In
2018, Singapore was ranked as the most important property market in
ASEAN by Morgan Stanley’s research. Given this, it is not surprising that
Singapore is also home to some of the most expensive properties in the world.
But just how nice and expensive can home in Singapore be?
Also,
how do they compare to the cheapest residences in their neighbourhoods? In
classic ValuePenguin fashion, we’ve collected the data on the most expensive
and the cheapest homes currently listed in Singapore by neighbourhood as of
March 2018. If you are looking to purchase a home in Singapore, our study below
might be of value.
Key
Findings
Overall,
we found that the most expensive homes in each of the 28 neighborhoods
generally ranged from S$1.4 million to S$110 million, a wider range than what we observed in 2017(S$4.4mn
to S$106mn). These are ultra-fancy residences that tend to be either landed
properties or penthouses of fancy new buildings.
In
contrast, the cheapest residences typically cost around S$200,000 to S$1.2mn.
In terms of price per square foot, expensive homes cost anywhere between
S$700/sqft and S$20,000/sqft, with a median of S$1,414/sqft. This was
significantly higher than S$350/sqft to S$2,210/sqft we observed for the
cheapest properties, whose median was S$477/sqft.
Whether
you are buying a property that costs S$20mn or one that costs $300,000, you are
going to need to take out a loan from a bank to finance your purchase. To find
the best deal, you could simply use our study to compare the best home loan rates available
in Singapore.
Where
Most Expensive vs Cheapest Properties Are
On
PropertyGuru, the most expensive property currently on sale in Singapore is
actually a piece of land in Tanglin/Holland/Bukit Timah area, with listing
price of S$11mn and area of 52,000 sqft. In terms of an actual residential
unit, the runner up was located at Wallich Residence in Chinatown/Tanjong Pagar
area, with a price tag of S$108mn and a floor size of 21,108 sqft. As you can
see, it’s a gigantic apartment in a newly built, high-end condo building.
Photo of the Wallich
Residence Listing. Source: PropertyGuru
In
contrast, two of the cheapest properties were located in Harbourfront/Telok
Blangah and Admiralty/Woodlands areas. They were both relatively old and modest
HDB flats with price per sqft of around S$500.
Photo of the Woodlands
Listing’s Floor Plan. Source: PropertyGuru
The
Highest & Lowest Cost Per Square Foot
In
terms of price per square foot, we found a property located in Balestier/Toa
Payoh area with a listed pricing of S$22 million. This unit in Kallang
Riverside had a listed land size of 1,033 square foot, resulting in S$21,496
per square foot of unit cost. In contrast, the lowest cost per square foot we
found was just S$350, located in Dairy Farm/Bukit Panjang/Choa Chu Kang area.
Of course, given the difference in prices, their qualities were vastly
different, with one being one of the fanciest properties in the world and the
other being a very small, aged and modest HDB flat.
Comparison
to 2017
We ran
a similar study in February of 2017, where we collected prices for the most
expensive residences listed in Singapore. In general, there were very little
change in which neighborhoods had the most expensive and the most affordable
properties. For instance, 4 of the top 5 neighborhoods that had the most
expensive properties on sale in 2017 still ranked as top 5 in 2018. Similarly,
3 of the bottom 5 in 2017 were still ranked as bottom 5 in 2018. We observed
the biggest rise in Alexandra/Commonwealth area, who ranked #3 in 2018 compared
to ranking #23 in 2017. Conversely, we observed the biggest drop in Seletar/Yio
Chu Kang area, which ranked #19 in 2018 compared to #10 in 2017.
Methodology
To look
for the priciest homes in Singapore, we searched on PropertyGuru for the most
expensive and the most affordable homes by neighborhood. We collected data for
all 28 districts, and rank ordered properties by 1) total price and 2) by price
per square foot. In order to calculate each property’s price per square foot,
we divided the total price by either total land size or total property size,
whichever was bigger. This was done in order to measure how much surface area
an individual ends up owning by purchasing the property. In case of private
residences with front and backyards, this would be the total land size. For
town homes or villas with multiple floors, on the other hand, this would be the
total property size.