Overwhelming response for BTO flats in Dawson

Overwhelming response for BTO flats in Dawson
Dec 29, 2009 - PropertyGuru.com.sg

Homebuyers who applied for BTO flats at Dawson in Queenstown are experiencing stiff competition.

Application for the flats ended yesterday, and about 1,718 premium flats were six-times oversubscribed.

Units at Skyterrace@Dawson and SkyVille@Dawson are public flats, with premium designs and finishes. These projects are comprised of studio-type units, as well as three- to five-room flats.

A total of 9,865 individuals applied for its 1,718 units.

The five-room flats, which cost around $500,000, proved to be the most popular. About 200 flats were offered but over 2,000 applicants were competing for them.

The four-room flats also saw high demand. 1,100 such flats were offered, but more than 6,000 applications were received.

One analyst said that the demand for the newest project was fuelled by "sandwich class" individuals, who were willing to pay more for public housing.

Nicholas Mak, a real estate lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic said, "They may wish to buy private properties but because of the escalating prices of entry-level private properties, these people may be looking to buy more premium types of HDB flats."

Paired units, which were being offered for the first time, also proved to get good response. Over 300 applications have been received for the 70 units being offered.

Applicants will know the result, as well as their queue number by February next year.

For those unsuccessful applicants, HDB said that they can still look forward to more Build-To-Oder (BTO) projects in 2010. In fact, HDB is prepared to launch one BTO project every month, if demand for these flats continues to increase.