{"id":19796,"date":"2018-09-07T20:11:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T12:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.99.co\/blog\/singapore\/?p=19796"},"modified":"2022-07-01T04:59:54","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T20:59:54","slug":"east-west-side-of-singapore-property-hdb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.99.co\/singapore\/insider\/east-west-side-of-singapore-property-hdb\/","title":{"rendered":"East vs. West Side of Singapore: a HDB Property Face-off"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Debate about whether the East or the West side of Singapore is a better place to live usually centres around food, amenities or accessibility.<\/strong> While these things are certainly important in deciding where to live and set up home, it’s perhaps more accurate, and possibly more interesting to look at data and statistics. This article will show you which side of Singapore is worth more in terms of property value, starting with HDB flats for this article (Part 1). Read on to find out if you or your friends live on the more expensive side of Singapore, according to data from Singapore’s largest property portal 99.co<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To start, let’s define the East and West side of Singapore by HDB towns:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Location<\/strong><\/td>\nWest<\/strong><\/td>\nEast<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
City Fringe<\/td>\nBukit Merah<\/td>\nGeylang<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Queenstown<\/td>\nMarine Parade<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Outside City<\/td>\nClementi<\/td>\nBedok<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jurong East<\/td>\nTampines<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jurong West<\/td>\nPasir Ris<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Here’s a visual view of the towns, the markers indicate precincts\/clusters HDB flats within these towns:<\/p>\n

\"East<\/p>\n

Across all flats in the HDB towns listed under East vs. West side of Singapore, here’s the average per square foot (psf) transaction price according to transaction data from the past 15 years:<\/p>\n

\"East<\/p>\n

From the above chart, we notice something a few interesting things. Initially, in 2003, average psf transaction price in the East was about 3% higher than compared to the West side of Singapore, before the difference narrowed to a negligible $4 psf a year later.<\/p>\n

In 2005, the West overtook the East in average psf prices transacted for the first time ever ($236 vs $232). This wasn’t a fluke, but a trend that was set to continue to this date.<\/strong> The price premium of flats in the West kept increasing afterwards, a strong indication that the HDB flats on the West side of Singapore had an inherent superiority over the East. So, we wanted to further define the parameters to get a more accurate picture.<\/p>\n

First, we knew that most flats in the East were subject to maximum height restrictions because of the presence of Paya Lebar Air Base and Changi Airport. Meanwhile, HDB flats in the West could be built higher. Hence, for fairness, we subsequently only considered transaction data for units up to the 12th floor, which is around the maximum floor count for the majority of HDB flats in Singapore:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"East
East vs. West: 12th floor and below HDB units only.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Across all HDB Towns, the West has the edge<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Taking into account only units up to the 12th floor, we can see that the price difference between East and West has narrowed, but it still remains. While many factors could have led to flats in the West enjoying an overall price premium to flats in the East, we think two factors are key.<\/strong> First, the development of the Buona Vista into a business hub from the mid 2000s, and secondly, the spillover effects of the CBD resulting in city fringe HDB towns on the West side such as Tiong Bahru<\/a> (part of Bukit Merah HDB Town) being transformed leading to greater price appreciation while, on the other hand, city fringe towns in the East have not been subject to major changes.<\/p>\n

To ascertain whether the second factor is true, we wanted to see how city fringe towns in the West (Bukit Merah, Queenstown) compare to those in the East (Geylang, Marine Parade) in terms of average transaction prices, among 3-room and 4-room flats.<\/p>\n

\"East<\/p>\n

For City Fringe HDB Towns, the West wins (mostly)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

From the above chart, we can see the gaps between average transaction prices for City Fringe HDB resale flats in the East and West are like night and day.<\/strong>\u00a0For 12th floor units and below, 4-room flats in Queenstown and Bukit Merah today are on average 24.3% higher than that in Geylang and Marine Parade HDB towns, and 21.7% higher for 3-room flats. Notably, the prices for for both East and West city fringe HDB 3-room flats were similar from 2003 to 2005, before the West started asserting it’s price superiority.<\/p>\n

You might argue that the tenure of the flats plays a part, so we additionally specified a narrower group of flats built between 1970 and 1979 for comparison. These would what we would all ageing flats, whose value we’re all concerned about<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"East<\/p>\n

From the above, we can see that there is near parity between East and West 4-room flats that are between 39 to 48 years of age, meaning that the current higher average prices for 4-room in the city fringe may be attributed to newer flats (of which Geylang has very few while Marine Parade has none).<\/strong>\u00a0We also noticed two things, which we will state without the use of charts:<\/p>\n