This HDB Town Sold the Most Flats in 2025 — Despite Not Being the Cheapest

If there’s one headline that dominated the HDB market through 2025, it was the steady rise of million-dollar flats. What once felt like an outlier has become increasingly common, and now, at the start of 2026, the market finds itself at a crossroads. The pipeline of SERS has effectively come to an end for the foreseeable future, removing a long-standing source of “hope premium” for older flats.

What’s notable, however, is that resale activity has remained concentrated rather than slowing evenly across the board. Even with prices elevated, buyers are still transacting — but not everywhere, and not at the same pace.

With this in mind, we took a closer look at where HDB resale activity was actually concentrated in 2025. Which towns saw the highest number of transactions, and how do their average prices compare? The answers offer a useful baseline for understanding buyer behaviour as we head into 2026.

HDB towns that sold the most, and what we found out

Sengkang and Tampines are almost tied for the top spot, with 1,643 and 1,642 resale transactions. These have been the two most “active” towns so far in 2025; and they’re closely followed by Woodlands and Yishun. 

For Sengkang, Woodlands, Yishun, Jurong West and Punggol, the high volume is mostly due to the right combination of lower prices, plus many blocks that are still within the first two decades of their 99-year lease, which appeals to most buyers. However, we do think Woodlands will soon be an exception to this, as the RTS link and other planned upgrades may bring an end to its “cheap” status. 

Tampines is a bit harder to pin down from a general view like this, as Tampines is a wide area. Tampines West, and newer areas like Tampines North, have very different characteristics from the famed hub area with Tampines One, Tampines Mall, etc.

As for the Central Area and Marine Parade, it’s common for them to see the fewest transactions. Not many people are willing to give up flats in these scarce locations; it’s notoriously difficult to find resale flats in Marine Parade, especially the larger 5-room flats. 

Now let’s look at the price and volume by flat type

We’ll begin with 3-room flats:

3-room flats

Ang Mo Kio has seen the highest volume of 3-room flat transactions thus far, and the reason isn’t hard to guess: Ang Mo Kio is a mature town, but you can see it’s in a moderate price band (average of $454,829). Interestingly, this is lower than some non-mature areas like Sengkang, Sembawang, and Punggol – so this does appear to be a good deal overall. 

The same goes for Bedok, which has relatively modest prices for such a mature neighbourhood (with the caveat that Bedok is a very large area, with some areas being much less convenient than others). 

Nonetheless, Ang Mo Kio and Bedok both have older blocks that date back to the 1980s, which may lower the average price (around $445,000 to $455,000) despite the convenience. These types of blocks can make good rightsizing options for older buyers. 

On the other end, Jurong West, Jurong East, Geylang and Woodlands remain among the most affordable locations for three-room flats, with average prices from about $400,000 to $440,000. These estates provide some of the lowest entry points into the resale market in 2025. 

4-room flats

This is the most important segment, as 4-room flats are the backbone of our public housing.

Sengkang and Tampines dominate the segment, with 808 and 770 transactions respectively. From word on the ground, these towns have sizeable clusters of relatively new 4-room flats; and whilst not the cheapest, they’re comfortably in the mid-range. Again though, note that many of the Tampines 4-room flats transactions may not be from the much pricier town centre, but in the outer parts of the neighbourhood (e.g., the areas close to the borders of Simei or Bedok). 

Yishun and Woodlands continue to be the more budget-friendly alternatives, with average prices around $565,000 to $567,000. For reasons mentioned above – the upcoming RTS link and Woodlands Northshore – this could be a good entry point into Woodlands, for those looking at the long term. 

On the higher end of the pricing scale, the more central flats continue to see high prices, and we can see many are inching ever closer to a million dollars as the norm/average. Queenstown is the closest now, with an average of $968,000 for its 4-room flats, with Toa Payoh close on its heels ($916,000). Thankfully, for some buyers, Bukit Merah, Clementi, and Kallang/Whampoa have an average that remains below $900,000…for now. 

5-room flats

Affordability seems to be the big issue here. Except for Tampines, every one of the highest-volume towns is in the lower or mid-price range for 5-room flats. Sengkang, Woodlands, Jurong West, Choa Chu Kang and Sembawang all offer 5-room flats that can transact at or below the $700,000+ range, making them ideal for families who want a better price-to-space ratio. 

Meanwhile, mature estates are practically in their own world, with their high prices and very low volumes. Toa Payoh, Bukit Merah, Bishan, and Clementi are at an average price of $1 million+ for a 5-room flat now, with Kallang/Whampoa almost joining the club at an average of $998,000. 

However, we may see a change due to the end of SERS. Older HDB projects in Toa Payoh or Bukit Merah, for instance, may plateau or even see price dips going forward, as there’s no more “hope premium” for a big bailout at the end of the lease.

Executive and multi-gen flats

These flats are less common than the others and tend to have lower transaction volumes. 3Gen flats in particular can only be sold to other extended family members, which caps their transaction volume and could affect pricing. As such, we shouldn’t be too quick to consider all of these numbers representative. 

Nonetheless, from what we do see, Serangoon, Bedok and Yishun are already above or close to a million-dollar average. Further in, the mature central estates, such as Bishan, Toa Payoh, Queenstown, and Bukit Timah, have already crossed that line.

An important consideration in 2026 is continued decentralisation. 

As more commercial hubs, MRT stations and malls take root outside the central region, the appeal of fringe OCR towns has grown steadily. The time is coming when buyers are no longer choosing between “central convenience” and “heartland compromise” in the way we did a decade ago. 

Increasingly, we see newer estates offer connectivity and convenience that rivals more central flats; and when you add in their newer leases and lower costs, they might be a better deal than a more “prime” flat. 

Couple this with the end of SERS, and the HDB market may be at a turning point. Younger buyers might want to reconsider old ideas of having to be in a mature town (a classification even HDB has discarded), or prejudices about some neighbourhoods being too “ulu.” It’s arguable that places like Punggol or Yishun should have shed those reputations by now, and Woodlands certainly will soon. 

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