HDB jumbo flat at $2.18m asks 47% more per sq ft than its own parts

A combined HDB flat in Telok Blangah is on the market for $2.18m, and HDB says it will review the scheme that lets owners join two small flats into one 12. The price is easy to call high. The more useful question is how high, measured against what combined flats have actually sold for. On that test, official resale records going back to January 2017 give a clear answer. Combined flats have usually changed hands for about what their two halves are worth. This listing asks 47% more per square foot than the three-room flats it was made from 34.

What HDB said about the listing

HDB said the listed price was significantly higher than comparable transactions in the area 15. It put individual three-room flats nearby at about $673,000 to $771,000 over the past six months 2. Two such flats at the upper end would come to around $1.54m, HDB said, which puts the listing more than $600,000, or over 40%, above that sum 1.

HDB also confirmed that the two units had received approval to be sold as a single flat, and said it would review the Conversion Scheme following public concern 2. The scheme dates from 1993 and lets eligible owners of three-room or smaller flats who need more living space combine their flat with an adjoining unit 1.

HDB's range can be traced in the official records. Three-room flats in the same project, on the same 2018 lease, were registered as resold 16 times in the 12 months to September 2026, at prices from $672,888 to $771,000 4. Their median was $739,444 4.

The flat, and why it has no true comparable

The home is at Block 93B Telok Blangah Street 31, part of the Telok Blangah Parcview project 3. It joins two three-room flats into a 1,465 sq ft unit with five bedrooms and four bathrooms 3. It has about 91 years left on its lease 3. At the asking quantum of $2.18m, that works out to about $1,488 psf 3.

That lease is what makes this flat unusual. HDB's records label combined flats as adjoined flats, and 415 of them were registered as resold between January 2017 and September 2026 46. Every one sat on a lease that began between 1967 and 1989 4. Not a single combined flat on a lease from this century has come up for resale in the records 4.

So the usual shortcut of comparing one jumbo flat with another does not work here. The 42 combined flats resold in the 12 months to September 2026 had a median floor area of 141 sqm and about 50 years of lease left at sale 4. Their median price was $901,000, or about $589 psf 4. A flat with 91 years left is a different asset, and it should command more per square foot than those older jumbo flats 34. The question is how much more.

The sum-of-parts test

The cleanest way to price a combined flat is to price its parts. Take the recent resale prices of the individual flats it was made from, in the same project where possible, and then ask what premium, if any, buyers have paid for having them joined.

Official records allow that premium to be measured. Sightlines compared each combined flat resold in the 24 months to September 2026 with three-room flats in the same town, on leases that started within five years of its own, sold within six months of it 4. For the 80 combined flats with enough of those comparisons, the median combined flat sold at 1.03 times the price per square foot of its three-room neighbours 4. The middle half sold at between 0.94 and 1.11 times 4. The single highest ratio was 1.68 times 4.

In plain terms, the resale market has treated a jumbo flat as roughly two flats' worth of space, priced like the flats around it. Buyers have paid for the extra room, not a large extra premium for the joining.

Apply the same test to the Telok Blangah listing. At a quantum of $2.18m, its asking price is about $1,488 psf, against a median of about $1,010 psf for the project's own three-room flats over the past year, which is a ratio of about 1.47 34. That is well above 1.11, the level at or below which three in four combined flats have sold, though below the single highest ratio on record 4. The comparison uses price per square foot, so it holds whatever the size of the combined flat.

The rule that falls out of this is simple enough to reuse. Price the parts first, then treat any premium above the historical range as the part of the price that needs its own justification.

The parts have never been worth more

The base of the sum-of-parts test is itself at a high. Parcview's flats reached their minimum occupation period and started to appear in the resale records in October 2022 4. Since then, the project's three-room flats have been registered as resold at these medians 4:

Source: 4.

The median three-room flat in the project has gained about 5% since 2023, from $702,000 to $738,444 4. So even two flats at today's median, a combined $1,478,888, are priced at the top of the project's own history 4. The asking price for the combined flat sits about $700,000 above that, which means the premium, not the parts, is doing most of the work in the $2.18m figure 34.

Volumes have also thinned, from 36 three-room resales in 2023 to 12 so far in 2026 4. Fewer sales can mean a thinner set of comparisons for any valuer, which is one more reason to test a combined flat's price against its parts rather than against a single listing.

How combined flats have been priced since 2017

The record also shows how the jumbo flat market has moved over time. Prices have risen with the wider resale market, while the flats themselves have kept getting older.

Source: HDB resale records on data.gov.sg, adjoined flats only 4.

Three things stand out. Volumes are thin, at 31 to 50 resales a year 4. The median price rose from $691,900 in 2017 to $915,000 so far in 2026 4. And the highest price for a combined flat in the records is $1,530,000 4. It was paid for a four-room adjoined flat of 150 sqm on Moh Guan Terrace in Bukit Merah, registered in May 2026 on a lease that began in 1973 46. The Telok Blangah asking price is $650,000 above it 34.

Where $2.18m would sit among the largest HDB resales

The listing would also be the most expensive HDB resale of any kind in the records by a wide margin. The highest registered resale price since January 2017 is $1,728,000, for a 113 sqm five-room flat on Henderson Road in Bukit Merah, registered in April 2026 4. That flat sold at about $1,421 psf 4. Only 16 HDB resales in the records have reached $1.6m, and only four have reached $1.7m 4.

A fairer yardstick than old jumbo flats is young, large flats nearby. In Bukit Merah, 15 five-room flats on leases that began in 2010 or later were registered as resold in the 12 months to September 2026 4. Their median price was $1,465,888 at a median 113 sqm, or about $1,197 psf 4. The combined flat's asking price is about 24% higher per square foot than that median 34. Parcview's own four-room flats, at 93 sqm, sold at a median of $965,000, or about $964 psf, over the same 12 months 4.

Sources: 34.

The honest case for a premium is real. The flat is large, it is young, and it is one of a kind in the records, so a buyer who needs five bedrooms within HDB has few alternatives. The honest case against is that none of those qualities has ever been priced by the market at this level, so there is no evidence yet that a buyer will pay it.

What a buyer should check before paying up for a combined flat

For anyone weighing a jumbo flat, this listing or any other, the official records support a short checklist.

1. Price the parts. Look up recent resale prices for the flat types that were combined, in the same block or project and on the same lease. Two of them at the median is the base value.
2. Compare the premium with history. Combined flats have mostly sold at 0.94 to 1.11 times the price per square foot of similar flats nearby 4. A price well above that range needs a specific reason.
3. Match the lease. Old jumbo flats sell at about $589 psf, or $901,000 in total, by the median, and the fact that most have about half their lease left is likely a large part of the reason 4. Compare a young combined flat with young flats, not old ones.
4. Ask how it will be valued. A flat with no direct comparable may be hard to value. Before making an offer, understand how any gap between price and valuation would be funded.
5. Think about the next buyer. A flat priced far above its parts depends on another buyer who needs the same rare size, on a shorter remaining lease, when the time comes to sell.

What HDB's review could change, and what to watch

HDB has said it will review the Conversion Scheme after this listing 2. It is too early to say what the review will change. Any tightening would matter most to owners of small flats who have been counting on combining them later.

For owners already in a combined flat, the records suggest that joining two flats has been a way to get space rather than profit, since the typical resale has come close to the value of the parts 4.

Two things to watch. Whether this flat sells, and at what price, will show in the resale records once a sale is registered 4. And the outcome of HDB's review will decide whether a flat like this can be created again 2.

This is general information, not financial advice. Check the current rules with HDB or your bank before you commit.