ST : 1,322 flats in Sengkang, Bukit Panjang for sale

Oct 27, 2010

1,322 flats in Sengkang, Bukit Panjang for sale

By Daryl Chin

MORE than 1,300 new flats were launched for sale yesterday as the Housing Board stepped up measures to help first-time buyers.

Senja Parc View in Bukit Panjang will offer 577 units under standard contracts, while 745 units at Anchorvale Horizon in Sengkang will be sold under premium contracts. Although the 1,322 build-to-order (BTO) flats will not be ready for at least a few years, the increase in supply should ease pressure on first-time buyers as the property market soars.

Senja Parc View flats cost $86,000 to $119,000 for a two-room unit, and $242,000 to $312,000 for a four-room unit. Premium units at Anchorvale Horizon cost from $75,000 to $104,000 for a studio apartment, and $344,000 to $426,000 for a five-room flat.

Both projects feature the Optional Component Scheme where buyers can pay extra for finishes such as internal doors or flooring. Apart from the studio apartments, the other 95 per cent of units will be set aside for first-time buyers.

HDB said such buyers use an estimated 17 per cent to 27 per cent of their monthly household income to meet their monthly loan repayments. It advised prudence when purchasing homes. The income ceiling is $2,000 a month for a two-room unit, $3,000 for a three-room unit, and $8,000 for studio apartments, four-room and five-room units.

ERA Asia-Pacific associate director Eugene Lim said the Sengkang project looks set to buck the trend of dipping oversubscription rates.

The two most recent BTO exercises, in Yishun and Woodlands, saw rates of 2.4 and 2.2 respectively. These are much lower than that for a BTO project launched in Punggol in April, which saw application numbers reach up to six times the 1,429 units on offer. The drop may be due in part to the projects' locations.

Mr Lim said: 'Anchorvale looks more attractive because it's within walking distance of a number of amenities such as an LRT station.'

Mr Adam Tan, corporate communications manager for PropNex, said he foresees an oversubscription rate of at least four times for the four- and five-room flats in Sengkang.

'First-timers looking to start a family will like Anchorvale Horizon because it's a fairly developed estate. In addition, cash-over-valuation (COV) figures haven't come down enough for first-timers to jump over to the resale market, because they do not have that amount of disposable cash.'

He added that median COV prices for resale flats in Sengkang are about $32,000 for a four-room unit and $35,000 for a five-room unit.

Applications for the new flats will close on Nov 8. They bring the number of new flats for sale under the BTO scheme and Sale of Balance Flats exercise to 15,527 since the start of this year.

HDB will launch 2,200 new flats in Yishun and Punggol next month and in December respectively. It also announced plans to sell about 5,000 flats in Bukit Panjang, Jurong West, Sengkang and Yishun in the first quarter of next year.