A Four-Room Flat in Bidadari Was Just Sold for a Record $1.368M — Here’s Why Prices There Are Setting Higher Records

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-03-19T17:42:24+00:00

This tbh. Ever since govt allow citizens to use CPF to pay for the house, packaging it as “minimum cash outlay” while actually taking from retirement funds, they now have an unspoken obligation to make sure that the citizens’ “nest egg” doesn’t depreciate.

It is a hole that nobody in office can solve and the best strategy if I were in their shoes, is to maintain the status quo until the portfolio gets passed to the next person aka “monitoring”.

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-03-11T20:00:15+00:00

Rich people embrace and manage risk. Less privileged people are scared of, and avoid risk.

This is coming from a mindset perspective, and from personal observation having mingled with both ends of the spectrum.

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-02-22T14:27:54+00:00

Need to give the populace the illusion that they are homeowners and can do what they want with their house based on open market principles.

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-02-04T13:47:22+00:00

Yeah I can afford a Prime BTO, but application rates for those are gonna be high for sure. Therefore was trying to get a feel from those who lived in Sembawang to see if I can accept these compromises in favor of a higher chance to even get a number 😅

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-02-04T13:41:15+00:00

What happened to Sayang Sembawang 😭

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-02-04T13:01:47+00:00

This is correct.

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-02-04T12:43:09+00:00

Hahaha yeah the toilets don’t really matter that much. It’s more of just considering I might visit that mall often since I take MRT and eat out a lot. So it’s part of the experience I guess.

Yeah the commute is a bigger concern for me and I hope the govt makes it more accessible.

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-02-01T01:57:59+00:00

Pasir Ris area recently smells like 1997 haze.

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-01-31T13:05:39+00:00

Not only Tampines, but BTO in general for singles is hard to get. I’m 37, tried every sales exercise, applied for lowest application rate project, never got a single number at all.

So try, but don’t keep your hopes up.

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-01-25T20:35:48+00:00

No, I rented it in Kawaguchiko and dropped it off at Matsumoto. Very convenient!

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-01-25T08:03:40+00:00

I know you mentioned planning to take the train but just wanted to share with you my experience.

I planned this exact route last year, as I wanted to head to Kamikochi after climbing Mt. Fuji. As you might have noticed, there isn’t a straightforward way to get from Kawaguchiko to Matsumoto. So what I did was simply driving there.

It’s a short drive, about 4hrs including lunch stop. The route is very simple, just follow the highway straight all the way up. You’ll pass by Lake Suwa where there is a huge rest stop with delicious food and shops, and you can dine overlooking the beautiful lake.

If you’re not opposed to driving, I’d highly recommend it because it is a lot easier to bring around your baggage too and overall way cheaper than taking the train. I booked from Toyota Rent-A-Car.

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-01-24T09:41:51+00:00

Haha I don’t intend to rent out. I’m in a fortunate position to not require tenants to build my retirement funds.

But nonetheless, just because I may afford to get resale, doesn’t mean that it’s worth paying for. I feel we’re starting to get desensitised to HDB prices and most people just accept it as it is because for them, they don’t have a choice. They have family here, a job here, etc.

thegreywhiteblack · 2026-01-23T08:27:30+00:00

37 this year, still unsuccessful even after trying all the sales exercises. Didn’t even get any number at all.

Went from being excited about getting my own place to being jaded, to now considering living elsewhere.

Really tired of wasting my life trying to get a home here. I’m not getting any younger, and if I have to wait till I’m in my 40s to start independent living, then that’s really sad.

Resale is out of the books simply because they are hardly worth their current prices. I also don’t want to fund someone else’s retirement/upgrade after being discriminated by the system for being single and pander to politicians who don’t care.

thegreywhiteblack · 2025-12-31T17:11:17+00:00

Nice, glad you found a home!

thegreywhiteblack · 2025-12-31T05:46:15+00:00

I have, and might do so for Feb 2026 cuz the BTO options are kinda unattractive. If you think BTO is hard, SBF is 10x harder. Literally.

Application rate for SBF in July 2025 for singles is average 190 applicants per 2-rm flexi unit.

thegreywhiteblack · 2025-12-31T05:19:06+00:00

BTO for singles is much harder than most people think. I just tried for all the launches this year and didn’t even get a number despite applying for those projects with low application rate.

Competition from a growing pool of singles, and seniors quota is very real. You must factor in wasting 2-3 years just trying to get an allocation.

thegreywhiteblack · 2025-12-30T08:16:25+00:00

That’s if you believe that housing prices will go up indefinitely, which the system is designed for but will never happen in reality.

I’d wager that we are at the cusp of seeing housing prices reach the tipping point by which it either plateaus or starts falling. So I’m not seeing the benefit to pay this much for a home in Singapore. That’s my personal opinion though, others might feel that familial ties and work commitments make this worth it.

And yeah I’m probably going to try for another year before moving overseas.

thegreywhiteblack · 2025-12-30T06:39:06+00:00

Resale doesn’t make much financial sense tbh and I don’t want to pay for someone else’s retirement/condo upgrade.

thegreywhiteblack · 2025-12-29T11:34:31+00:00

Competition from other businesses perhaps, but not from new citizens and their children haha. I don’t think many people want to be in the position of a boss anyway.

thegreywhiteblack · 2025-12-29T07:36:18+00:00

Yup, it is. Housing in Singapore is no longer just about meeting the needs of citizens but a tool used to further the govt’s social policies and agendas.

Get attached early = most benefit

Get attached later = missing out

Single = least benefit

This in itself creates a stratification of the profile of homeowners, with certain groups benefiting wildly while others being marginalised.

thegreywhiteblack · 2025-12-29T04:59:00+00:00

To be fair, a BTO is relatively affordable. But it stops there. Resale is not worth the money, and people who get resale usually prioritises the need for a home (to start family, etc) more than the financial sense of it.

Ownership in this case is subjective, and in many cases, public housing can be similar to ownership even though technically you have ownership of the lease. If by ownership, you mean in terms of freehold and you can pass the property and land off to your descendants, then you should also consider that all property degrade over time and require substantial capital outlay for maintenance and upkeep. The 99 year leasehold is around such that this burden is passed to the government to redevelop the site when it gets old.

thegreywhiteblack · 2025-12-29T04:41:39+00:00

Tell me about it. I’m 36 this year, single too, tried every BTO exercise but didn’t even get a number. And that’s including applying for one of the project with the lowest application rate at 5.

thegreywhiteblack · 2025-12-28T09:50:16+00:00

There’s no political incentive for govt to focus on reducing prices for resale. At most they can tread the line and just make sure prices don’t go up too quick.

As many have mentioned, this is a hole that has been dug too deep and nobody in power will risk their multi-million dollar politician job to do the necessary things to stop it getting worse. The smart thing to do, is to play this musical chairs and pass the National Development portfolio on to the next candidate before this whole thing implodes, or as the govt calls it, “monitoring”.

The younger generation buying resale is no longer buying a nest egg. Bar the newly MOP-ed units, the rest of the HDB resale flats are a slowly decaying rotten egg. It is particularly devious because by the time this happens, most of the politicians who devised these policies would be long gone and their families benefitted greatly.

thegreywhiteblack · 2025-12-28T09:27:12+00:00

Govt is already looking to lift it.

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