More BTO Supply Should Cool Prices — But This Singapore Town Suggests Otherwise

When the development of Punggol New Town was underway, the Build-To-Order (BTO) launches were nearly back-to-back as the government pressed on with plans to transform the area into the newest public housing estate at the time.

This resulted in overlapping waves of new flats that entered the market, as projects were completed and subsequently eligible for resale after they fulfilled their minimum occupation period (MOP).

Typically, we see new BTO flats enter the market in phases throughout the year, and new public housing supply in most HDB towns and estate is relatively sporadic and irregular – barring master planned areas like Tengah and growth areas like Berlayar.

This makes it relatively easy to track what happens in the aftermath of each BTO launch. However, Punggol is a different case.

This raises a key question. Does the steady pipeline of new BTO flats in Punggol keep prices in check by constantly refreshing supply? Or does each wave push resale prices higher and gradually raise the price ceiling?

In this article, we look at how Punggol’s resale prices have behaved across this unique, continuous supply of new launches; whether they kept prices stable or prompted rising prices.

The supply of new flats in Punggol over the years.

The master plan to develop Punggol into a new HDB town was inked in the 1990 as the Punggol 21 master plan and revitalised in 2007 to Punggol 21-Plus. At its inception, the area was commonly perceived as an “ulu” location with not much urban development in the area.