Buying a prime-location HDB flat means stepping off the property ladder, for better or worse

IN 2015, it was reported that a four-room Pinnacle@Duxton Housing Development Board flat somewhere between the 34th and 36th floor was sold for S$900,000.

The 95 square metre flat was purchased by a Singaporean couple for about S$340,000 when it was launched under the Build-To-Order (BTO) scheme in 2004.

That represents a compound annual growth rate of about 9 per cent, which comes close to the expected returns of equities. Some suggested at the time that the returns were better than winning the lottery.