | 27 |
Source: data.gov.sg / HDB
In H1 2024, these are the areas in which 4-room resale flats have been transacted for over a million dollars. Now, let’s look at more data to see where we might expect a potential surge in million-dollar 4-room flats in the (near) future.
Breakdown of 4-room HDB Flats Trending Towards $1 Million
HDB estate | Number of 4-room flats transacted from 1 Jan 2023 to 17 August 2024 for between $850,000 to under $1,000,000 |
Ang Mo Kio | 115 |
Bedok | 22 |
Bishan | 18 |
Bukit Batok | 1 |
Bukit Merah | 349 |
Bukit Timah | 4 |
Central Area | 1 |
Clementi | 71 |
Geylang | 86 |
Kallang/Whampoa | 138 |
Queenstown | 219 |
Sengkang | 2 |
Serangoon | 1 |
Tampines | 1 |
Toa Payoh | 114 |
Source: data.gov.sg / HDB
To better understand the emerging trend of million-dollar 4-room HDB flat transactions, we took a look at 4-room HDB flat transactions from $850,000 to just under $1 million from 1 Jan 2023 to 17 August 2024. This is similar to our article in which we checked out which HDB estates have flats trending towards a million dollars, where data hinted at where we could expect to see more million-dollar transactions soon.
By and large, the areas that saw 4-room million-dollar HDB resale flat transactions between $850,000 and just under $1,000,000 were the same as those that saw million-dollar transactions. One emerging area that might see a 4-room million-dollar HDB resale transaction soon could be Bedok.
There is also a high volume of these $850,000 to below $1,000,000 transactions in Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Merah, Kallang/Whampoa, Queenstown and Toa Payoh. This indicates high potential for even more 4-room million-dollar HDB resale transactions in these areas moving forward.
Will We See More Million-dollar 4-room HDB Flats in 2024 and Beyond?
From December 2021 to April 2023, the government implemented a slew of cooling measures, in a bid to control rising property prices. However, some of these measures, such as adjusting the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) and floor rate upwards, priced more buyers out of the private property market. Therefore, they may either look at rental properties or seek out HDB resale flats.
Other factors that may unintendedly push buyers towards 4-room flats include the high interest rate environment, a new 15-month wait-out period for private property owners looking to “downgrade” to a HDB flat and exempting seniors aged 55 above looking to “right-size” to a 4-room or smaller flat.
From the data, it looks like demand for million-dollar 4-room HDB flats is not abating anytime soon, even with the cooling measures. If anything, it looks like there could be a surge from now till the new resale restrictions kick in, 10 to 15 years down the road. This could naturally modulate, as only 70% of people polled in our PropertyGuru Consumer Sentiment Study H1 2023 did not find it reasonable for HDB resale properties to be sold at $1 million or more.
Do note that despite the growing number of transactions, million-dollar HDB flat transactions are not the norm, making up just a single-digit percentage of overall HDB flat transactions. Your best resource would be to look at HDB’s median resale prices for a better gauge.
Meanwhile, rest assured that the Singapore government is watching resale prices like a hawk, and might roll out more cooling measures to curb this million-dollar phenomenon if it gets out of hand.
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