By Esther Teo

AN AVALANCHE of home buyer applications has poured in for the eagerly awaited Dawson estate build-to-order (BTO) Housing Board flats in Queenstown.

Applications opened on Tuesday. And as of 5pm yesterday, the studio apartments, four-room and five-room flats at SkyTerrace and SkyVille had all been oversubscribed. And more than half of the three-room flats and paired units under the HDB's multi-generational living scheme had received applications.

The 40 studio apartments on offer attracted 104 applications, the 270 three-room flats drew 159 applications, the 1,102 four-room flats pulled in 1,440 applications, and the 176 five-room flats saw 507 applications.

For the 65 paired units in SkyTerrace, HDB received 44 applications.

Despite the higher prices of the Dawson flats, applicants seem to have been won over by their prime location and premium furnishings, such as timber flooring in the bedrooms. The apartment blocks are set to soar more than 40 floors when they are completed in 2015.

Sales executive Leonard Tan, 32, who took a day off work to make the trip to the HDB Hub in Toa Payoh with his family, said he was excited about the new launch.

His wife, Mrs Judith Tan, said the development offered the convenience of the nearby Queenstown MRT station and proximity to their daughter's school in Bukit Merah.

'This is something new and different that the HDB is offering. It will take longer than usual to build, but we think that with its nicer features, it's worth waiting for,' she added.

For Mrs Mary Lim, 51, who applied for a multi- generational paired flat, the classy finishing touches for the building's facade and the sky gardens were winning factors.

Her 79-year-old mother-in-law will be living with the family in the linked studio apartment.

'The multi-generational scheme is a novel idea... It is good that families can have their privacy but still have their parents only as far away as a closed door,' she said.

HDB said it expected the Dawson premium flats to be many times oversubscribed due to features such as the flexi-layout, but that this was not reflective of the overall demand for new flats.

The Dawson development is not the only BTO project the board is launching this month.

Two other BTO projects launched on Tuesday - Montreal Dale in Sembawang and Segar Grove in Bukit Panjang - also drew a bumper response, with the four-room flats in both estates oversubscribed. Two- and three-room flats were, however, less popular, with applications made for under 20 per cent of available flats.

Apart from these projects being more affordable, home buyers cited the fact that both locations were less congested and further away from the city centre.

Applications for these new flats can be submitted online until Dec 28 at www.hdb.gov.sg.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.