Queenstown HDB flat nearly sold for $950,000
By Irene Tham
A family in Singapore nearly sold their home in Strathmore Avenue for $950,000 - possibly the highest amount fetched for an HDB flat.
But the deal did not go through.
The buyer could not get a bank loan for the rare penthouse valued at $875,000.
The Queenstown flat joins another HDB flat which recently made the news for its equally lofty price.
The property - a rooftop maisonette in Bishan Street 24 - reportedly drew an offer of $900,000 from a buyer.
The Strathmore Avenue penthouse on the 24th floor boasts an unobstructed view of the estate. It is a five-minute walk from Queenstown MRT station.
'Buyers like the Queenstown area because of the large sizes of its flats and its proximity to town,' said Mr Lim Yong Hock, senior vice-president at property agency PropNex.
It takes less than 10 minutes to drive from Queenstown to Orchard Road.
The owners, an Indian family, declined to be interviewed. The flat was bought from the HDB for about $200,000 eight years ago.
The buyer - an Indian Singaporean - could not be reached at press time.
At $950,000, the deal works out to about $460 per sq ft (psf) for the 2,066 sq ft maisonette.
Although not the highest psf price paid for an HDB property, the total amount is in sync with Queenstown's reputation for recording the highest transacted prices. Prices of HDB flats reached a record high in 2008 when a 1,614 sq ft executive unit in Queenstown was sold for $890,000.
In 2007, another executive unit in Mei Ling Street, near Queenstown Stadium, was sold for the same price.
'In 2007, when the en bloc market was red hot, many home owners became cash-rich overnight,' Mr Lim said.
The buyer of the flat in Mei Ling Street in 2007 benefited from an
en bloc sale. He paid cash for the flat, said Mr Lim, whose company brokered the deal.
Property agents said such sky-high prices are a one-off, and do not reflect the overall tenor of HDB resale prices.
The scarcity of highest-floor flats also means there are some people who are willing to pay a premium for them.
'There are not many such units on sale in the market,' said Mr Raymond Quah, president of Dennis Wee Properties.
There are only four rooftop penthouses in Strathmore Avenue.
In Bishan, there are only 50 rooftop penthouses with open terraces.
When contacted, ERA assistant vice-president Eugene Lim declined to reveal whether the owners of the Bishan maisonette have accepted the $900,000 offer.
According to a Lianhe Zaobao report on March 30, a 45-year-old Singaporean businessman was willing to pay cash-over-valuation of $170,000 for the 18-year-old flat, valued at $730,000.
The highest psf price paid for an HDB property was recorded in February this year for a four-room flat in Bain Street.
The $736 psf price for the 30-year-old flat on the 25th floor of a block in Bras Basah trumped the previous record set in November last year.
Then, a four-room flat in Strathmore Avenue was sold for $653,000 or $674 psf.
The view from inside the HDB penthouse located at Strathmore Avenue, which overlooks the estate. The 2,066 sq ft unit on the 24th floor would have sold for $950,000, but its buyer could not get a bank loan.
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