(SINGAPORE) There were 21 four-bedroom S$1 million HDB flats in Singapore in the first quarter of this year, twice as many as in the same period last year, mainly in areas such as Tuas Leng, Redhill, Queenstown and Toa Payoh.

The New Matinee reported that according to data released earlier by HDB, Singapore's overall HDB resale price increase had slowed in the first quarter of the year, rising 0.9 per cent year-on-year, the smallest in 10 quarters. While price increases appear to have slowed, there has been a surge in four-bedroom multi-million HDB flats.

In the first quarter of this year alone, 21 four-bedroom million units were sold, the most ever for a four-bedroom HDB, beating the record of 17 such units sold in the fourth quarter of 2021. In addition, seven four-bedroom flats were sold in the first quarter last year, compared to a two-fold increase this year.

This year, four-bedroom million units were sold in Redhill, Central District, Kallang Whampoa, Queenstown and Toa Payoh, with nearly half of the units coming from the Tashiling Skyscraper. Four units were sold in Redhill and three in Queenstown.

In an interview, Wong Sau Ying, head of an estate agency, said the surge in four-bedroom, million-dollar HDB flats this year could be linked to the cooling measures. The new cooling-off measures, introduced at the end of September last year, require private homeowners to wait 15 months after selling their homes before they can buy a non-subsidised resale HDB flat. This restriction does not apply to those aged 55 and above who are moving from a private home to a four-bedroom or smaller resale HDB flat.

According to Wong, this could lead to older/budgetier former private homeowners switching to four-bedroom flats, which in turn could lead to more of these flats hitting one million.

Senior real estate analyst, Mr Mak Chun-wing, told New Matinee that the four-bedroom HDB flats that hit the million mark were mainly in established areas close to the city, with popular schools nearby. He did not rule out the possibility that some of the buyers originally had a budget for a five-bedroom flat but as there were not as many five-bedroom options in these areas, four-bedroom flats became the next best option.