SINGAPORE – Executive condominiums (ECs) are gaining cachet with Housing Board upgraders as the gap between the median prices of new ECs and new condominiums in the suburbs has widened in recent years.
ECs are a hybrid of private and public housing built by private developers, but sold at lower prices compared with private condos. They tend to appeal to first-time Singaporean home buyers and, in recent months, to HDB upgraders facing rising interest rates and heightened macroeconomic uncertainty.
This is evidenced by the robust take-up of the 639-unit Copen Grand in Tengah and the 618-unit Tenet in Tampines at their launch dates.
In December, Tenet sold 447 units, or 72 per cent, at an average price of about $1,360 per sq ft (psf). Copen Grand sold 465 units, or 73 per cent, at prices averaging $1,300 psf at its launch in October, and was fully sold a month later.
On the other hand, the median price gap between new and resale ECs has been narrowing, as resale EC prices rose at a faster pace than that of new ECs. The discount dropped to 18.5 per cent in 2022, from 28.6 per cent in 2019, noted OrangeTee & Tie’s senior vice-president of research and analytics Christine Sun.