5 Lessons From Singapore’s Best-Performing Two-Bedroom Condos

Over the past few months, we’ve run a series of articles on Stacked Pro about the two-bedroom segment. Through it all, we analyzed over 260 condominiums and identified a dozen top performing condos, which all had some of the best performing two-bedroom units on the market.

Our analysis covered most of the major planning areas around Singapore, from suburban regions like Pasir Ris, to the city centre locales in River Valley and Orchard. The results, we have to say, were not as neat as expected.

We found several projects that defied conventional norms in Singapore. For example, some of the top performers didn’t consistently have the highest rental yields, were the closest developments to an MRT station, or the lowest launch prices.

Some of the outstanding developments were freehold condos, and others were 99-year leasehold projects. On more than one occasion, several of our top performing developments had to compete with thousands of new homes built after them.

While their success was often a matter of context, we did manage to discover some recurring patterns.

In the final instalment of this series, we’re looking back at the results and outcomes we gathered throughout this series. Homeowners and investors property hunting for two-bedroom units can learn from this to guide their property purchasing journey.

Common traits among the top performing two-bedders

Note: URA transaction records only begin from 1995. For projects launched before then, such as Clementi Park, Emerald Park, Parc Oasis and Aspen Heights, we used their earliest available transactions from 1995.

*Ripple Bay did not record the highest return on investment (ROI) in Pasir Ris. Estella Gardens and Carissa Park Condominium recorded higher figures, but these were based on only six and seven profitable transactions, respectively. Ripple Bay was selected as the top performer because it recorded 28 profitable transactions, along with only two marginally unprofitable ones.

Based on our conclusions listed in the table above, and the analysis of our team over the past few weeks, here are five broad trends that point to strong performance:

• Unit size has become a significant advantage, so long as it doesn’t drive the price quantum too high
• Outperformance is usually a combination of factors, not “one big reason”
• Neighbourhood improvements have an outsized impact on an area’s property performance, especially when they’re unforeseen
• Freehold tenure doesn’t always result in a condo’s outperformance
• A condo’s strong track record may be “played out” to its fullest, and unlikely to continue.

1. Unit size has become a significant advantage, so long as it doesn’t drive the price quantum too high

The clearest trend that we identified throughout the series of articles was that the size of the two-bedders was a significant contributor to its strong capital and rental performance. Eight of the 12 projects we listed had two-bedders of at least 900 sq ft.

For example, the two-bedders at Parc Oasis started from 1,076 sq ft, while the two-bedders at Aspen Heights, Legenda @ Joo Chiat, Laguna Green and Signature Park are all sized at more than 1,000 sq ft. For reference, a typical four-room HDB flat ranges from 960 sq ft to 1,100 sq ft.

The size comparison is worth noting because many condo buyers tend to be HDB upgraders, and most are unwilling to “upgrade” into a home that’s smaller than their previous flat.

Read more about Parc Oasis here.

This is where unit size overlaps indirectly with the age of a development. Ten of the 12 top projects were completed around 2004 or the years before that. Besides featuring larger units, older resale condos tend to be relatively more affordable compared to new launch projects today.

Consider that a new-launch two-bedder of around 750 sq ft or more can already reach a quantum of $1.8 million today. Against this, an older two-bedder of 900 to over 1,000 sq ft in size – and priced at a similar (or even lower) quantum – starts to look attractive, even after accounting for its age.

The larger unit size also widens the resale pool, capturing buyers that find newer and smaller two-bedders unappealing. In addition to singles, young couples, and investors, there’s a good chance that older two-bedroom units can plausibly accommodate families.

That said, there’s a limit to this advantage

If the units are too large and the absolute price is pushed too high, this can work against the development.

Based on their 2025 average prices, 10 of the 12 top projects on our list fetched average resale prices of $1.3 million and $1.8 million for their two-bedroom units. The median resale price is about $1.59 million, while the average price is about $1.61 million.

Aspen Heights was the exception with its two-bedroom units commanding an average resale price of around $2.24 million, but this is likely attributed to its location in Orchard / River Valley. And we noted that this price could also purchase a 1,044 sq ft unit in a 999-year leasehold development there, so it’s far from unattractive to those who have the means.

Read more about Aspen Heights here.

In some cases, projects with a small number of units also performed well. We attribute this to the fact that the price quantum for the units there was kept manageable, despite being bigger than many contemporary neighbours. Waterview is a good example of this: 

In 2025, Waterview’s two-bedders fetched an average price of around $1.28 million. Although those units are only 786 sq ft, they are still larger than newer alternatives in Tampines such as The Alps Residences (689 sq ft) and The Santorini at (721 sq ft).

In short, unit size is an advantage, but a bigger unit isn’t everything. Buyers need to find a balance: offering more space than competing units in the area helps, but only if a good number of people can also afford it.

2. Outperformance is usually a combination of factors, not “one big reason”

Most of the top performing projects on our list don’t have one outstanding quality.

Ripple Bay is a good example: it doesn’t stand out because of being exceptionally cheap or having the best designed floor plans. But the two-bedders at Ripple Bay performed well because they were priced at a manageable quantum, and the development is close to Downtown East.

Chiltern Park is another example of a condo that performed well in several aspects, but didn’t prominently stand out in terms of any single factor. It does come with a convenient access to an MRT station, and its two-bedroom units were affordable at around $1.64 million in 2025.

However, it had neighbours with similar MRT access too, and some had larger units or near similar pricing. The difference is Chiltern Park combined all three of these factors into one package.

We admit, this is less exciting than uncovering one “secret” behind every outperformer, but it’s the reality we see after analyzing so many different properties and two-bedroom units.

3. Neighbourhood improvements have an outsized impact on an area’s property performance, especially when they’re unforeseen

The Gardens at Bishan illustrates this point the best. The project was completed in 2004, but the new Bright Hill MRT (TEL) only opened in 2021. In fact the TEL wasn’t even announced until 2008.

Since the initial owners of The Gardens at Bishan couldn’t have known about the new MRT line when the condo launched for sale, the potential upgrade was never priced into the project. It was only around 20 years after the condo was completed that the owners suddenly found their (formerly) inaccessible home next to an MRT station.

Read more about The Gardens at Bishan here.

Hazel Park Condominium experienced something similar. The buyers there in the 90s and early 00s had accepted that their home was in a peaceful but frankly inconvenient part of Singapore. This changed when Cashew MRT (DTL) opened in 2015, and suddenly residents had a long but still direct connection towards the city.

Neighbourhood improvements need not be limited to MRT stations either. Clementi Park may have benefited from the launch of another condo: the neighbouring Ki Residences in 2020, which pushed up benchmark property prices in that area. That year, Ki Residences’ two-bedders averaged around $1,758 psf, compared with approximately $1,132 psf at Clementi Park. Buyers comparing the two could see that Clementi Park was also freehold, while offering larger units and a lower-density environment at a substantial discount.

Of course, it’s impossible to deliberately search for an unforeseen event; being unknown is the definition of it. But what we can take away is that, if you hear a “transformation story” and can already see all the planned upgrades, chances are the promised gains may not be as explosive. If they’re due to arrive in the coming years, their impact may already be factored into the asking price. 

4. Freehold tenure doesn’t always result in a condo’s outperformance

Of the 12 projects we selected, eight are 99-year leasehold condos. Only Clementi Park and Signature Park have freehold tenures, while Hazel Park Condominium and Aspen Heights have 999-year leases.

When we examined Clementi Park, one of the freehold projects, it had an average ROI of 32.21% compared with the 31.29% ROI recorded at the 99-year leasehold West Bay Condominium. In general, the difference between their respective ROI isn’t really significant, despite the tenure.

Read more about Clementi Park here.

In fact, 99-year leasehold projects can be advantageous in terms of percentage gains, since those projects tend to be cheaper. Legenda @ Joo Chiat’s two-bedders entered the market at an average of around $501 psf, compared with freehold counterparts like Haig Ten ($627 psf), Dunman Place ($604 psf) and Butterworth 8 ($705 psf).

But Legenda @ Joo Chiat subsequently beat all of them, being the top performer in Aljunied, Paya Lebar and Eunos.

This isn’t to say tenure is totally irrelevant. Freehold status becomes more relevant over extended holding periods, and can sometimes help in en-bloc situations. However, we found that it can’t be considered an indicator of guaranteed performance.

5. A condo’s strong track record may be “played out” to its fullest, and unlikely to continue

Someone purchasing the same condo unit today enters at a different starting price point compared to previous owners, and they may end up seeing very different results.

Our analysis of The Gardens at Bishan offers a clear illustration of this. As we mentioned above, earlier buyers entered at a relatively low price before Bright Hill MRT existed, or was even announced. Today these advantages are already known and priced in.

Meanwhile, Waterview entered the market while the cluster of newer condos in Tampines Avenue 10 was still developing. Today the surroundings are much more developed, and buyers now have alternatives such as Q Bay Residences, The Santorini, The Alps Residences and The Tapestry. In addition, Waterview’s efficient layouts and Bedok Reservoir proximity remain appealing, but it now faces more competition, and prices here have already risen.

To be clear, many of the top projects on our list are likely to continue to see price appreciation – it’s just that future outperformance may no longer be a certainty. For buyers focused on stronger gains, the overall strategy can’t be as simple as just buying the previous winners.

There may be no fixed formula for identifying the next top-performing two-bedder.

But it’s clear that buyers can improve their odds by not oversimplifying the market, as well as hyper-focusing on individual traits like “freehold”, “near MRT”, or “large unit’.

A more helpful question to ask is: who will want to buy this home from me in future, and why would they choose it over the alternatives? Also, what is or isn’t visible from the Master Plan and zoning?