A resale flat at 93B Telok Blangah Street 31, listed at $2.1 million, may become Singapore’s most expensive HDB flat. The jumbo flat is reportedly 1,465 square feet (136 square metres) and allegedly boasts five bedrooms and four bathrooms. It was listed on PropertyGuru on Friday, 18 September, but real estate agent Thomas Tong has been posting videos promoting it since Thursday, 17 September.
The unit is within the Telok Blangah Parcview estate, which was part of the July 2013 BTO Sales Launch. The estate comprises 7 30-storey blocks and originally consisted of about 1,480 studio, 3-room, and 4-room units. According to the listing, TOP was in late 2018, so about 91 years remain on the 99-year lease.
Read Also: Could We See An HDB Flat Sold For $2 Million Within This Decade?
#1 Location
Telok Blangah Parcview is bounded by Telok Blangah Heights and Telok Blangah Street 31. It is next to Telok Blangah Hill Park, which is part of the nature trail known as the Southern Ridges.
Block 93B, where the unit is, sits at the southern end of the estate, so one side of the house has an unobstructed sea view (specifically from the main bedroom and service yard of unit 181).
Source: HDB
That said, with the launch of the Berlayar HDB estate and the rest of the Greater Southern Waterfront, these views may not remain unblocked for much longer.
The block is about an 11-minute walk to both Labrador Park MRT station and Telok Blangah MRT station, on the Circle Line.
It is next to Blangah Rise Primary School, but the nearest secondary schools, CHIJ St Theresa’s Convent and Bukit Merah Secondary School, are more than 2 kilometres away.
Read Also: Where Are The Most Million-Dollar 4-Room HDB Flats Found In Singapore
#2 Size
This jumbo flat comprises two adjoining 3-room flats, namely units 179 and 181. The wall between the two units, as well as the wall for the common bedroom in unit 179, has been hacked, creating a reported 18.9-metre living and dining area.
Though originally sold as two separate 3-room flats, owners of one flat can create a jumbo unit by buying their neighbour’s unit to form a jumbo flat under the lesser-known HDB Conversion Scheme. This depends on HDB’s approval and the suitability of the two adjoining units.
Read Also: Why HDB Needs To Start Building Bigger Flats For “Large Families”
#3 Price Per Square Foot
At $2.18 million, the unit is effectively priced at $1,488 psf. If sold at this price, it would be one of the highest psf ever recorded for an HDB unit. The current record is held by a top-floor (i.e. 49th or 50th storey) 4-room flat at Pinnacle @ Duxton, which sold for $1.518 million at $1,500 psf.
In fact, only three 4-room flat units in Pinnacle @ Duxton have sold at $1,488 psf or more.
Other 3-room resale transactions in the same block range from $635,000 for units closer to the ground to $800,000 for units on higher floors. 4-room resale transactions in the same block follow the same pattern, ranging from $800,000 to $1,080,000. The psf range for both unit types is $799 to $1,093, nowhere near the $1,488 psf asking price of this jumbo flat.
Read Also: Beyond Price PSF: Why Usable Space Should Influence Your Home Buying Decision
#4 Height
The jumbo flat unit is reportedly located between the 16th and 18th storey. This puts it at the midpoint of the block.
As mentioned earlier, while this height does offer unblocked sea views from the south-facing windows, it remains to be seen if the view will be blocked by the upcoming developments such as the Berlayer HDB estate and the rest of the Greater Southern Waterfront.
#5 Unique Layout
The current owners have converted the kitchen in the former unit 179 into a study room, and hacked the wall of the common bedroom in unit 179 to extend the living and dining area. This leaves only the master bedroom in unit 179.
The layout of the former unit 181 is mostly intact, with one common bedroom and one master bedroom.
Now this is where the listing and the reality don’t quite add up. The PropertyGuru listing, which the media has quoted, says the jumbo unit is created by combining two existing 3-room flats. This means it should have a maximum of four bedrooms, since each 3-room flat has one master bedroom and one common bedroom.
Furthermore, in this unit, the walls of one common bedroom (in unit 179) have been hacked to extend the living room space. This means the unit should have only three bedrooms. The only plausible explanation is that the mention of “five bedrooms” in the listing INCLUDES the two household shelters (colloquially known as “bomb shelters”).
Source: Thomas Tong
The $2 Million HDB Flat Is An Inevitability
To date, there have been more than 100 HDB resale transactions above $1.5 million. Where once a $1 million resale flat might have made the headlines, we have now normalised the $1.5 million resale flat.
With the recent increase in the income ceiling for HDB flats from $14,000 to $16,000, and the removal of the 15-month wait-out period for private homeowners buying HDB resale flats, it is only a matter of time before resale flat prices cross the $2 million mark.
However, whether that record will be broken by this jumbo flat at 93B Telok Blangah Street 31 remains to be seen.
Read Also: HDB Income Ceiling At $16,000: Which BTO And How Much Can A Couple Earning This Amount Afford
Top Image Credit: Google Maps
