Some homebuyers now paying more for 2-room flats as resale prices catch up with 3-room flats

SINGAPORE: The price gap between two-room and three-room Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flats is narrowing, with some buyers now paying more for smaller homes, property portal 99.co reported, citing two-room flat prices in Jurong West and Tampines reaching new highs.

Just this week, a two-room flat at Jurong West Blossom, which has nearly 91 years left on its lease, sold for a record S$428,000, or about S$845 per square foot (psf), surpassing the average price of three-room flats in Jurong West over the past three months, at S$423,000.

Comparing quarterly trends, the price gap between two-room and three-room flats narrowed to about 8% this quarter, from around 13% in the previous quarter.

Since early January, resale prices of two-room flats in Jurong West rose by about 17%, while three-room flats slipped by around 0.3%. So far this month, two two-room flats in Jurong West sold at an average of S$399,000, while eight three-room flats averaged S$396,000, which means some home buyers are now paying more for smaller homes.

In Tampines, a similar trend is happening, as a two-room flat at Tampines Greenleaf, which has close to 89 years left on its lease, was sold for a record S$465,000 this month, or about S$918 psf.

Notably, this is the first time a two-room flat in Tampines was sold for more than S$900 psf.

With the recent two-room flat sale coming in at about S$20,000 above the past three-month average price for similar units in Tampines, the gap with three-room flats remains visible, with their average price over the same period at around S$514,000.

However, the difference has narrowed to about 12% this quarter, down from around 22% in the previous quarter, as two-room average resale prices have risen by about 25% since January, while three-room flats have climbed by only around 4%. /TISG

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