Insights
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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
Insights archive
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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
The November BTO guide: 7,960 flats, six towns, and a deadline in September.
About 7,960 flats across Bedok, Geylang, Sembawang, Tengah, Toa Payoh and Yishun, in the first exercise under the $16,000 income ceiling. The paperwork deadline lands 25 September, and the ballot maths this round is stranger than it looks.
8 min read
The income ceilings finally moved. They still have not caught up with your salary.
BTO goes to $16,000 and ECs to $18,000 from 24 August, the first change since 2019. Set against how much incomes actually grew in those seven years, the increase restores about half the ground lost. And the EC change helps almost nobody buying an EC this side of 2028.
7 min read
Can you buy a second property in Singapore? Here’s the real cost.
Yes, any citizen, PR or foreigner can buy a second property in Singapore. What changes is the bill: 20% ABSD for a citizen, 30% for a PR, 60% for a foreigner, and a loan capped at 45% instead of 75%. The full cash and CPF picture, worked on a $1.5m example.
7 min read
MTI upgraded growth to 5.5%. In the worst year on record, home prices still went up.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has raised its 2026 growth forecast to 4.5% to 5.5%. The instinct is to read that as a green light for property. The record says the link is weaker, and stranger, than it looks.
7 min read
In a typical private resale, the seller carries the whole 2% commission. Most buyers pay nothing at all.
Who pays the property agent’s commission in Singapore is rarely who people assume. Sellers usually carry it, private resale buyers often pay nothing directly, and GST quietly adds a layer few budget for. Here is exactly how it splits, transaction by transaction.
7 min read
Hong Heng Garden wants $130 million, and the land next door already set the price.
A small freehold estate on Sembawang Road has launched its first collective sale at $130 million. The interesting number is not the headline, it is the $1,128 psf ppr, and what the state sold the plot next door for ten months earlier.
6 min read
How to sell your condo in Singapore: the process, the costs and the timing that matters.
How to sell your condo in Singapore, step by step: value it, choose exclusive or non-exclusive, market it, exercise the OTP, then complete in about 8 to 10 weeks. The costs that actually erode your proceeds, and a worked example of what timing alone is worth.
9 min read
The 2026 forecast is out. Here is the second half it quietly assumes.
PropNex has put numbers on the rest of 2026: private prices up 3% to 4%, around 9,000 new homes sold, HDB resale prices up to 1% higher. PropNex is our agency, so rather than simply repeat the headline, we worked out what it implies. Here is the arithmetic those numbers require of the next five months.
9 min read
Downgrading from a condo to HDB: what it actually unlocks, and what it costs.
Downgrading from a condo to HDB in Singapore no longer means a 15-month wait, and for most Singapore Citizens it now comes with zero ABSD. What eligibility actually requires, the CPF refund maths, and a worked example of what the move genuinely frees up.
8 min read
The three mistakes buyers keep making, and the exit test that catches every one of them.
None of them look like mistakes on the day you commit. The headline number looks objective, the unit feels right, and the bank has said yes. Here is how each one actually costs you, what the data says, and the checks that catch all three before the cheque is signed.
8 min read