Pinnacle @ Duxton flat sold for record $1,393 psf

It's getting harder to track record prices of HDB resale flats these days.

After the S$1.5 million Tiong Bahru flat sale (aka the most expensive HDB resale flat) and the S$1.42 million Toa Payoh flat sale (aka the most expensive five-room HDB resale flat), we have another record HDB resale flat sale in the span of two months.

Recently, a four-room Pinnacle @ Duxton flat was sold for S$1.41 million, making it the most expensive unit in the project. The transaction dethroned the previous record holders — a five-room sold in March (registered in April according to HDB) and a four-room sold in April this year — which changed hands for S$1.4 million.

More importantly, this recent transaction has broken the previous record price psf for an HDB resale flat. Spanning 94 sq m (1,012 sq ft), the price psf works out to a whopping S$1,393, making it the most expensive price psf paid for an HDB resale flat.

The previous record price psf of S$1,369 were held by two four-room units in the same development: a 1,001 sq ft unit sold for S$1.37 million in October last year and a 1,023 sq ft unit sold for S$1.4 million earlier in April.

Located on one of the highest floors at Pinnacle @ Duxton

One likely factor contributing to its record-breaking price psf is its high-floor location.

According to the HDB resale price portal, this S$1.41 million unit is located between the 49th and 51st floor range of Blk 1B Cantonment Road.

As the Pinnacle @ Duxton is a 50-storey project, this means that this particular unit is either on the second-highest floor (49th) or the top-most floor (50th) of the project.

In comparison, the previous record holders mentioned are located on slightly lower floors.

Transaction came before the NDR announcements

We note that this record-breaking transaction was registered before the National Day Rally (NDR) 2023, which occurred on Sunday Aug 20.

Several announcements on public housing were announced during this year's NDR. In particular, from the second half of next year onwards, BTO flats launched will no longer be classified as mature and non-mature estates.

Instead, depending on their locational attributes, they will be classified as Prime, Plus and Standard BTO flats from the August 2024 BTO onwards (barring any delays or changes). To reinforce public housing as primarily a home and mitigate the lottery effect, Prime and Plus flats will come with longer restrictions, including a 10-year MOP and a subsidy clawback for the first resale transactions.

Prime flats are currently those under the Prime Location Public Housing (PLH) model, which are located in areas closest to the city centre, such as the Central area, Bukit Merah, Queenstown and Kallang/ Whampoa.

Meanwhile, Plus flats will be located in desirable areas near the MRT or town centres in each region across the island.

With this new classification and its stricter restrictions, we expect that more home buyers who do not want to be tied down to the longer MOP and stricter conditions will gravitate towards the resale market, driving higher demand for non-Prime and non-Plus resale flats. This includes those at Pinnacle @ Duxton.

In particular, since the PLH was first announced in October 2021, prices of resale flats at Pinnacle @ Duxton have increased by 28.24 per cent from Q4 2021 to Q3 2023 (year-to-date).

As seen from the graph, the price increase has been steeper than the average price of HDB resale flats across the island over the same time period.

(Meanwhile, prices of resale flats in the Central area have been on a downward trend due to a higher number older resale flats.)

ALSO READ: $14,000 income ceiling for families, singles who want to buy Plus flats on resale market: Desmond Lee

This article was first published in 99.co.