By Rachel Au-Yong

For sale: A rare 150 sq m executive apartment in a peaceful neighbourhood, surrounded by amenities like hawker centres and minimarts, and only a two-minute walk from Queenstown MRT station. At $798,000, the 22-year-old unit seems like a good deal, as HDB flats of a similar size in the vicinity were sold at between $860,000 and $1.16 million in the last year. But the unit at Block 149, Mei Ling Street, has remained unsold for about five years after it was taken back by the Housing Board, said residents of nearby units.

<a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/no-one-wants-to-buy-these-flats?xtor=CS11-86" target="_blank">Read the full article in The Straits Times.</a>

Click on the photos below to see the HDB flats.

HDB prices

The unit at Block 149, Mei Ling Street, has remained unsold for about five years after it was taken back by the HDB.

At $798,000, the 22-year-old unit seems like a good deal,.

Nearly a hundred of such flats, either repossessed by the HDB or unsold after being built, have been waiting for months or even years for someone to buy them.

Tthe flat at Block 149, Mei Ling Street, stands out as the only executive apartment still left on the shelf.

The flat sits above a bin centre and its other set of windows faces a loading bay, which neighbours say can be noisy. And despite its third-floor unit number, it is on the second floor.

Second-floor units at 90B Telok Blangah ParcView have a partial view of the Keppel Golf Course, but are in close proximity to the bin centre.

Next to the bin centre: A key reason why second-floor units at 90B, Telok Blangah ParcView are hard to sell. 

The unsold units tend to be on the lower floors or are reserved for buyers of minority races under HDB's ethnic integration policy.  

HDB's Sale of Balance Flats and even Re-offer of Balance Flats exercises have come and gone but the 94 flats, in towns like Geylang, Tampines and Sembawang, have not caught the fancy of anyone.

Some units go as high as the 13th floor, but were not chosen out of concerns that a future high-rise building may block the view, while units at other blocks were deemed too far from the MRT, said flat buyers interviewed.

Technical service manager Senthil Sethunarayanam, 30, knows his second-floor Telok Blangah ParcView unit is "less than ideal", given its proximity to the bin centre.

But he was drawn by the partial view of the Keppel Golf Course from the master bedroom, and was also keen to return to the neighbourhood he grew up in.

a1-old-tst

By Rachel Au-Yong For sale: A rare 150 sq m executive apartment in a peaceful neighbourhood, surrounded by amenities like hawker centres and minimarts, and only a two-minute walk from Queenstown MRT station. At $798,000, the 22-year-old unit seems like a good deal, as HDB flats of a similar size in the vicinity were sold at between $860,000 and $1.16...

No one wants to buy these HDB flats