Housing Market

Oct 2025 BTO Prime: Are Mount Pleasant Crest’s 1,348 Units Worth the 5-Year Wait?

15 October 2025 | BY

The latest BTO launch introduces Mount Pleasant, a new estate in the Toa Payoh-Thomson area, adding to this year’s housing supply.

Oct 2025 BTO Prime Are Mount Pleasant Crest's 1,348 Units Worth the 5-Year Wait

As of this morning, the October 2025 BTO sales exercise, the final one for this year, has officially opened. Up for grabs are 9,144 brand-new flats across 10 projects in Ang Mo Kio, Bedok, Bishan, Bukit Merah, Jurong East, Sengkang, Toa Payoh, and Yishun, providing a wide selection of options to suit different budgets and needs.

The headline-grabber for this BTO launch is undoubtedly the debut of Mount Pleasant, a brand-new residential estate in the Toa Payoh, Balestier, and Thomson region. With its central location, excellent connectivity, and even a new MRT station serving residents, Mount Pleasant is expected to be heavily oversubscribed several times over.

Here’s everything you need to know if you’re planning to apply for a BTO flat in Mount Pleasant.

1,348 flats from 2-room Flexi to 4-room up for sale

mount pleasant crest - flatsImage credit: HDB

Located at the former Old Police Academy site, Mount Pleasant Crest will house a total of 1,348 units, ranging from 2-room Flexi to 4-room flats. With almost half of the unit composition geared towards 4-room flats, it is oriented towards attracting larger families or couples planning to have children in the future. These units will span across four residential blocks, including one block dedicated to rental flats.

One important detail to bear in mind is that it has an estimated waiting time of 59 months, which is a considerable wait and also the longest among all the BTO projects in the October 2025 launch. Its location is undeniably fantastic (more on that later), but you’ll have to decide if it’s worth waiting close to 5 years and whether it aligns with your life plans.

Mount Pleasant Crest is the first of 6 new public housing projects planned for Mount Pleasant, with subsequent projects to be rolled out in future BTO launches. HDB has already indicated that the next BTO sales exercise in February 2026 will include the Toa Payoh estate, so it is possible that the next Mount Pleasant project will be launched then.

mount pleasant crest - old drill shedImage credit: HDB

Paying tribute to the historical significance of its location, Mount Pleasant Crest will feature the retained Old Drill Shed from the Old Police Academy, which will be repurposed as a precinct pavilion. The estate will also include various facilities to cater to residents’ needs, such as playgrounds, fitness stations, a hard court, a supermarket, shops, an eating house, and two preschools.

mount pleasant crest - car-liteImage credit: HDB

In addition, Mount Pleasant Crest has been designated as a car-lite precinct. This means that the number of parking spaces for cars will be reduced to free up space for public facilities and greenery. 

To manage parking demand, measures will be implemented such as reducing the availability of season parking and restricting it to residents only, as well as charging higher season parking rates for second and subsequent vehicles.

White Flat layout to be offered

One other unique feature of the new flats at Mount Pleasant is that HDB will offer the White Flat layout to buyers of 3-room and 4-room flats, which are priced $6,000 and $8,600 lower, respectively, if buyers choose to opt in for this scheme. Those who do not opt for a White Flat will be provided with a default flat layout with bedroom walls.

mount pleasant crest - white flatsImage credit: Desmond Lee via Facebook

What are White Flats? They’re a relatively new initiative designed to give HDB homebuyers more flexibility to customise their homes according to their needs. Essentially, these are BTO flats without pre-built partition walls in the living areas, allowing homeowners to configure their spaces however they like. Apart from the added flexibility, White Flats can also help save costs since buyers don’t need to pay extra to hack down walls. However, the trade-off is that renovation costs may be higher depending on how elaborate the final design is.

Mount Pleasant Crest is only the second BTO project to feature the White Flat layout scheme, following its pilot run at Crawford Heights during the October 2024 BTO launch. According to HDB, about four in ten buyers opted for the layout then.

Central location with its own MRT station on TEL

Let’s talk about why the location of Mount Pleasant makes it one of, if not the star pick, of this BTO launch. 

The most significant highlight of its location is that Mount Pleasant will have its own MRT station to serve residents. This is a rare advantage since most new BTO projects are built near existing MRT stations or along upcoming lines. 

The fact that Mount Pleasant will have a new station on the existing Thomson-East Coast Line makes it even more appealing. In recent years, Canberra is one of the few examples of a new station built on an existing line.

The station will be built concurrently with the new flats, and should be operational by the time Mount Pleasant’s first residents move in. Once complete, residents will be able to commute to other parts of Singapore on the line such as Marine Parade, the CBD, as well as Woodlands, including access to the future RTS Link between Singapore and Malaysia. Imagine being able to pop in and out of Malaysia for a weekend getaway!

Beyond the Thomson-East Coast Line, the estate is also conveniently close to Caldecott and Toa Payoh MRT stations, which connect to the Circle Line and North-South Line. With three MRT lines and a strong bus network nearby, connectivity certainly won’t be an issue.

mount pleasant crest - locationImage credit: HDB

Other advantages of Mount Pleasant’s location include its proximity to several well-known schools such as CHIJ Primary and Secondary, Marymount Convent, Kheng Cheng School, and Raffles Institution. 

This is a major draw for families with school-going children. In addition, being close to mature estates like Toa Payoh and Bishan makes it ideal for those who want their own home while still living near elderly parents in these neighbourhoods.

Indicative costs of flats

mount pleasant crest - floor planImage credit: HDB

Here are the indicative costs for the new units:

Selling Price (excl. grants) Transacted prices of resale flats nearby
2-room Flexi (99-year lease) $209,000 – $373,000
3-room $411,000 – $552,000 $768,000 – $850,000
4-room $558,000 – $787,000 $1,075,000 – $1,190,000

Look beyond the fact that units here are the most expensive among all the other BTO projects in this launch, and focus instead on the transacted prices of resale flats nearby. As you can see, there is strong potential for the value of these units to appreciate, earning you a decent profit if you choose to sell them in the future. 

Our take is that Mount Pleasant has a high probability of following in the footsteps of other highly coveted residential estates in central locations like Bidadari, with flat owners selling their homes for an easy 100% profit shortly after reaching MOP.

Fairly high subsidy clawback, but not the highest

Just like we’ve guessed in our earlier coverage on Mount Pleasant, the project has unsurprisingly been classified as a Prime, owing to its fantastic location in central Singapore and perhaps also because it will have a brand new MRT station to call its own.

As with all Prime projects, one huge factor to think about is the subsidy clawback. In case you were still unfamiliar, this subsidy clawback is basically a percentage of the resale or valuation price (whichever is higher) of the flat upon sale, after fulfilling its 10-year MOP.

For Mount Pleasant Crest, the subsidy clawback amount has been fixed at 12%. The rate for Prime projects back in the July 2025 sales exercise was between 11% – 12%.

Mount Pleasant Crest—likely to see very high oversubscription rates

Mount Pleasant Crest is expected to be the most oversubscribed BTO project in this sales exercise. With a brand-new MRT station at its doorstep, a prime location, excellent connectivity, and proximity to several well-known schools, there’s plenty to love about this development despite its long waiting time and hefty subsidy clawback.

If you’re eyeing a unit here, be prepared for stiff competition, as many will likely try their luck at securing what could be the next Bidadari estate in Singapore. The good news is that if you miss out this time, there are five more projects planned for Mount Pleasant, so there will be more opportunities in future launches.

From today (15th October) until 22nd October, you’ll be able to submit an application for a flat via HDB’s Flat Portal. Remember too that you can always monitor the application rates of the various projects across the 8-day period, which will be regularly updated by HDB!

Read more about the October 2025 BTO launch:


Cover imaged adapted from: HDB

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