Median resale prices hit S$1 million for 4-room HDB flats in two towns in Q1 despite overall dip

[SINGAPORE] While overall Housing & Development Board (HDB) resale prices dipped for the first time in nearly seven years in the first quarter of 2026, median prices for four-room flats reached S$1 million in two towns.

Median resale prices for four-room flats in Queenstown stood at S$1.04 million in Q1, while those in Toa Payoh fetched S$1 million, quarterly data released by HDB indicated on Friday (Apr 24).

For five-room flats, median resale prices in three towns crossed the million-dollar mark. In Q1, five-room flats in Ang Mo Kio had a median price of S$1.09 million, while those in Bukit Merah and Toa Payoh reached S$1.085 million and S$1.1 million, respectively.

About 412 HDB resale flats were sold for at least S$1 million in Q1, up 17.4 per cent quarter on quarter. They comprised 190 four-room flats, 143 five-bedders, 78 executive flats and a multi-gen flat.

The average price of these flats was S$1.15 million, down 1.2 per cent from S$1.17 million in the previous quarter, said Huttons Asia senior director of data analytics Lee Sze Teck.

While million-dollar deals remain hot in mature estates, he observed slightly more buyers turning to non-mature estates – valuing space over location and age. In Woodlands, for instance, nine executive flats sold for between S$1 million and S$1.2 million. Sengkang recorded six five-room transactions between S$1 million and S$1.1 million, Huttons Asia data showed.

Although the proportion of million-dollar HDB resale flats fell to 6.6 per cent in Q1 2026 from 6.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2025, it remained higher than the 5.1 per cent in Q1 2025 and well above the 1.2 per cent in Q1 2022, said Mogul.sg chief research officer Nicholas Mak.

Market slowdown

Overall resale prices for public housing flats dipped 0.1 per cent in Q1, marking the first decline in nearly seven years since the second quarter of 2019. This comes on the back of five consecutive quarters of slower or no price growth, said HDB.

This likely reflects the “snowball effect” of previous cooling measures, including the 15-month wait-out period for private-property downgraders and the sustained ramp-up in Build-To-Order (BTO) supply, which have helped dampen resale flat demand, said ERA Singapore key executive officer Eugene Lim.

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As resale prices decline in Q1, PropNex head of research and content Wong Siew Ying is monitoring whether the gap with non-landed private home prices in the Outside Central Region (OCR) will widen further.

“In Q1 2026, HDB resale prices dipped by 0.1 per cent quarter on quarter, while non-landed private home prices in the OCR rose by 2.2 per cent quarter on quarter,” she pointed out. “A widening HDB resale-private housing price gap over time may potentially make the leap for HDB upgraders more challenging.”

Transaction volumes of resale flats rose 19.6 per cent in Q1 to 6,285 units, from 5,256 units in the previous quarter.

Year on year, there was a 4.6 per cent decrease in units sold, indicating a slowdown in the market, said Christine Sun, chief researcher and strategist at Realion (OrangeTee & ETC) Group.

She added: “Deals are taking longer to close in recent months, as buyers had more housing options and sentiment has slowed in view of the uncertain macroeconomic conditions.”

In June, HDB will launch about 6,900 BTO flats in Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, Bukit Merah, Sembawang and Woodlands.

Market conditions are likely to remain challenging, with more than 13,000 flats reaching the five-year minimum occupation period in 2026, said Huttons’ Lee.

Older flats may face softer demand and take longer than usual to sell, as the supply of newer flats increases.

Meanwhile, newer flats in more sought-after estates will continue to attract healthy interest, with some potentially changing hands above S$1 million, he noted.

“The macroeconomic outlook has become more uncertain. Households should continue to exercise prudence when purchasing property and taking out mortgage loans,” said HDB.

The number of approved applications to rent out HDB flats inched down 0.2 per cent to 9,535 applications. This was 1.3 per cent lower on a yearly basis. Some 58,698 HDB flats were rented out as at end-Q1, down 0.1 per cent from the previous quarter.

The highest median rental price was S$4,400 for five-room flats in Queenstown, while the lowest median rental price was for two-roomers in Punggol and Yishun at S$2,300.