The S$2.18m Telok Blangah jumbo flat: a headline, not a new normal

The flat

• Where: Telok Blangah Parcview, Bukit Merah, a BTO project completed at the end of 2017.
• What: two adjoining three-room flats combined into one five-bedroom corner unit under HDB's Conversion Scheme.
• Size: about 1,465 sq ft, far larger than a typical five-room flat of around 1,200 sq ft.
• Lease: about 91 years remaining.
• Price: listed at S$2.18 million on 19 September, now S$1,999,999. No resale application has been filed with HDB.

The Conversion Scheme dates back to 1993. It lets owners of three-room or smaller flats who need more space buy the unit next door and join the two. HDB has confirmed this combination was done properly. What drew attention was the price tag.

The cash problem: over S$600,000 above comparable prices

HDB's own comparison is simple. Three-room flats in the area sold for between S$673,000 and S$771,000 in the past six months. Two of them at the top of that range add up to about S$1.54 million. The original S$2.18 million asking price was about S$640,000, or over 40 per cent, above that.

That gap matters because of how HDB buying works. A bank or HDB loan is based on the official valuation, not the agreed price. Anything paid above the valuation is cash over valuation (COV), and it must be paid fully in cash, upfront, on top of the down payment, stamp duty and fees. HDB itself warned that a sale at this price would "likely entail a substantial cash-over-valuation".

The official valuation has not been published, so nobody knows the exact COV yet. But using HDB's S$1.54 million benchmark, a buyer at S$2.18 million would have needed roughly S$640,000 in cash just for the COV. Even at the new S$1,999,999 price, the gap is still around S$460,000. Very few buyers have that much spare cash for an HDB flat.

Per square foot, it is less unusual than it looks

The headline number is big because the flat is big. Per square foot, the picture is calmer:

• At S$2.18 million, it works out to about S$1,488 psf.
• At S$1,999,999, it is about S$1,365 psf.
• The current national record, a five-room flat at City Vue @ Henderson sold for S$1.728 million in April 2026, was about S$1,421 psf, with a similar 92 years of lease left.

So at today's asking price, the flat is actually cheaper per square foot than the record holder. The agent's argument, that a long lease and a rare size deserve a premium, has some logic. A 1,465 sq ft HDB flat with 91 years left is genuinely hard to find; most flats this large are older executive or jumbo units with far shorter leases. The agent cited an older jumbo flat that sold for S$1.53 million with about 45 years left.

The honest read: the total price is eye-catching, but the price per square foot is in line with the best recent HDB deals near the city. What makes this flat unusual is its size and lease, not a sudden jump in what buyers will pay per foot. A single rare unit like this tells us very little about the wider market.

The downgrader effect

On 28 July 2026, the government removed the 15-month wait-out period for private property owners buying a resale HDB flat. Private owners can now buy a non-subsidised resale flat straight away, as long as they do not take an HDB loan, and they must sell their private home within six months.

This is the group most likely to look at a flat like this one. Private owners who sell up often have cash in hand, want space, and prefer central locations. A 1,465 sq ft flat a short drive from the city, with a long lease, is exactly what a downsizing condo owner might want. August 2026 also saw a record 201 HDB flats sell above S$1 million, mostly large flats in mature estates.

But the effect so far is at the top end, not across the market. Even with downgraders back, HDB resale prices overall still fell in the third quarter. The extra cash-rich buyers lift a small number of rare flats; they have not lifted the market as a whole.

Does the new school rule apply here? No.

On 10 September 2026, the Ministry of Education announced a change to Primary One registration from the 2027 exercise (for children starting school in 2028). At 12 popular schools, Phase 2C places will be split into two equal halves: one for children living within 2km, and one for children living beyond 2km. Inside each half there is no distance priority, so living 300m away no longer beats living 1.9km away. In effect, the old edge of living within 1km is gone at these schools.

The 12 schools are Anglo-Chinese School (Junior), Anglo-Chinese School (Primary), CHIJ (Katong) Primary, Methodist Girls' School (Primary), Nanyang Primary, Ngee Ann Primary, Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary, Raffles Girls' Primary, Singapore Chinese Girls' Primary, St. Margaret's School (Primary), Tanjong Katong Primary and Tao Nan School. They were chosen because public housing makes up less than 40 per cent of homes within 2km of each, mainly around Bukit Timah, Newton and Marine Parade.

None of these schools is in Bukit Merah, and neither Telok Blangah nor nearby Tiong Bahru falls in this group. Schools near this flat keep the usual 1km and 2km distance priority. So the school change is not a factor in this flat's price, in either direction.

The bigger trend: HDB prices are drifting down

Step back from the one listing and the direction is clear. HDB resale prices fell 0.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, 0.3 per cent in the second, and a further 0.2 per cent in the third, based on HDB's flash estimate. That is three quarters of decline in a row, and prices are down 0.6 per cent for the first nine months of the year, compared with a 2.9 per cent rise over the same period in 2025. Private home prices, by contrast, rose 1.4 per cent in the third quarter.

Analysts point to the same causes: a steady stream of new BTO flats pulling first-time buyers away from resale, more flats reaching their five-year minimum occupation period and coming onto the market, and a softer job outlook. Some expect prices to find a floor by the end of the year, and full-year forecasts range from a small fall to a small rise.

HDB flats already tend to grow in value more slowly than condos, and the current policy direction reinforces that. More BTO supply, the review of the Conversion Scheme, and HDB's own willingness to publicly call out a high asking price all point to the same goal: keeping public housing affordable. We would expect HDB prices to keep moving sideways to slightly down, not up.

The bottom line

The S$2.18 million Telok Blangah flat is a rare, very large unit with a long lease, and per square foot it is not out of line with the best recent deals. But it has not sold, it has already been cut, and the cash a buyer would need above valuation is enormous.

If you are buying, do not treat this price as a benchmark for your own search. The wider market is soft, which gives buyers room to negotiate. If you are selling, price against recent transactions for your own flat type and block, not headlines. A record asking price is not a record sale, and this one should be read as an outlier rather than the new normal.

Sources: 99.co, EdgeProp, Ministry of Education.