Despite what many say about Yishun and the weird things that happen there, it’s actually a pretty popular location for homebuyers looking for their first or subsequent homes. And for good reason: Yishun is chock-full of amenities such as retail and F&B outlets, recreational spaces. It also boasts great transport connectivity both within Yishun and other parts of Singapore.
Yishun has also been making quite a rumble in the property market recently, with news such as having North Gaia being the first EC in Yishun in 6 years, new BTOs being launched, and having a flat sold for over the $1M mark. And now, it has just registered another newsworthy sale, with 2 flats being sold for over $1M in May/June.
With more and more HDBs being sold now for over $1M, it’s perhaps safe to say that Yishun has well and truly crossed a new threshold in the resale market. While the esteemed $1M used to be an elusive price point that few HDB properties ever achieved, recent data has shown that this is likely to be more common in the future. And yes, even in Yishun.
2 more flats in Yishun sold for over $1million
Here’s what we know about the latest million dollar sales:
Image adapted from: HDB
According to HDB’s Resale Flat Price Data, the two units involved are Executive Apartments, located at Blk 608 Yishun Street 61, and Blk 664 Yishun Avenue 4. Both have about 69 years left on their lease, and recorded a resale price of at least $1M or slightly above that.
Now, what’s interesting to note is that this actually isn’t the first time that Yishun flats have transacted on the resale market for over a million dollars. Back in March this year, a jumbo flat along Blk 652 Yishun Avenue 4 was sold for $1.038 million, making it the first ever million-dollar HDB in the town. It was also only the second ever flat in a non-mature estate to cross the million-dollar mark.
Where are the flats located at?
Block 608 Yishun Street 61
Image adapted from: Google Maps
The first flat is located at Blk 608 Yishun St 61, which according to Google Maps, is more or less right in the middle of Khatib and Yishun.
Image adapted from: Google Maps
If we were to hazard a guess, we’d say that its location is definitely one of the contributing factors for its high price. Convenience and connectivity are the buzzwords here; the block is very conveniently located right along the main road of Yishun Ave 2 with a bus stop right at its doorstep with many bus options to travel to the rest of Singapore.
The block is also a short 1-2 bus stops away – or a 5-10 min walk – from Northpoint City, which is a giant shopping mall that connects to theYishun Integrated Transport Hub.
Along the way, you have several other amenities as well such as the recreational spaces of Yishun Pond, Yishun Park, and the Yishun Swimming Complex just across the road. In case of unforeseen emergencies, you also have Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and Yishun Community Hospital just a short walk away, as well as many other small clinics at Khatib Central.
There are also many famous food gems within the area – a couple that come to mind include the 618 SIM Carrot Cake and Huat Kee Kway Chap.
Block 664 Yishun Avenue 4
Image adapted from: Google Maps
As for the second flat, it’s located at Blk 664 Yishun Ave 4, which is about a 10-min walk from the first one at Blk 608. From Google Maps, you can probably tell that while it’s slightly further away from the main road, the block is still conveniently located quite close to all the main draws and highlights of Yishun.
If you don’t fancy a trip down to Northpoint City, you can instead head over to Wisteria Mall just across the street. It’s a smaller shopping mall, but regardless has all the amenities you need like a supermarket, F&B and some retail outlets.
Fun fact: Did you know that our President, Mdm Halimah Yacob, used to stay at the neighbouring Blk 663?
Image adapted from: Google Maps
One other perhaps lesser-known fact about Yishun is that it’s actually the first-ever Dementia-Friendly Community in Singapore.
If you take a walk around the estate, you’ll find that many of the blocks are painted in bright distinctive colours, which help the elderly and those with dementia navigate around. Signs like the block number and lift number are also enlarged so that they are easily seen and read.
You may also find some murals and paintings of features iconic to Yishun such as fishes, trees and even pineapples. According to Dementia Singapore, the reason was so as to create “a sense of the area’s identity amongst residents”, while paying homage to the heritage and history of the area.
What are Executive Apartments, and how do they differ from other unit types?
Of course, one other key contributing factor is that the two flats in question are Executive Apartments (EAs), meaning they more or less would be the costliest across the board. In this case, the flat at Blk 608 has a floor space of 1,765sqft, while the one at Blk 664 has a large space of 1,980sqft.
In case you’re unfamiliar, EAs are basically larger HDB units, having been introduced in the 1980s by the HDB, but later discontinued in 2005. As such, there’s really only a limited supply available in the market, and this doesn’t help the fact that EAs are also generally coveted by many homebuyers since BTOs aren’t known for their spacious floor plans.
Take note too that EAs are also slightly different from maisonettes, in that the latter has two floors, whereas the former are single-floor units. However, they are all classed under the term ‘jumbo flat’, meaning that they boast significantly higher floor space than their normal HDB flat counterparts.
For instance, the flat at Blk 664 is around 1,980sqft which is actually one the largest ever flats transacted in the resale market, second only to that jumbo flat that we talked about previously was sold in February 2022. In comparison, a typical 4-room unit measures between 904 – 1,162 sqft.
Where are Yishun flats headed to in terms of price?
So how does all of this impact the resale market, and in particular, the sales of Executive Apartments and maisonettes?
Well for one, we can reasonably expect prices to only continue upwards. This is in line with the general increase in the price index of HDB resale flats, due to a range of factors such as construction delays which turned people away from the BTO market.
Image credit: HDB
Even though they may be classed as non-mature estates, towns like Yishun and Woodlands actually have the highest number of jumbo flats in Singapore. This means that they’ll continue to attract interest from homebuyers, riding on the strong appeal of having a large home to live in.
Because of the current high-price climate, more and more current jumbo flat owners might be incentivised to sell their place to lock in the all-time high profits, while downsizing to a smaller unit.
Nonetheless, the fact that another two flats in Yishun have crossed the $1M threshold goes to show that the “million-dollar barrier” is well and truly broken, and opens the possibilities for more of such sales in the future. Will we eventually see other HDB unit types – other than EAs and Maisonettes – break that $1M barrier? Only time will tell.
Cover image adapted from: Google Maps, Google Maps
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