FLUSH with cash from a collective sale, a one-time private property owner bought a five-room Housing Board flat for $675,000 this month, setting what is believed to be a record price for such a unit.

OVER AND ABOVE: Located on this 16th-level corridor, the unit was sold without being valued, as the buyer paid in cash with proceeds from a collective sale. Its estimated value is about $550,000, meaning its buyer paid about $125,000 above its value. Photos/ MAY LIN LE GOFF

The five-year-old, 16-storey unit in Jalan Membina, off Tiong Bahru road and just minutes from Orchard Road, was sold in a day, without even being valued.

The buyer is paying in cash, according to the agent who handled the deal.

Property agents say the deal, still a one-off at such high prices, reflects the growing demand for bigger flats in redeveloped precincts in estates like Tiong Bahru, Queenstown and Toa Payoh.

They are close to MRT stations and Orchard Road, command good views because they are taller - up to 30 storeys - than their counterparts in these mature housing estates and are also newer, having recently turned five years old.

Private property owners dislodged after their units were sold en bloc see such flats as good - and relatively cheaper - replacements for condominium apartments, say agents.

They are fast edging out other buyers when these flats surface on the market after five years - the minimum waiting period before a new flat can be resold.

The Jalan Membina flat is estimated to be worth about $550,000 - meaning its buyer paid about $125,000 above its value.

Its owners had wanted to sell the flat as it was getting too cramped for the family of eight, said the agent, Mr Joseph Tan from Propnex.

The initial asking price was $700,000, a figure which Mr Tan said 'we had a 70-per-cent confidence of reaching'.

The family now intends to move to an executive flat in the north-east of Singapore.

Similar units in other redeveloped precincts are also fetching high prices.

First Tree Properties helped broker the sale of a five-year-old, five-room flat in Toa Payoh last month for $571,000. The flat was on the 30th floor.

Meanwhile, a similar six-year-old unit in Kim Tian Place sold for $546,000 earlier this year.

These units can fetch anything from $50,000 upwards in cash above their value.

Prices of HDB flats reached a record high in 1996, when an HDB executive maisonette in Bishan with a roof terrace changed hands for $770,000.

But the market plunged when the Asian financial crisis hit shortly after, with an overhang of new HDB flats putting the lid on resale prices.

It is now catching up again.

The private property market has taken off in recent months, with prices growing by 4.6 per cent between January and March.

Many expect the resale flat market, lagging behind at a modest 1.3 per cent, to follow soon as more buyers are priced out of private property.

Still, the general view among the 10 property agents polled was that the Jalan Membina deal was a one-off event.

Mr Wilson Lim, the chief operating officer of Century 21, said: 'I don't see it having that much of an effect on the rest of the market. HDB flat dwellers and purchasers are generally quite a prudent lot. Unless they have unusual expectations, no one is going to fork out that kind of cash.'

The chief executive of Propnex, Mr Mohamed Ismail, added that such bullish buying will likely just apply to flats within the central area.

'This is not reflective of the overall HDB market,' he said.

� Readers' comments

Is this article useful to you?