EC penthouse sold for record S$2.05m

SINGAPORE: An executive condominium (EC) penthouse, with a record price—tag of S$2.05 million, was sold about an hour after the launch of the project on Saturday.

A spokesman for the CityLife@Tampines project said the sale was made just after 11am.

Channel NewsAsia understands that the buyers are a married young couple from a multi—generation family.

Channel NewsAsia also understands that the buyers intend to live in the penthouse with their parents and siblings.

The size of the penthouse is about 4,350 square feet — and can house up to four families under one roof.

The developer said there were 1,800 applications made for the 514 units. About 65 per cent of the units have been sold.

Tng Lay Kim, managing director of Kay Lim Construction & Trading said: "Actually, this price isn’t very expensive. It’s actually very cheap, because it’s only S$470 per square foot. We only have one such unit. We’re testing the market for units that allow three—generation families to live together. We had been successful. We’ve had over 10 applications for this unit."

The average price of other EC units in this project is about S$770 per square foot.

The record price tag has fanned concerns of soaring EC prices, and sparked talk of possible government intervention to cool the market.

One concern is that ECs may not be affordable for the sandwiched class, or Singaporeans whose incomes are too high to qualify for HDB flats but are too stretched to buy private property.

"I’ll be afraid the next generation cannot afford to buy a house, because the prices are rising so high. So, do you think all the youngsters can buy?" said a woman, who had bought a unit at the launch.

Moe Chan, spokesperson for Citylife@Tampines said: "I think if you look at the development as a whole, the majority of the units are below one million (dollars), and largely three bedrooms. So it’s only a small number of units, premium units that we have developed. They’re quite rare, valuable, and as you can see, people want these. So it’s really a supply and demand. If the sandwiched class wants it, of course, as developers, we provide that product."

Developers said they see the trend moving towards ECs of higher quality. They said at the end of the day, it is still about catering to the sandwiched class.

CityLife@Tampines is located at Tampines Avenue 7.

— CNA/xq