Why Are Young Singaporeans Snapping Up Old HDB Flats???

In the past year, we’ve seen a renewed surge of interest in younger couples who are buying older (40+-year-old) HDB flats. This runs contrary to attitudes from five years ago when HDB flats were often criticised as “99-year time bombs” (and let’s not even get into the debate over whether flats are “really just rented”!) But why is it happening? Here are some possible reasons:

- High homeownership rates reduce legacy needs
- HDB flats depreciating slower than theories suggest
- Trending gentrification
- The oldest flats tend to be bigger (for 5-room flats at least)
- Changing perspectives of flats as assets
- Optimism about flats being just a temporary home

00:00 - Intro
00:56 - High homeownership rates reduce legacy needs
03:20 - HDB flats depreciating slower than theories suggest
04:34 - Desire for authenticity
05:45 - The oldest flats tend to be bigger
06:35 - Changing perspectives of flats as assets
07:39 - Optimism about flats being just a temporary home
09:54 - Outro

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Stacked is an online editorial aimed at helping Singapore home buyers, sellers, and renters make better decisions. By regularly conducting research and publishing our findings, we hope to give our readers a much better perspective on buying, selling, or renting Singapore real estate.

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[terence]

My perspective is that older HDB flats are attractive in terms of space, location, convenience, and most importantly they are much more affordable vis-a-vis other alternatives. A condo that ticks those checkboxes would easily cost >1.8m, while BTOs on the other hand have other shortcomings (limited in choices and availability, longer wait times, income ceiling and etc). If you put less emphasis on the investment aspect of your property and focus more on day-to-day living, I think older HDBs are a good choice. There's also a certain charm you get from older properties

[Potomacstud]

This is one of the most important channel in Singapore Housing matters..superb

[homeforthree]

This is a good video. As someone who is living in a 121sqm flat within the inner city ring and thinking of an upgrade … i can’t find it in me to justify the price of a condo of either the same or larger size and what’s worse is that a lot of condos out there have extremely shoe box size kitchen unlike hdbs! I’m even thinking of upgrading to a jumbo/maisonette as I would still have savings for my old age rather than dumping all into a, say, 999/freehold condi

[mesmeriz]

excellent video and i agree with the points mentioned. young families these days are about self expression, wanting more space to accommodate hobbies/activities/personal belongings like yoga/home gym/walk-in wardrobe. in the past these ideas werent that common.

[newsteadyjlfjohn]

been looking for someone to convince me if worth getting older HDB, and you just did it. ya, world, policies, lifestyle, needs, wants have changed. we need to adapt. thank you so much for your in depth sharing. Great contents

[vbsc]

Straight-up information with both objective and subjective views.
And yeah, I agree with your last advice, buying a home with permanent tenancy instead of seeing it plainly as a trade investment.
So you don't get personally caught up with emotions when the market price doesn't meet your expectations.

[ryanyoutube]

Near city too. 4rm hdb is 136sqm.
And somewhere near sells $0.50 charcoal brewed kopi. Affordable meals. Near the beach, near the marina barrage ;)

[gz]

i bought my 30 yrs old HDB 5 years ago for a very simple reason... it's cheaper and bigger! we considered BTO back then, but luckily we get a resale instead. we never treated out first home as investment, and rightly so. we just do full renovation to really make it a home, and the big size really paid off during covid where we can just hide inside our home for days or even weeks!

[umwiymy]

Depend on individual preferences but I'm not a fan of bathroom in the kitchen + bathroom so far away from the common rooms (4S, 4I & 4NG etc.). Also older flats, especially those built in the 1980s and earlier, have tiny bathrooms with no dry/wet areas i.e. shower stalls.

[pyt]

The glass is half empty - most old flats still have more than half of their paper lifespan left! 😂
Also, CPF and HDB rules manage the situation by allowing CPF usage when remaining lease + buyer age is min 80 so if one uses CPF for the purchase, whatever old flat it is, it's young enough. HDB wise, when they kids have their own HDB, they can't keep the inherited HDB anyway.

[h.l]

Have a 3bd rm condo (currently rented out) and a hdb EM (for stay). Seriously love my EM, due to the space and conveniences of an old estate. Several Coffee shops, and supermarket just a stone throw away, no need to drive. etc while condo has facilities, quite meaningless to me since i almost never use them anyway.

[charlesfoo]

Nice analysis. Can you share what is likely to happen when the 99yr lease is running out? Any examples to share?

[dessertspring]

So Singaporeans (married or single) can only have one HDB flat under lease? What happens when an old couple both passed away in their 50s, leaving a 40y lease tenure HDB apt unoccupied, HDB will purchase the flat back from the couple’s children ?

[redbloodedwoman]

Beware of buying old hdb resale. I bought a 43yo hdb resale early last year thinking to spend the rest of my life here. Put in money to do up the reno for the whole flat. And what happened.. A news broke out 1 day ago, the flat will be undergoing SERS! The compensation is not enough to cover back my sentiment for the location and the reno cost.
Btw, i m in my 40s. Considering the financial consequences I have to face, it is really unnerving.

[hentie]

I will buy a house as a home. If I am certain that I won't move around after this purchase, I would buy an old flat just enough to age with me, to save the premium on other stuffs.

[ChoonKokLim]

Condos did not have storeroom, what luxury living are we talking about when an apartment does not have a storeroom to store stuff. it does not make sense to keep your vacuum cleaner in a storage space far from home when you need to use it everyday.

[Gamebred-Nightmare]

Can the audio be more crisp? A bit muffled

[aquatic]

That depends, as they may not successfully ballot one. But if they get a good plh for example right in town havelock, then I think it is worthwhile to stay on. But of cos nowadays many shallow couples stroked by agents also, get condo to feel atas and then pay huge loan repayments then bankruptcy. A lot of youngsters assume they will be employed forever.

[don-ent]

People goes with resale because they cannot wait for bto.