We Own A Fully Paid HDB And A Freehold Condo — Should We Keep Both And Rent Instead?

Dear Stacked,

We are a family of five that comprises my wife and I, our son who is starting polytechnic this year, our daughter who will be entering junior college next year, and my mother.

We own a four-room Build-To-Order (BTO) flat in Yishun, which is fully paid up and has passed its Minimum Occupation Period (MOP). We also own a freehold condominium along Guillemard Road, that was purchased from the developer in 2021.

The condo is co-owned with my mother and is currently tenanted, with the rental income covering the monthly loan instalment but leaving no surplus.

We want to rent an Executive Maisonette or Executive Apartment in Bishan so that our daughter can be closer to her junior college, and our son’s commute to polytechnic would also improve. Our son benefited from living near his secondary school, and we want to provide similar conditions for our daughter as she prepares for her A-Levels.

We are considering selling the Yishun flat to free up that capital in order to invest in an industrial property. We also think it makes more sense to sell the condo first: if we rent in Bishan without selling, we cannot buy another private property without incurring Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD), and we also cannot purchase an HDB flat while still holding the condo.

But we are worried that renting for the long-term may not be economical, since we need at least four bedrooms. 

In the meantime, we are considering renting out the Yishun flat to help offset the rental cost of the planned rental flat in Bishan, while holding on to the condo for another two to four years for it to continue to appreciate before selling.

We feel overwhelmed due to concerns over lease decay on the flat, rising accrued CPF interest, and whether a freehold property will really outperform over time.

Would holding both properties while we rent in Bishan make sense, or would we be better off restructuring our portfolio now?

Thank you.

(This is part of an ongoing series where we answer reader questions about the property market. If you have one of your own, send it to stories@stackedhomes.com.)

Hi and thanks for writing in!

Based on what you’ve shared with us, it seems like the trigger for all of this is a school move, rather than a financial decision.

The questions surrounding a review of your property portfolio, the anxiety that stems from the negative impact of lease decay, and considerations to invest in an industrial property — these are secondary to the fact that you want to shorten your daughter’s commute to school.

In our view, framing your property question from this perspective matters because it centres on the actual decision that you have to make.

Shifting your home to Bishan has a defined timeline: two years, which covers the amount of time your daughter will likely spend in junior college studying for her A-Levels. How you choose to structure your assets is the question that follows.

Let’s start with what the data shows about the properties you already own, then work through each of the four options you have raised.

What the rental shortfall actually looks like

Before we evaluate any of the options, it helps to put a concrete number on the cost of renting a flat in Bishan.

Based on transactions over the past six months, the average monthly rent for an Executive HDB flat in Bishan is approximately $4,419, which adds up to about $106,000 over two years.

For a four-room flat in Yishun, the average monthly rent is approximately $3,066. If you rent out the Yishun flat and apply that income toward the Bishan rental, you would need to top up around $1,353 each month.

Over two years, that shortfall amounts to roughly $32,000, assuming your Yishun flat stays leased throughout that period.

It will be a personal call on your part whether the net cost of $32,000 is worth the shorter commute to school that your daughter will enjoy, but it is also a substantially lower figure than the gross rent of $106,000 you would pay for the flat to make this arrangement work.

The Guillemard condo is a separate matter. Based on what you’ve shared, it is currently net-net with the loan and generates no surplus income, thus it cannot help to offset the rental shortfall.

Taking a look at the resale performance of your Yishun flat.

Average resale prices for four-room flats in Yishun have risen from around $359,000 in 2015 to approximately $566,000 in 2025, a gain of about 57.6% over the decade.

This price growth slightly outpaces the national average for four-room flats, which increased by about 55% over the same period.

Average resale prices of four-room HDB flats in Yishun vs the national average

Since we do not know your flat’s exact address or lease commencement year, the table below breaks down four-room flats in Yishun according to their lease cohort. This is relevant because the start date of your BTO affects both the accrued CPF calculation and the long-term buyer pool.

Average four-room resale prices in Yishun by lease commencement year

Based on data compiled by Stacked, resale prices for flats in this category have risen substantially across all cohorts, and the oldest age group has recorded a price gain of more than 42%.

This suggests to us that the negative impact of lease decay on a flat’s resale value has not visibly impaired demand for Yishun four-room flats so far. But the older cohorts will face a narrowing buyer pool over time as CPF eligibility rules begin restricting financing for shorter-lease properties.

While accrued CPF interest is often raised as a reason to sell quickly, it is not a cost in isolation, especially for someone in your position.

Accrued interest is the compounding of the CPF Ordinary Account rate (2.5%) on the funds you withdrew for the purchase. It reduces the cash-in-hand portion of your sale proceeds, but your total equity is only affected if the property has underperformed.

For a BTO flat — where the resale market has set benchmark prices at multiples of the original launch price — the accrued interest is almost certainly well covered by the price appreciation. However, we suggest that you run the numbers on your specific CPF usage before treating it as a red flag.

Examining the price performance of condos along Guillemard Road

Most of the private residential developments along Guillemard Road in District 14 are freehold boutique developments with fewer than 150 units. If we take a look at resale price data for this type of project in the district, average prices have risen from around $1,121 psf in 2015 to approximately $1,519 psf in 2025.

Average resale $PSF of freehold boutique developments in District 14

The transaction data indicates that the annualised growth rate for freehold boutique projects in District 14 has lagged both the district average and the national private residential average over this period.

It suggests that a freehold tenure, in this part of the private residential market, has not reliably translated into stronger price growth.

Average resale $PSF by unit type — freehold boutique projects in D14

On the whole, larger-sized units have performed better on an annualised psf basis, which is a common pattern across the private market. But even at the upper end of the unit size range, these are not figures that make a strong case for waiting another two to four years specifically to maximise the exit price.

For example, if you purchased a two-bedroom (or a unit of a smaller size) in 2021, at prices near the pre-pandemic range, the price trends suggest that the capital appreciation to date may be modest.

Average resale price by unit type — freehold boutique projects in D14

There is also a practical consideration with your ownership structure. The condo is co-owned with your mother, which means any sale decision requires alignment from both parties. It is not an obstacle, but it requires planning before any timeline can be set.

Let’s now take a look at the various options that you’ve shared with us.

Option 1: Rent in Bishan while retaining both properties

This is the option that has the least impact on your property portfolio. This would see you rent out the Yishun flat, apply that rental income toward the cost of your Bishan rental flat, and hold on to the Guillemard condo for as long as the current tenancy arrangement continues.

According to our estimates, the net cost of this arrangement is approximately $1,353 per month after the rental income from the Yishun flat is applied. Or viewed another way, this is the price of two years of better commute conditions for both your children.

The condo on Guillemard Road remains self-sustaining, and the Yishun flat continues to generate income. The advantage is that you are not forced into any irreversible decisions that may have to be made under time pressure.

However, we would point out that in about two years’ time, your daughter would be on track to finishing her A-Levels, and your son would have settled into life at his polytechnic. Keeping both properties preserves the option to reassess your family situation from a clearer position.

In our view, the risk of this option is the opportunity cost. If you have identified a specific industrial property investment that requires the capital from the Yishun flat, the holding period means that capital remains tied up. If you haven’t found a property to invest in yet, retaining the flat while you do the research carries a lower cost.

In general, renting for the long-term is only uneconomical once the two-year span of time that your daughter is in junior college passes. An Executive flat or Executive Maisonette in Bishan that costs about $4,400 per month to rent is a substantial ongoing expense if you are paying the full cost with no rental income to offset it.

Therefore, the current arrangement, where the Yishun flat covers most of that cost, is a different proposition from renting indefinitely with no end date in sight.

Option 2: Sell the Yishun flat and keep the condo

Selling the fully paid flat would realise the value of the asset. Based on current median prices for four-room flats in Yishun, there is a possibility that you could be looking at proceeds in the range of $500,000 – $570,000 — after returning CPF, depending on your unit’s floor level, facing, and original purchase price.

This would also be the pool of capital which you would redirect toward the industrial property investment you have described.

The immediate trade-off is that you lose the rental income that is offsetting the shortfall from the Bishan flat. Since the $3,066 per month you would have collected from the Yishun flat now disappears, making the Bishan arrangement more expensive in net terms.

You would also be liquidating a fully paid asset with very low holding costs in order to move into an investment class that has historically delivered more moderate capital appreciation.

Average $PSF by industrial property type

In general, most industrial property investments can still make sound investments. Rental yields on well-located industrial assets can be higher than residential yields, and the absence of ABSD is a real structural advantage.

But the case for the purchase needs to rest on the specific opportunity being evaluated, not on avoiding ABSD as a general principle. Consider that a replacement asset generating a 4–5% gross yield would still need to run for several years just to recover transaction costs and the income you stop collecting from the Yishun flat.

In our view, the sell-Yishun option makes most sense if you have already identified a specific industrial property with favourable yield characteristics, and you have done the full comparison against what you are giving up.

Option 3: Sell the Guillemard condo and keep the Yishun flat

This is the option you described as your preferred sequence, and there is a rationale behind it. Selling the condo exits your private property position cleanly, which is a condition for re-entering the private market later without incurring ABSD. The Yishun flat continues to generate rental income and partially offsets your Bishan costs.

The key advantage in this over Option 2 is that you preserve the low-cost income-generating asset while unlocking the condo’s capital. The Yishun flat requires no ongoing loan servicing and delivers steady rental income. It is the lower-maintenance asset to hold.

The question this option raises is what you do with the condo proceeds. Depending on your current ownership arrangements, outstanding loan, and CPF usage, reinvesting the proceeds into another property could be a viable option. Moreover, selling the condo while retaining the Yishun flat keeps your lower-maintenance, loan-free asset intact while generating rental income throughout the transition.

There is also the question of whether selling now or in two to four years produces a different outcome. The data for freehold boutique developments in District 14 does not show the kind of consistent upward trend that would make a multi-year hold obviously rewarding. Prices are currently near historical highs for the segment. That is not a reason to rush a sale, but it does caution against treating a two-to four-year wait as a reliable route to a materially better exit price.

Option 4: Sell both properties and reinvest

The most comprehensive option is to exit both properties and restructure your portfolio from a clean position. One possible sequence: sell the Guillemard condo first while renting in Bishan and renting out the Yishun flat. Once you and your wife hold no residential property, your next purchase — a condo or resale HDB — starts from a clean slate.

For your mother, the 15-month wait-out period after selling the condo would apply before she can buy an HDB flat. Subject to her eligibility and financial capacity, she could consider purchasing a larger flat — such as an Executive Apartment or Executive Maisonette — in her own name after that period. Depending on whether the funds from the Yishun flat are needed for that purchase, it can be sold before or after she does so.

This option offers the cleanest separation between your family’s own-stay needs and your investment objectives. You are no longer constrained to find a single property that serves both purposes. The private property purchase, when it happens, can be assessed on investment merit alone (location, tenant demand, capital appreciation, exit liquidity) rather than also having to work as a home for a family of five.

The main ‘cost’ is complexity. There are more parties to align to this (including your mother, who co-owns the condo), more decisions to sequence correctly, and more exposure to timing risk if market conditions shift mid-transition. Without visibility into your outstanding loan balance, CPF usage, combined income, and available cash, it is not possible to say whether this route works for your specific numbers. But it is the option most worth stress-testing before committing to.

What should you do?

The answer depends largely on how far along the industrial property plan actually is.

If you have a specific opportunity in mind and have already worked through the numbers, you could consider selling the Guillemard condo first. This removes the complication of shared-ownership and frees up that capital for reinvestment.

The Yishun flat stays in place to partially offset your Bishan rental costs. You could sell it separately when the industrial purchase is ready and your investment and financial planning supports the investment.

If you are still researching what industrial property to invest in, selling either asset before identifying where those funds go means cashing out of productive assets and sitting on cash. That has a cost of its own.

Since in this scenario, holding both properties for the duration of your daughter’s JC years is a lower-risk posture. The net rental shortfall is $1,353 per month, which is manageable if your finances allow it, and the two-year period gives you time to properly evaluate the industrial opportunity before committing.

What we would caution against is holding the condo specifically because it is freehold, and expecting that to translate into a materially better exit in two to four years. The performance data for this segment of District 14 does not back that up. If the condo sale makes sense on other grounds, freehold tenure is not a reason to wait.

Whether a specific industrial asset produces better returns than your existing residential holdings is a comparison that cannot be made on property category data alone. It requires the specific property’s rental yield, lease tenure, financing terms, and vacancy risk to be set against what you are giving up. Getting that analysis done properly, before selling anything, is where we would start.