A brief history of 5-room BTO flat prices in Ang Mo Kio and their resale values

With HDB's Aug 2022 BTO exercise in full swing, you may be looking at its five-room offerings, such as the ones in Ang Mo Kio, Choa Chu Kang and Tampines.

Among them, the indicated price range for Ang Mo Kio's five-room BTO flats stands out.

Rightly so, because at a jaw-dropping $720,000 to $877,000, Ang Mo Kio Central Weave's five-room BTO flats are one of the more expensive units in this exercise.

Not only is it at the highest range band for BTO five-room flats, it also has one of the widest spreads ($157,000) we've seen so far – at least when we compare it with all other five-room BTO flats offered over the past two years (seven exercises):

This may give many potential BTO homeowners pause (or reconsideration) – is this too expensive, will it appreciate at all, or perhaps you're more the "it's not really all about the pricing isn't it?" type.

Past five-room HDB BTO prices in Ang Mo Kio

If we look at past BTO projects in Ang Mo Kio – such as Kebun Baru Court (2013 launch) and Teck Ghee Parkview (2012 launch) – their price ranges and spreads have consistently been on the higher side:

What's notable however, is that this time around, 333 units are made available, instead of the 103 and 190 units in the past.

Furthermore, today's indicated price ranges are 47 to 69 per cent higher compared to Kebun Baru Court and Teck Ghee Parkview. In other non-mature estates, the increases across similar estates are usually between 25 to 35 per cent.

Granted, every BTO project is unique, even if they're within the same neighbourhood.

Their indicated price ranges are dependent on factors like proximity to amenities, an interchange or MRT station, the number of storeys within the block, potential unblocked views and so on.

We should also consider that due to our post-pandemic environment, some costs would have gone up, ranging from construction material to worker salaries.

Five-room HDB resale prices in Ang Mo Kio

Based on resale transactions over the past 10 years, five-room HDB resale transactions in Ang Mo Kio have seen a 19.31 per cent increase in average prices. This is higher than the Singapore average, which rose 16.58 per cent.

Around the Ang Mo Kio Central Weave site, bounded by Ang Mo Kio Avenues 3, 5, 6 and 10, the average five-room resale price has gone up by about 18.01 per cent – so not too far from the neighbourhood average.

Today, five-room resale flats in Ang Mo Kio are priced around $750,000 to - $800,000 on average, so not absurdly far from the indicated price range for Central Weave.

What's the appreciation value?

Of course, we've been getting questions from our readers – what would be the potential appreciation for five-room flats at Central Weave?

Just by looking at where the million-dollar five-room HDB resale flats are, you'll get a rough idea:

Based on the map above, seven were from Kebun Baru Court (TOP 2018), two from Teck Ghee Vista (TOP 1977), nine from Park Central (TOP 2011) and five from Teck Ghee Parkview (TOP 2018).

If we focus on the more recent BTO projects, namely Kebun Baru Court and Teck Ghee Parkview, there have been a total of 32 resale transactions of five-room HDB flats since the completion of their MOPs.

For these homeowners who sold (including the 12 who sold above a million), consider this: they paid around $500,000 to $600,000 nine to 10 years ago, and then sold them for $800,000 to $1 million+ about five years after moving in.

So if you're still baulking at the $720,000 to $877,000 indicated price range, at least now you know some of the factors behind why it's priced on a higher band with such a wide spread.

Furthermore, with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently announcing plans to upgrade Ang Mo Kio town centre and its surrounding estates (including older ones like Teck Ghee), we can't say that we're all that surprised.

All right, you can lift your jaw back up from the floor now…

This article was first published in 99.co.