Singapore's most expensive 5-room resale flat: The Peak unit in Toa Payoh sold for $1.42m

Another day, another record sale for an HDB resale flat.

Shortly (just around a week, to be exact) after a Tiong Bahru HDB flat broke the record to become the most expensive HDB resale flat in Singapore when it was sold for $1.5 million, we see another HDB flat recording an all-time high price.

A DBSS flat in Toa Payoh was just sold last month for an eye-watering $1.42 million, making it the most expensive five-room HDB resale flat ever sold in Singapore. This also makes it the most expensive HDB resale flat in Toa Payoh, and the second most expensive HDB resale flat islandwide.

This comes almost a year after the previous record was set by the sale of a five-room HDB resale flat at SkyTerrace@Dawson for $1.418 million.

Spanning 1,259 sq ft (117 sqm), the price psf of the unit is $1,128psf.

Unit is from a DBSS project

The record-breaking unit is located within the 40th to 42nd floor range of Blk 139B Lorong 1A Toa Payoh. It’s one of the blocks from the aptly named The Peak @ Toa Payoh, a DBSS project.

The block is around an eight-minute walk to Braddell MRT, and a nine-minute walk to Caldecott MRT. This also means the new owners will now have access to three MRT lines (North-South Line, Circle Line and Thomson-East Coast Line) within walking distance.

On top of that, Blk 139B is within a 1km radius of three primary schools: CHIJ Primary School, Kheng Cheng School and Marymount Convent School. The popular Catholic High School is also within a 1km to 2km radius of the block.

10th flat to cross the million-dollar mark in The Peak @ Toa Payoh this year

The Peak @ Toa Payoh is no stranger to million-dollar flats. As the project was completed in 2012, the owners could sell their units on the resale market from 2017 onwards.

This also makes it one of the few younger HDB projects in Toa Payoh. Given that it’s the first town developed by HDB, a majority of the flats in the mature estate were built before the turn of the millennium. This also means that most flats here are older and have a shorter remaining lease.

Since the BTO system was implemented, only seven projects (excluding those in Bidadari) have been launched for sale in Toa Payoh. Among these, only two projects (Toa Payoh Crest and Toa Payoh Apex) have completed their five-year MOP and can be sold on the resale market. This is in addition to The Peak @ Toa Payoh.

But what makes The Peak even more special is that it’s a DBSS project. Although DBSS units were sold by HDB, they were built by private developers and feature high-quality finishing like condo units. On top of that, the scheme has since been suspended, making them rarer compared to BTO flats.

It’s also why the project has recorded various million-dollar flats. Among the 32 million-dollar flats sold in Toa Payoh in the first half of this year, 10 came from The Peak, with this record-breaking transaction being the latest to enter the million-dollar club.

The transaction comes as HDB reported earlier today (July 3) a 1.4 per cent increase in resale prices in the second quarter of 2023. This is higher than the one per cent increase in Q1 2023.

At the same time, there was an 8.2 per cent drop in resale transactions in the last quarter. According to HDB, last quarter’s resale volume was the lowest in the last three years since Q3 2020, signalling a slowdown in the HDB resale market.

ALSO READ: How much do you need to earn to buy an HDB resale flat?

This article was first published in 99.co.