A five-room Executive Maisonette (EM) at 442 Sin Ming Avenue has just become the most expensive HDB flat ever sold in Sin Ming. The 1,722 sq ft unit, on the 19th-21st floor, changed hands for $1.55 million ($900 psf) in August this year.
This beats the previous price high for a flat of this type by a wide margin. A 1,873 sq ft EM at the neighbouring Block 453 had set the previous threshold of $1.4 million when it transacted in January 2024.
A smaller 1,615 sq ft EM flat at Block 442 came close to that price point when it was sold for $1.38 million last August. But the price for the record-setting EM now sits above both of those transactions, by $150,000 and $170,000, respectively.
A layout HDB discontinued decades ago
EMs are two-storey flat types that were discontinued by HDB in 1995. That left us with a fixed supply of these public housing flats on the resale market. With buyers still gravitating to more spacious layouts, especially older flats, the demand for EMs and Executive Apartments has never waned.
Within most EM flats, there is a separate upper and lower floor; the unit comes with more rooms than a standard new BTO flat, and the overall layout can feel like a landed house but at a fraction of the cost.
The record-setting EM at 422 Sin Ming Avenue is located in a HDB project called Sin Ming Court, which consists of 15 low-rise residential blocks with a mix of four- and five-room flats, as well as EMs.
The land lease of Block 422 started in 1990, and the flats there have a remaining lease of about 62 years. Transaction records also indicate that there have been at least 36 resale transactions involving executive flats there since 2017.
The scarcity of EMs in this part of Bishan contributed to the strong buying interest for the $1.55 million record-setting flat, and buyers' overall acceptance of the price, says Branden Lee, Associate Division Director at PropNex Realty, and the property agent who brokered the sale on behalf of the seller.
"At approximately 1,722 sq ft with a rare Executive Maisonette layout, coupled with the fact that this is also a high-floor unit, there are very few HDB homes in this part of Bishan that can offer this combination of size, layout, and views," says Lee.
The closest flat comparison is on Bright Hill Drive
When he was preparing to market the EM, there were two resale transactions that Lee used to benchmark his price expectations with the sellers. They were: the $1.4 million sale at Block 453 Sin Ming Ave, and the $1.38 million transaction at Block 452 Sin Ming Ave.
The flats along Bright Hill Drive, which is part of the same Sin Ming Court estate, also lodged a benchmark transaction. A 1,873 sq ft unit at Block 447 Bright Hill Drive changed hands for $1.48 million when it was sold in June 2024.
Executive flat sales at Sin Ming Court since January 2024
| Block | Street | Storey | Size | Price | $PSF | Date |
| 453 | Sin Ming Ave | 16–18 | 1,873 sq ft | $1,400,000 | $748 | Jan 2024 |
| 447 | Bright Hill Dr | 22–24 | 1,873 sq ft | $1,480,000 | $790 | Jun 2024 |
| 449 | Sin Ming Ave | 10–12 | 2,034 sq ft | $1,280,000 | $629 | Sep 2024 |
| 452 | Sin Ming Ave | 1–3 | 1,572 sq ft | $1,250,000 | $796 | Apr 2025 |
| 442 | Sin Ming Ave | 1–3 | 1,615 sq ft | $1,380,000 | $855 | Aug 2025 |
| 442 | Sin Ming Ave | 19-21 | 1,722 sq ft | $1,550,000 | $900 | Aug 2026 |
However, Lee recalls that there were times during the marketing of this EM flat when resale prices seemed to slip. Median EM resale prices in Bishan fell to about $1.25 million in April 2025, caused by a dip in the sales volume as so few of these flats get listed and sold.
To get a sense of how thin this market is: just six Executive resale transactions across the whole estate had been recorded since January 2024.
Apart from the record-setting absolute price, the $psf price is also the estate's highest to date, ahead of the $855 psf sale at Block 452, and well clear of the $748 psf transaction at Block 453. This is despite the fact that the EM at Block 442 is neither the smallest nor the largest unit in the comparison.
From a town-wide perspective, Executive flats (EMs and EAs) have posted a median resale price of $1.29 million so far this year. This means that the record-setting EM sale at 442 Sin Ming Avenue is $257,500 above the town's median price.
A home for over 20 years
The EM had been the home of the Tan family for over 20 years, and they were initially reluctant to let go of the property.
"After living here for 22 years, my children have completed their tertiary education, and it feels like the right time for us to move on to the next chapter of our lives," says Ms Tan, the seller.
She adds: "We have enjoyed our time here tremendously, but we are ready for a change of environment".
What kept her there for over two decades was the neighbourhood's convenient access and central location. "The biggest attraction is its central location and excellent accessibility. With the opening of Bright Hill MRT station on the Thomson-East Coast Line, getting to town and my workplace had become faster and more convenient," she says.
Her EM was also close to Upper Thomson MRT station, about a nine-minute walk from the block, and Thomson Plaza is about 10 minutes away.
Lee points to the same cluster of nearby amenities and public transport connectivity as a significant contributing factor to the large pool of prospective buyers. "The property is close to Upper Thomson MRT and Thomson Plaza, the estate is well maintained, and the cluster has a relatively low-density feel," he says.
For families, the proximity to Ai Tong School was another strong pull factor. The school sits about 166m from the block, well inside the 1km band that matters for priority Primary 1 registration.
The marketing pitch weighed price against space
It was the balance between the size of the unit and the asking price that helped to convince the eventual buyers, says Lee. "If you consider what it would cost to acquire a home that has a similar amount of living space and a comparable lifestyle in the private market, the quantum is significantly higher".
A nearby example illustrates this: A 1,701 sq ft unit at The Gardens at Bishan, about 660 metres away, was sold for $2.95 million ($1,734 psf) in June 2026. Another unit of the same size there fetched $3.138 million ($1,844 psf) after it was sold in September.
In short, at prices in excess of $1.55 million, prospective buyers for the EM largely found the HDB alternative more appealing and worth their money compared to resale private options.
"Buyers weren't simply buying based on the price of the property. They were buying a type of home that is increasingly rare, while still being able to achieve the lifestyle they wanted at a fraction of the cost of comparable private property," says Lee.
The deal was struck ahead of a policy change
The caveated date of the transaction took place after the government removed the 15-month wait-out period for private property owners buying HDB resale flats on 28 July 2026.
That rule, in place since September 2022, had required private owners to wait 15 months after selling their own home before buying a non-subsidised resale flat. Its removal triggered a noticeable increase in buying activity: HDB logged 201 million-dollar resale flats that same August, a monthly record - and 53 of those sales involved Executive flats.
But Lee confirms the deal was struck before that date. Paperwork can take several weeks to process, which is how the transaction was recorded in August. "Despite the restrictions at the time, we were still able to attract strong interest and secure a record price," he says.
It also suggests that the sale and the record-setting price were not driven by the change in policy and the subsequent spike in buying activity for large-sized flats. "There was already genuine demand for rare, large-format HDB homes among buyers who recognised the value and lifestyle that these properties offer," says Lee.
Where are Ms Tan and her family headed next?
With their windfall secured, Ms Tan and her husband are looking for an older condominium with generous space, or a cluster house in a quiet neighbourhood.
She says that her next home will likely be a similar size to her previous EM, just at a different address. "We still love having space and being in a peaceful, quiet environment, and we would like to retain the spaciousness and tranquillity that we enjoyed," she says.
There's plenty she'll miss too. "Definitely the convenience. Everything was within easy reach, especially public transport and grocery shopping," she says.
"More importantly, I will miss the wonderful neighbours and the strong sense of community we have built over the past years. There is a real neighbourly bond here, and that will be difficult to replace," she says.
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