If you want to live in an HDB flat close to the city, be prepared to pay as much as 50% more than if you choose to stay out in the sticks.

Prices for resale flats in estates near the city such as Central, Bukit Merah and Queenstown have left the rest of the country behind in recent years, according to new HDB data obtained by The Straits Times.

And what is particularly striking is how fast that price differential has widended.

Take a four-room flat in Bukit Batok in 1996, it sold for an average of $252 per sq ft , while a similar one in Queenstown was sold for $280 psf.

The HDB’s latest second-quarter data shows that the Bukit Batok flat would now sell for about $303 psf while the Queenstown flat commands $458 psf.

The price gulf will only widen, say analysts, given the shortage of prized flats, and factors like increasing transport costs that make people more inclined to live closer to their place of work.

Click here to read the article – Flats Near City Cost up to 50% Morehttp://luxuryasiahome.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/flats-near-city-cost-up-to-50-more/

Well, if you consider Whampoa / Jln Bahagia area flats as city flats because we’re 10 minutes to Cairnhill exit, then yes we’ve definitely seen an increase for the past year, from before our time to the present. There was a period of time when the prices were so hot sellers were asking for ridiculour prices above valuation. Now that is is back to normal, the COV ranges about 40k to 60k for intermediate units. Of course the valuation of the HDB terrace houses in this estate has also increased. From 300k+ before my time to 400k during my time and now 480k to 500k. Some readers and friends hope prices will drop by end of the year but I guess it is going to remain as bullish, given that city flats now cost much more and that the Town Council is going to complete their upgrading of the roofs for entire estate of 28 blocks.

Source : Straits Times – 24 Sep 2008