HDB BTO December 2023 launch: Locations, expected prices, application rates and more

Was 2023 supposed to be your year to finally get a Built-To-Order (BTO) flat? Listen up, because before the HDB BTO 2024 season is upon us, your last chance in 2023 is almost here!

The Dec 2023 HDB BTO sales launch will end the year with a bang. We're seeing a total of eight projects this time around — Bedok, Bishan, Bukit Merah, Bukit Panjang, Jurong West, Queenstown, and two in Woodlands.

Which are the best locations? What are their expected application rates? Which units are going to be Prime Location Housing Model flats? Let's take a look. We review the HDB BTO Dec 2023 launch locations, expected application rates, estimated prices, and more.

1. HDB BTO Dec 2023: Overview

The Dec 2023 round of BTO has eight projects in seven locations: Bedok, Bishan, Bukit Merah, Bukit Panjang, Jurong West, Queenstown, and Woodlands. Here’s a summary of their flat types and number of units:

Now, let’s delve further into the amenities surrounding these projects and their closest MRT/LRT stations

Disclaimer: We obtained all distance and travel time estimations using Google Maps. That means they’re only rough approximations. Plus, they’re subject to road and public transport changes by the time the BTO flat is completed.

Bedok Dec 2023 BTO: Flat types, nearby amenities, nearest MRT stations

The Bedok BTO project this Dec 2023 BTO launch is the largest project, with 1,230 units across Community Care Apartments, three-Room, four-Room, and five-Room flats. It’s pretty near Bedok North MRT Station — about 900m away or a 12-minute walk. While Bedok North is the closest MRT Station, Bedok MRT Station is also pretty close.

There, you can access Bedok Mall, Djitsun Mall, Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre, and other amenities. If you drive or plan on getting a car, the Bedok Dec 2023 BTO project is a convenient option for you as it’s situated right next to the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE). 

Town	Bedok
Flat types	Community Care Apartments, 3-Room, 4-Room, 5-Room
Number of units	1,230
Location/street name	Chai Chee Lane, Bedok North Road
Nearest MRT/LRT	Bedok North MRT Station, Bedok MRT Station
Nearest mall	Bedok Mall
Nearest hawker centre / market	Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre
Nearest clinic/hospital	The Civic Clinic, Chai Chee Clinic, Healthplus Clinic & Surgery, Eastern Medical Centre, Heartbeat @ Bedok (includes polyclinic)
Nearest school(s)	AWWA School @ Bedok (Special Education), Damai Primary School, Yu Neng Primary School, Fengshan Primary School & MK @ Fengshan, Damai Secondary School
Nearest sports facility	Heartbeat @ Bedok (includes Sports Centre and Swimming Complex)

Bishan Dec 2023 BTO: Flat types, nearby amenities, nearest MRT stations

Bishan is always a hot spot, and this Dec 2023’s BTO project in Bishan is also looking to be a good choice with its proximity to MRT stations, schools, and shopping malls. Upper Thomson MRT is at a walkable distance — we estimate a walk of under 10 minutes.

Along your walk there, you’ll pass by the Sin Ming cafes and eateries like Sin Ming Roti Prata House, Udders, Salted Caramel, and more. The large Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park is also fairly nearby, so all things considered, be warned that this project is going to be in high demand. Not to mention the fact that these are the first flats to be built in the Sin Ming area in 35 years!

Town	Bishan
Location/street name	Sin Ming Road
Flat types	3-room, 4-room
Number of units	730
Nearest MRT/LRT	Upper Thomson MRT Station, Marymount MRT Station, Bishan MRT Station
Nearest mall/ shopping centre	Sin Ming Plaza, Thomson Plaza, Junction 8
Nearest hawker centre / market	Shunfu Mart
Nearest clinic/hospital	Marymount Family Clinic / Mount Alvernia Hospital
Nearest school(s)	Whitley Secondary School, Catholic High School, Eunoia Junior College, Raffles Institution (Junior College, Secondary)
Nearest sports facility	Bishan ActiveSG

Bukit Merah Dec 2023 BTO: Flat types, nearby amenities, nearest MRT stations

The Bukit Merah Dec 2023 BTO project is another project in a great location. You’ve got Redhill MRT Station just a 10-minute walk away, tons of schools nearby, a sports centre practically just across the road, and Redhill Market close by for your groceries and food.

Tiong Bahru MRT Station is also decently nearby — you could take a 10-minute bus ride or 20-minute stoll. And as every Singaporean knows, Tiong Bahru is chock full of good food, from your classic hawker fare to cafes like the (original!) Tiong Bahru Bakery.

Town	Bukit Merah
Location/street name	Alexandra Road, Prince Charles Crescent
Flat types	2-room Flexi, 3-room, 4-room
Number of units	900
Nearest MRT/LRT	Redhill MRT Station, Tiong Bahru MRT Station
Nearest mall/ shopping centre	Tiong Bahru Plaza
Nearest hawker centre / market	Redhill Market
Nearest clinic/hospital	Dr Gary’s Family Clinic, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital
Nearest school(s)	APSN (Tanglin School), Alexandra Primary School, Gan Eng Seng School, Crescent Girls’ School, Zhangde Primary School
Nearest sports facility	Delta Sport Centre

Bukit Panjang Dec 2023 BTO: Flat types, nearby amenities, nearest MRT stations

This Dec 2023 BTO launch will see a relatively small project at Bukit Panjang of just 330 units. It’s also limited to only two-room Flexi or four-room flats, with no three-room flats in between. Another important thing to note about this project is that the nearest train services are LRT — Petir LRT and Bukit Panjang LRT.

You can take 1-2 stops to reach Bukit Panjang MRT Station from there, which sits at 1 extreme end of the Downtown (blue) line. Also not super convenient.

What this project does have going for it is its access to greenery and parks. Petir Park could be almost right next to you, and Pang Sua Pond and Bukit Panjang Park are also walkable from the project. Head a little further down south, and you’ll see Dairy Farm Nature Park.

Town	Bukit Panjang
Location/street name	Petir Road, Cashew Road
Flat types	2-room Flexi, 4-room
Number of units	330
Nearest MRT/LRT	Petir LRT, Bukit Panjang LRT, Bukit Panjang MRT Station
Nearest mall/ shopping centre	Bukit Panjang Plaza, Hillion Mall
Nearest hawker centre / market	Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre and Market
Nearest clinic/hospital	SP Clinic, Chong & Lim Family Clinic
Nearest school(s)	Greenridge Secondary School, Bukit Panjang Primary School, Zheng Hua Primary School, Assumption Pathway School
Nearest sports facility	Sports Complex beside Pang Sua Pond

Jurong West Dec 2023 BTO: Flat types, nearby amenities, nearest MRT stations

If waterfront views appeal to you, don’t miss the upcoming Jurong West BTO. This project is bounded on one side by a canal that links directly to Jurong Lake. It’s also one of only three projects this Dec 2023 HDB BTO launch that will offer five-room flats, and alongside smaller flats too, so it’s going to appeal to singles, couples, and larger families. 

The nearest MRT station is Corporation MRT Station, the fifth on the Jurong Region Line. Note: We said nearest, but it’s still going to be a 20-minute walk or so.

This MRT Station is set to open in 2027, so should be ready by the time this BTO is built. You’ve also got a neighbourhood park nearby and numerous schools, the closest of which is Hua Yi Secondary School.

Like the Bedok BTO project, the Jurong West BTO this Dec 2023 is situated beside the PIE, making it convenient for drivers to access.

Town	Jurong West
Flat types	2-room Flexi, 3-room, 4-room, 5-room
Number of units	710
Location/street name	Jurong West Street 42
Nearest MRT/LRT	Corporation MRT Station (opening in 2027), Lakeside MRT Station
Nearest mall/ shopping centre	Boon Lay Shopping Centre
Nearest hawker centre / market	Boon Lay Place Market/Food Village
Nearest clinic/hospital	Jurong Polyclinic
Nearest school(s)	Hua Yi Secondary School, Jurong Pioneer Junior College, Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore School (West), Rulang Primary School, Shuqun Primary School, Yuhua Secondary School, Fuhua Secondary School, Jurongville Secondary School, Canadian International School
Nearest sports facility	ActiveSG Jurong East Sports Centre

Queenstown Dec 2023 BTO: Flat types, nearby amenities, nearest MRT stations

BTO projects don’t get much closer to an MRT station than this. The upcoming Queenstown BTO project this Dec 2023 is situated pretty much just beside Dover MRT Station. It’s decently near Star Vista (basically one MRT stop away) for your shopping needs, and a 15-minute bus ride away from Ghim Moh Market for your hawker fix.

Planning on having kids, or already have kids? There’s no shortage of schools nearby. Your kid's practically covered from secondary school up till university if they want to study close — really close! — to home.

Town	Queenstown
Flat types	3-room, 4-room
Number of units	890
Location/street name	Commonwealth Avenue West
Nearest MRT/LRT	Dover MRT Station
Nearest mall/ shopping centre	Star Vista
Nearest hawker centre / market	Ghim Moh Road Market & Food Centre
Nearest clinic/hospital	Proposed health and medical care facilities within walking distance (see map)
Nearest school(s)	Singapore Polytechnic, School of Science and Technology, New Town Secondary School, Dover Court Preparatory School, NUS, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)
Nearest sports facility	Ngee Ann Kongsi Sports Complex, Clementi ActiveSG Sports Centre

Woodlands Dec 2023 BTO: Flat types, nearby amenities, nearest MRT stations

The Dec 2023 BTO launch will have two projects in Woodlands, each located pretty near to each other. One is bounded by Woodlands Street 13, Woodlands Avenue 3, and Woodlands Avenue 5.

On the other side of Woodlands Avenue 5 is the other project, which sits conveniently beside Woodlands MRT Station. While the first project has only three-room or four-room flat options, the project closer to the MRT will offer all flat types.

Town	Woodlands
Flat types	3-room, 4-room	2-room Flexi, 3-room, 4-room, 5-room
Number of units	380	840
Location/street name	Woodlands Street 13, Woodlands Avenue 3, Woodlands Avenue 5	Woodlands Avenue 5, Woodlands Square
Nearest MRT/LRT	Woodlands MRT Station
Nearest mall/ shopping centre	Causeway Point
Nearest hawker centre / market	Eden Food Mall, Marsiling Lane Food Centre
Nearest clinic/hospital	SATA CommHealth Woodlands, National Kidney Foundation
Nearest school(s)	Si Ling Primary School, Marsiling Secondary School, Fuchun Primary School, Fuchun Secondary School, Woodgrove Primary School, Yishun Innova Junior College, Riverside Secondary School, Qihua Primary School
Nearest sports facility	Woodlands Sports Centre/ Woodlands Stadium (ActiveSG)

2. HDB BTO Dec 2023: Prices

Planning your budgets and home loan? It's useful to have an idea of what kind of prices the Dec 2023 BTO projects will cost. We won't know the exact figures until the sales launch in Dec, but we usually can do some guesstimation using platforms like SRX, which estimates BTO prices from past launch prices, prices of nearby resale flats, property age, and location.

This time round, SRX hasn't yet generated the expected BTO prices as of the time of publication. So let's take a look at prices of past projects in these towns for a rough idea. 

Bedok Dec 2023 BTO prices (expected)

Flat type	Prices for Bedok South Blossoms (May 2023 BTO)
3-room	$320,000 – $396,000
4-room	$448,000 – $587,000
5-room	$588,000 – $737,000

Jurong West Dec 2023 BTO prices (expected)

Flat type	Prices for Jurong West Crystal (Feb 2023 BTO)
3-room	$187,000 – $249,000
4-room	$288,000 – $372,000

Queenstown Dec 2023 BTO prices (expected)

Flat type	Prices for Ulu Pandan Glades (Feb 2023)	Ghim Moh Natura/ Queensway Canopy/ Ulu Pandan Banks (Nov 2022)
3-room	$372,000 – $498,000	$362,000 – $504,000
4-room	$541,000 – $711,000	$516,000 – $725,000

3. HBD BTO Dec 2023 BTO application rates, and what to apply for if you've been unable to get a BTO

We all know that friend who’s tried five, six, or even up to 10 times (from what I’ve heard) to get a BTO flat. If that friend is you, you might want to apply for a BTO project that you won’t have to fight too hard for. In other words, take note of past application rates and perhaps reconsider applying for a BTO project in an HDB town that has a track record of being really popular.

Here are the past application rates of BTO projects in Bedok, Jurong West, and Queenstown. Bishan, Bukit Merah, Bukit Panjang, and Woodlands are excluded because of a lack of recent data — there haven’t been BTO projects there in the past year.

Bedok Dec 2023 BTO: Expected application rates

The figures below are from the Bedok BTO project launched in May 2023, Bedok South Blossoms.

			Application rates for families
Flat type	No. of units	No. of applicants	First-timers	Second-timers
3-room	120	561	2.1	53.2
4-room	766	2852	3.0	17.9
5-room	610	3222	3.5	40.1
Community Care Apartment	NA—No past BTO projects for this flat type in the last 1 year.

Jurong West Dec 2023 BTO: Expected application rates

The figures below are from the Jurong West BTO project launched in Feb 2023, Jurong West Crystal.

			Application rates for families
Flat type	No. of units	No. of applicants	First-timers	Second-timers
2-room Flexi	NA—No past BTO projects for this flat type in the last 1 year.
3-room	85	242	1.5	11.1
4-room	186	567	2.0	24.1
5-room	NA—No past BTO projects for this flat type in the last 1 year.

Queenstown Dec 2023 BTO: Expected application rates

Application rates of past BTO projects in Queenstown: 3-room flats

			Application rates for families
BTO project	No. of units	No. of applicants	First-timers	Second-timers
Ulu Pandan Glades (Feb 2023)	160	231	0.6	18.4
Ghim Moh Natura/ Queensway Canopy/ Ulu Pandan Banks (Nov 2022)	587	557	0.3	13.2
Ghim Moh Ascent (May 2022)	196	293	0.5	21.9

Application rates of past BTO projects in Queenstown: 4-room flats

			Application rates for families
BTO project	No. of units	No. of applicants	First-timers	Second-timers
Ulu Pandan Glades (Feb 2023)	572	2531	2.3	45.7
Ghim Moh Natura/ Queensway Canopy/ Ulu Pandan Banks (Nov 2022)	2443	5652	1.4	18.8
Ghim Moh Ascent (May 2022)	671	2919	3.0	31.3

4. What are the Dec 2023 BTO flats' resale values?

Even if they start off with a flat, many couples choose to upgrade their homes later in life. Or they may decouple and purchase a condo. So when choosing your BTO, it’s prudent to also consider resale prices.

Here are the median resale prices based on data from Q3 2023: 

	Median resale price (Q3 2023)
Town	3-room	4-room	5-room
Bedok	$370,000	$523,000	$684,000
Bishan	–	$715,000	$929,000
Bukit Merah	$439,500	$860,000	$928,000
Bukit Panjang	$400,000	$508,000	$615,000
Jurong West	$360,000	$500,000	$580,000
Queenstown	$389,400	$928,000	–
Woodlands	$374,000	$498,000	$590,000

Source: HDB resale statistics for Q3 2023

Comparing resale prices for four-room flats, here are the projects this Dec 2023 BTO launch with the highest resale value, from highest to lowest:

1. Queenstown
2. Bukit Merah
3. Bishan
4. Bedok
5. Bukit Panjang
6. Jurong West
7. Woodlands

Generally speaking, this is probably also going to be the rough order for the priciest BTO projects to purchase. So don’t just blindly apply for the likes of Queenstown or Bukit Merah without considering the cost price.

These are also likely to be Prime Location Public Housing (PLH) model flats with tighter restrictions, as we’ll discuss in the next section.

5. Which Dec 2023 BTO projects will be Prime Location Public Housing (PLH)?

The Prime Location Public Housing (PLH) is a scheme that is applied to flats in the best, most central locations. As you can expect, demand for these flats is generally higher — so HDB also jacks up their prices in turn under this scheme.

On top of higher prices, PLH flats come with with longer minimum occupancy periods (MOP), stricter rental conditions, and require you to return a portion of the flat price to HDB upon resale. 

This Dec 2023 BTO, we expect the Queenstown and Bukit Merah BTO projects to be under the PLH model. So if you’re eyeing these BTO projects, be prepared for the following restrictions:

• Price: PLH flats are more expensive.
• Minimum occupancy period (MOP): You have to live in the flat for 10 years instead of five years before you can sell the unit or buy a private residential property.
• Renting: You can’t rent your whole flat out — even after the MOP. You can only rent out spare bedrooms. 
• Resale: Once you resell the flat, you have to return a percentage of the sale to HDB.

What about the new Plus category for HDB flats?

During PM Lee's National Day Rally 2023, he announced that our BTO classification system is doing away with the "mature" and "non-mature" labels and adding a new category — Plus. Plus flats are flats in between your standard flats (pretty much what you'd understand as.non mature) and Prime flats (a.k.a. flats under the PLH model).

It's important to know (or at least, guess) which flats will be Plus flats because they come with many of the same restrictions that Prime flats come with. However, at least for this Dec 2023 BTO sales launch, there's no need to worry. The new HDB classification system will only be introduced from H2 2024.

6. There are 2 projects under Woodlands. How do I apply for the specific project I’m interested in?

You can't. For HDB BTO launches, you apply to the town, not the project. Quoting HDB (see their Sales Launch FAQ Q5): "You can only submit one application for one town and one flat type in a sales launch."

This also means that you have to choose whether you want to apply for a BTO flat or a Sale of Balance flat in Dec 2023, because you can't apply for both at the same time.

In this case, the Woodlands projects are so close to each other that it doesn't make a huge difference. But if two BTO projects were further apart to the point where their amenities differed by quite a bit too, this is a potential issue you should consider.

7. What penalties will I face if I don't book an HDB BTO flat when offered?

Did you know that about 40 per cent of BTO applicants who are invited to book a BTO flat don’t do so? Each year, that amounts to around 10,000 applicants.

It’s no wonder that HDB started tightening BTO rules from Aug 2023:

• First-timers: You’ll going to be considered a second-timer for a whole year. This could greatly lower your chances of getting a BTO flat — HDB sets aside about 95per cent of them for first-timer families.
• If you’re a second-timer and you don’t book a flat when you can, you can’t apply again for a whole year.

What if choices are really super duper limited? HDB will close one eye if you show up for your flat booking appointment and are faced with 10 or fewer BTO flats to choose from, or five or fewer SBF flats to choose from. If you have more choices, you’ll still get slapped with the penalties above. You might want to consider buying a resale flat instead to avoid this stress.

8. HDB BTO 2024: When's the next BTO launch?

It’s the end of the year, and that about wraps up the BTO season for 2023. For 2024, most of the details aren’t out yet. But we do know we can expect two new Bayshore BTO projects in the East that will possibly be under the new Plus model.

ALSO READ: 10 cheapest dual-key 2-bedroom units (starting from $853k)

This article was first published in MoneySmart.