A Rare HDB Maisonette In Beauty World Just Sold For $1.508M — Despite Just 61 Years Left On Its Lease

A maisonette flat in the only HDB estate in the Beauty World neighbourhood has just set a record resale price of $1,508 million after it was sold this week. Located at 3 Toh Yi Drive, the price of the 1,614 sq ft flat translates to $934 psf.

This is the latest record price for an executive flat – the category that includes duplex maisonettes – in the Bukit Timah area. The previous record involved the sale of another maisonette flat in the same block which changed hands for $1.501 million ($906 psf) in May 2025.

Both flats are part of a public housing estate called Toh Yi Gardens, which is bounded by Jalan Jurong Kechil and Toh Yi Drive. The estate is also next to Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School and a landed housing enclave along Kismis Avenue.

Toh Yi Gardens consists of 19 HDB blocks with a mix of three- to five-room flats, as well as maisonettes. Most of the residential blocks, including the record-setting maisonette, were completed in 1988. This means that they have about 61 years left on their lease.

At Block 3 Toh Yi Drive, where the record-setting maisonettes are located, the 12-storey block consists of 64 maisonette flats that range from 1,579 – 1,657 sq ft. According to HDB transaction records, the resale price of a maisonette in this block has increased significantly over the past two years.

In June 2024, a 1,614 sq ft unit between the fourth to sixth floors was sold for $1.24 million ($768 psf). Less than a year later, a 1,657 sq ft flat on the seventh to ninth floors would set a then-record breaking price of $1.501 million when it was sold in May 2025.

So far this year, there has been one other resale transaction at 3 Toh Yi Drive. That involves the sale of a 1,579 sq ft unit on the first to third floors that transacted for $1.35 million ($854 psf) when it was sold in March this year.

Meanwhile, over at the neighbouring block – 2 Toh Yi Drive – resale prices for the maisonettes there have not yet breached the $1.5 million threshold. The highest price there is $1.46 million ($929psf) which was set when a 1,570 sq ft unit was sold in February 2025.

Duplex maisonettes come from a bygone era in our public housing history and are no longer being built. Moreover, despite the tickling down on their remaining lease, maisonettes across the country typically command premium prices that often exceed a million dollars.

Check out this article, where we break down whether maisonettes and jumbo flats are even worth the price premium they command.

If we take a look at the typical floor plan of a maisonette unit, such as the one which has recently sold, the attributes that make maisonettes such a highly desirable type of public housing flat is quite clear.

Of course there is the novelty of a two-storey home, but we can also see that the living space is sizeable, especially compared to the size of new four- and five-room Build-To-Order (BTO) flats. For example, a new four-room flat in Woodgrove Acres, a new Standard BTO project in the June 2026 sales exercise, is 1,001 sq ft; while a five-room flat there is 1,215 sq ft.

Read our extensive review of the seven projects in the June 2026 BTO sales exercise here.

Maisonettes offer an appealing mix of affordability and size that is tough to find comparables in the property market today. The added virtue of their overall scarcity in the market, and the fact that they are only found in certain estates, contributes to a strong and persistent demand for these HDB flats.

Taking a step back, there are also several reasons why most of the flats in Toh Yi Gardens command such high resale prices. The most expensive four-room flat there was a flat at 14 Toh Yi Drive which sold for $970,000 ($866 psf) in January this year, while the most expensive five-room flat is located at 9 Toh Yi Drive and fetched $1.28 million ($937 psf) when it was sold this month.

Toh Yi Gardens benefits from a direct link to Beauty World MRT station on the Downtown Line. One of the MRT exits is next to the housing estate. Next to the MRT stations are most of the familiar shopping malls that serve this area, including Beauty World Plaza, Beauty World Centre, and Bukit Timah Shopping Centre.

According to One Map, there are three primary schools within 1km of the estate – Bukit Timah Primary School, Methodist Girls’ School (Primary), and Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School. Moreover, other tertiary educational institutions are in the vicinity such as Ngee Ann Polytechnic, the main campus of the School of Social Sciences, and the main campus of the Singapore Institute of Management.

These attributes also means that several new developments have broken ground there in recent years. Ongoing developments include 8 @ BT by Bukit Sembawang Estates and The Reserve Residences by Far East Organization.

Further afield there is also The Sen, a new development along Jalan Jurong Kechil by SL Capital which launched in November 2025. An empty adjacent plot is also expected to be redeveloped into a new condominium after the government land tender launches in November this year.

Turning back to the HDB supply in the area, the flats in Toh Yi Gardens won’t be the only HDB flats in the area for much longer. The redevelopment of the former Bukit Timah Turf City will introduce up to 20,000 new public and private homes.

So far, no new BTO projects in that new precinct have been announced. But when they do arrive, it will mark the return of public housing in Bukit Timah after 40 years. However, we’re unlikely to see maisonettes make a return again, and the projects there will likely be Prime or Plus developments that come with their own set of stringent ownership regulations.

This means that, at least for now, demand for the flats and maisonettes in Toh Yi Gardens will persist. And as the Beauty World area develops, we’re likely to see higher record-setting deals being struck there in the coming months.