Legacy planning
1. The value of more space
A regular HDB flat, even a 5-room unit, won’t reach up to 1,540 sq. ft. So if you really need that much space, your only other alternative is to look in Singapore’s private property market.
As of January 2021, the average price of a private, resale non-landed property is $1,341 psf:
Going by this amount, a 1,540 sq.ft. condo unit would cost about $2.06 million. A condo unit that matches the larger maisonettes, such as the 2,067 sq.ft. units in Queenstown, would cost over $2.77 million.
In this context, you can see why some buyers would willingly pay $1 million for a maisonette; even if it’s a 30+ year-old HDB property. There are few other ways to get so much living space in Singapore, at so low a quantum.