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One bid, $1,243 psf ppr: what EL Development’s Marina Gardens Lane offer means for Marina South and One Marina Gardens.
The Marina Gardens Lane tender closed on 15 October with a single envelope: EL Development at $450.1 million, or $1,243 psf per plot ratio. That is 11% below what Kingsford paid next door for One Marina Gardens, and under the $1,350 to $1,650 analysts expected. Here is what the number does to the precinct, to One Marina Gardens’ buyers, and to anyone waiting for a cheaper way in.
13 min read
Unauthorised works in condos: the $200,000 problem you can inherit, and how to check before you buy.
URA says reports of unauthorised works in strata homes have run at about 150 a year since 2024, nine in ten are confirmed, and the owner on title is responsible for fixing them even if the loft or the enclosed roof terrace came with the unit. Fines reach $200,000 under two Acts. Here is what counts as unauthorised, what it costs, how a buyer checks a unit for $91.50 in searches, and what an owner does about works already in place.
11 min read
The 2027 playbook: 15,000 HDB flats reach MOP, not one EC does, and private completions rise 29%.
About 15,000 HDB flats reach the end of their MOP in 2027, on top of roughly 19,600 new flats a year. Not a single executive condominium reaches its MOP between October 2025 and January 2028. Private completions rise to 9,704 next year and peak in 2028, while the population adds 97,000 people and about 23,000 households a year. Here is what those numbers do to each market, and what to do about it.
15 min read
Insights archive
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Inherited a property in Singapore? Here is the process, the tax you don’t owe, and the one you quietly do.
What to do if you inherit a property in Singapore: no estate duty, no stamp duty on the inheritance itself and no CPF refund on the deceased’s savings, but HDB runs a 6-month and a 12-month clock after probate, a landed home cannot pass to a foreign heir without approval, and the property joins your ABSD count on whatever you buy next.
9 min read
Three quarters down, 0.6% in total. What HDB’s Q3 flash really says about resale prices.
HDB’s flash estimate puts the Q3 2026 Resale Price Index at 202.4, down 0.2% and the third straight quarterly dip, while URA’s private index jumped 1.4%. Volumes rose 17.7%, million-dollar flats hit 597, and the gap between an HDB flat and the condo it is meant to fund widened again. Here is what the number does and does not mean.
8 min read
Two new land sales: 85 homes in Siglap now, 235 in Serangoon North later, and what each one prices in.
URA released two residential sites on the same day: a 0.55-hectare plot on East Coast Road, Siglap’s first residential state land since the Seaside Residences site, where every unit must average at least 100 sqm, and a 235-home Reserve List plot at Serangoon North View beside The Garden Residences. One goes to tender on 3 December with analyst calls from $1,100 to $1,650 psf ppr. The other is a signal that says not yet. Here is what each one prices in.
10 min read
More flats are coming. What the 2026 to 2028 supply wave does to HDB resale prices.
HDB resale prices have fallen two quarters in a row, and the flats reaching their five-year MOP rise from about 13,500 this year to 19,500 in 2028. History says supply caps the upside but demand sets the direction. Here is where the softness lands first, and what it means if you are selling to upgrade.
10 min read
Divorce and your property in Singapore: what actually happens to the flat, the CPF, and the next purchase.
A divorce court order can move the matrimonial home to one spouse without any stamp duty. But the CPF refund is a default the Court can vary, a subsidised flat still carries a resale levy, and a replacement home bought before the old one is sold can trigger ABSD anyway. Here is how property, CPF and tax actually work through a Singapore divorce.
9 min read
The Fed is not done. What a 73% October and a rising SORA mean for your mortgage.
A week after the first US rate hike since 2023, markets already price a 73% chance of another one in October, and Maybank has lifted its year-end SORA forecast by a third. What the new rate cycle means for Singapore mortgages, for anyone refinancing in the next 12 months, and for buyers waiting on the sidelines.
8 min read
Private prices up 0.5%. HDB down 0.3%. Why cooler is the decision window, not a dead end.
Private prices crawled in Q2. HDB slipped for a second straight quarter. Yet 6,396 resale flats still changed hands, and the 15-month wait-out just came off. Selectivity is the operating system now. That is a decision window, not a dead end.
9 min read
Seven bids and a $1,612 land price: what the Lorong Puntong tender just did to Thomson.
A Malaysian developer’s first ever Singapore land bid just set the Thomson corridor’s new land benchmark, on a site five minutes from Bright Hill MRT. Analysts already put its future launch prices from $3,000 psf. One MRT stop away, a 1,268-unit project is about to launch on land bought at $1,178. That gap is the story.
7 min read
The 1km ring just lost its edge at 12 schools. What the 2027 P1 changes do to homes near them.
The P1 registration changes announced on 10 September 2026 split Phase 2C at 12 popular schools into two equal tracks, 30 places for families within 2km and 30 for those beyond, with no home-school distance priority inside either track. Here is what that does to the case for buying within 1km of Nanyang, RGPS, ACS or Tao Nan, with the numbers.
8 min read
Mortgagee sales just hit a five-year high. Here is what actually happens if you can’t pay your mortgage.
What happens if you can’t pay your mortgage in Singapore: 216 mortgagee sale listings hit the market in 1H 2026, a five-year high. The real sequence is slower and more negotiable than the auction headlines suggest, for both HDB and bank loans, if you act while the loan is still current.
8 min read
Most sellers make money. The ones who lose all bought the same way.
In Q2 2026, 4.7% of private resales closed at a loss, the highest share in four years, in a quarter when prices rose. From the $6.6 million Seascape mortgagee sale to five units in one Scotts Road tower, the losses repeat the same anatomy. Here is the pattern, and the five checks that catch it before you sign.
10 min read
Four bids, one record: the $1,537 land price that reprices the east.
A UOL, CapitaLand and SingLand joint venture just bid $1.43 billion for the New Upper Changi Road site, a record land rate for the suburbs, 13.8% clear of the next offer. Bedok has not seen a major launch in 15 years. Here is what that number does to every price around it.
7 min read