SINGAPORE: Despite signs of the red-hot property market in Singapore beginning to cool, properties are still fetching record-high prices, including a Choa Chu Kang executive HDB  apartment that in May went to a renter who’s paying a whopping $6,600 per month.

While this may be more than twice the amount of many people’s salaries, it’s only $100 more than the Ang Mo Kio flat that went for $6,500 a month earlier this year. And prior to that, a $ 6,200-a-month flat in Tiong Bahru in December 2022 held the record.

The record-setting executive flat is at Block 641 Choa Chu Kang Street 64. And, to be fair, it’s pretty big, measuring 2,314 sq ft (215 sq m) and pretty rare, as there are only seven other similar units in its vicinity.

Additionally, it’s a two-story premium maisonette, a type that’s none too usual among the different types of flats and is likely to have four rooms, three toilets, and a balcony.

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Mr Nelson Lim, the director of Altitude Real Estate, is quoted in AsiaOne as saying that the other reason for the high rental rate of the flat “could be due to the furnishing. Some tenants are willing to pay for a flat with good quality furniture and fittings, and this will bump the rental price up.”

AsiaOne also quotes the senior vice president of research and analytics at OrangeTee, Ms Christine Sun, as saying that the unit’s location could be another reason for the premium price it fetched, with a number of shopping malls such as Yew Tee Square, Yew Tee Point and Limbang Shopping Centre and two FairPrice supermarkets near it, as well as the MRT station at Yew Tee being less than a ten-minute walk away.

Nearby are also three kindergartens and three childcare centres, making it convenient for families with small children.

Finished in 1998, Block 641 is 25 years old, with 74 years remaining on its 99-year lease. /TISG

$1.29M Bukit Timah maisonette sold this month is the most expensive executive HDB flat in SG