{"id":66051,"date":"2023-06-20T17:44:31","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T09:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.99.co\/singapore\/insider\/?p=66051"},"modified":"2023-06-26T20:11:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T12:11:07","slug":"buy-sell-month-bto-hdb-resale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.99.co\/singapore\/insider\/buy-sell-month-bto-hdb-resale\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it better to sell your HDB resale flat before, during or after a BTO month?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sometimes, some readers would ask us if HDB resale demand will slow during a BTO month (Feb, May, August or November).<\/p>\n

The presumption is that as BTO flat prices are subsidised, hopeful homebuyers would rather buy a BTO flat than pay higher prices for a resale in the same estate. Furthermore, with less competition, resale buyers could perhaps negotiate better resale prices (eg. lower Cash Over Valuation<\/a> or COV, etc.).<\/p>\n

A different school of thought would say that BTO flat applicants are different from HDB resale buyers. BTO flat buyers are prepared to wait 3.5 to 4 years for their new home, while HDB resale buyers need their homes like now<\/em>. So these are two mutually exclusive groups<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rather than debating about it, we’ve compiled some data from 99.co Researcher and HDB’s past BTO exercises to see which is true. Perhaps then, if you are ever thinking of buying (or selling) your HDB resale flat, you’d know if there really is a right time after all.<\/p>\n

Methodology<\/h2>\n

For this article, we’ve analysed past BTO exercises for 4-room and 5-room HDB flats from February 2020 to February 2023.<\/p>\n

Understandably, there were only 3 BTO exercises in 2020 due to COVID – the combined May\/August 2020 BTO<\/a> (held in August) was one of the largest of its kind.<\/p>\n

We’ll then analyse the HDB resale volume (3 months before and 3 months after) at 5 different estates (three mature and two non-mature) where a BTO exercise was held.<\/p>\n

If a BTO exercise ends in the 1st or 2nd week of a month, we’ll take that as the application month. If it ends in the 3rd or 4th week, we’ll take the following month as the application month. This is because it takes roughly 3-6 weeks after application closes for BTO application results to be known.<\/p>\n