Sold at the highest price the condo had ever recorded. 3 years later, the same property has more profits than my replacement purchase. Sharing the full numbers that kicked off my upgrade, and sharing why it had to be done.
In 2022, I sold my first home at the highest price PSF the project had ever recorded. It was a great validation of my own negotiation skills as a realtor.
Three and a half years later, the same unit sold again for $337,000 more. :'(
Yes, I would repeat the same decision and still be contented.
It was a 98 sqm (1,055 sqft) three-bedder at Belysa, bought in 2019 at $890,000. My first home. By 2022 we'd outgrown it, and we were driving to the next estate to visit our parents most days anyway.
Belysa, 2019 to 2022. My first home.
I sold it for $1,198,000, the highest psf the project had ever recorded. I remember being proud of setting the record at the time.
| Contract date | Unit | Size | psf | Price | Buyer came from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Sep 2022 | 59 Pasir Ris Drive 1, #11-14 (mine) | 98 sqm (1,055 sqft) | $1,136 | $1,198,000 | Private |
| 14 Apr 2022 | 57 Pasir Ris Drive 1, #14-09 | 96 sqm (1,033 sqft) | $1,045 | $1,080,000 | Private |
| 28 Mar 2022 | 59 Pasir Ris Drive 1, #05-14 | 90 sqm (969 sqft) | $1,105 | $1,070,000 | Private |
| 16 Mar 2022 | 59 Pasir Ris Drive 1, #17-18 | 96 sqm (1,033 sqft) | $1,055 | $1,090,000 | Private |
| 30 Dec 2021 | 59 Pasir Ris Drive 1, #06-14 | 90 sqm (969 sqft) | $981 | $950,000 | HDB |
| 2 Dec 2021 | 59 Pasir Ris Drive 1, #14-17 | 96 sqm (1,033 sqft) | $1,031 | $1,065,000 | Private |
Belysa resale caveats, Dec 2021 to Sep 2022. Source: URA caveat records. "Buyer came from" is the purchaser address indicator in the caveat, not the buyer's identity.
Gross gain on the sale was $308,000, before selling costs and the CPF refund. Then the market kept going without me. That same unit sold again three and a half years later at $1,535,000.
The view from Belysa.
Ok, job done, house sold, then I had to go and find somewhere to live.
We went house hunting, viewing various houses. There was one unit where the viewing experience was… overwhelming.
As the agent opened the door of the 24th floor unit, the first thing that hit us was the smell. The unit was humid, windows all closed, and the occupants hadn't kept it clean.
Bayshore Park, 109 sqm (1,173 sqft), three bedrooms, and it was priced below market value (or at least my perceived acceptable value) because of exactly that. I remember the seller's agent regretting accepting the rental offer from the occupant's company.
Bayshore Park.
109 sqm (1,173 sqft), three bedrooms. The Bayshore Park layout.
Then we walked to the balcony. Full sea view, and nothing in front of it that could ever be built on. Permanent.
I knew what I was looking at. A fixable cheap unit, with amazing views you can't get for this price, anywhere else in Singapore. But the renovation overhaul was daunting to even plan out.
We viewed the entire Bayshore, all the way down to Fairmount. It was mostly old buildings, but it's East Coast, and that's where I've wanted to live for as long as I've cared about where I live.
But none of it worked.
My wife works minutes from Bayshore Park. On paper it was the obvious answer.
But both our parents are in Tampines, and our lives revolve around them. Today, they're our daily support for our daughter's care. Bayshore would have meant twenty minutes further away in the wrong direction, every day.
That inconvenience was the dealbreaker.
When I serve my homebuying clients, most will start with a budget and a wish list. Then the wishlist will whittle down to the bare necessities, especially when you realise you have to factor in your daily commute to parents place at 7am and 7pm…everyday.
In the end, we never made an offer on Bayshore Park.
Working out whether the location you want survives your actual week? That's the first thing I map out with clients.
Get a Second Opinion ↗THAT Bayshore Park unit was living in my head rent free while I viewed other units in other projects.
Along the way we offered on a three-bedder at Fairmount Condo (2000, Bayshore / Bedok South). Old project, but it was newly renovated by the sellers, who then migrated within months of finishing it. Alas, it was over the 1km mark to Temasek Primary, and it was a boutique project. That one's a whole article on its own.
Then we offered on a 20-year-old three-bedder at The Tropica (2001, Tampines). We were about to accept the seller's counter offer when the Santorini listing appeared on PropertyGuru.
At that point of our lives, we didn't need a fourth room, and through viewing various places, we realised we didn't need to be closer to town, but closer to our parents.
After three months of viewing units under $1.4Mil, anything above $1.4Mil simply felt wrong.
But this Santorini listing had four bedrooms, 107 sqm (1,152 sqft), four years from TOP, asking just $1.42Mil.
In three months of viewing, it was the first four-bedder I'd seen at a price I'd pay.
| The three-bedders I kept viewing | The four-bedder I bought | |
|---|---|---|
| Bedrooms | 3 | 4 |
| Size | 102 to 111 sqm (1,100 to 1,200 sqft) | 107 sqm (1,152 sqft) |
| Age | Mostly over 15 years | 4 years from TOP |
| Price | $1.2Mil to $1.3Mil | $1.42Mil asking |
The prior transactions in The Santorini made this seller look expensive. Why?
He was asking $1.42Mil for a second-floor unit. The most recent sale of the same 107 sqm (1,152 sqft) layout was a 13th-floor unit at $1.42Mil six months earlier. Before that, another 13th-floor unit at $1.40Mil.
He wanted high-floor money for a low-floor unit.
Most buyers and most agents would stop right there. They pull the last few transactions in the project, compare, and judge it to be overpriced. Admittedly, if that had been my only comparison, I'd have walked away too.
But I'd spent three months in that market, and all it had produced was ageing three-bedders at $1.2Mil to $1.3Mil and nothing at all with four rooms. Against that, $1.42Mil wasn't expensive. It was the only thing on the shelf.
To recap this section, a 107 sqm (1,152 sqft) #13-xx unit sold for $1,400,000 in October 2021. Twelve months later I paid $1,400,000 for the same size in the same project, eleven floors lower.
| Contract | Unit | psf | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2021 | #04-xx | $1,129 | $1,300,000 |
| Oct 2021 | #05-xx | $1,189 | $1,370,000 |
| Oct 2021 | #13-xx | $1,216 | $1,400,000 |
| Apr 2022 | #13-xx | $1,233 | $1,420,000 |
| Oct 2022 | #02-xx, mine | $1,216 | $1,400,000 |
| Feb 2023 | #11-xx | $1,402 | $1,615,000 |
| May 2023 | #14-xx | $1,476 | $1,700,000 |
All 107 sqm (1,152 sqft) units at The Santorini. Source: URA caveat records. Caveats publish a floor band only, never the exact unit.
The project had stagnated in price for a year.
What wasn't on the data was the supply situation. There were no four-bedders anywhere in the area, and a resale market that had thinned right out coming through 2022, post-covid rush.
Four months after I bought, the same layout sold 15% higher. It hasn't stopped since. No crystal ball there either. All I knew was that nobody could find a four-bedder in that market I was in.
I "negotiated" $20,000 off and closed at $1.40Mil. Actually all I did was ask the seller to round his price down, lol.
I didn't bother to nego hard hard, because the asking price was already below my entry limits. I wasn't bothered about overpaying him by $10,000. In my opinion, the risk was losing the unit.
On the flipside, when a seller's asking price is too high and illogical, no amount of negotiating fixes it. You're just talking your way into a purchase.
That's why you need a walk-away price before you start. You can build one yourself, without an agent.
My wife and I were approved for a $2.5mil home purchase.
That figure came out of the TDSR calculation on our income, and it contains no opinion whatsoever about whether any particular price is sensible.
| What the bank approved | What I bought | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.5M | $1.4M |
| Loan at 75% | $1,875,000 | $1,050,000 |
| Monthly repayment | about $8,760 | $4,905 |
| Cash and CPF needed upfront | about $710,000 | about $391,000 |
Repayments modelled at the rate and 30-year tenure on my actual loan. Upfront figures are the 25% balance plus Buyer's Stamp Duty, at the rates in force at the time: $84,600 on $2.5M, $40,600 on $1.4M.
That approval is a loan-servicing number and nothing more. It tells you what a bank will lend against your income. It has no opinion on whether you can find the other 25% and the duty, and on a $2.5Mil purchase that's $625,000 plus $84,600 you have to produce yourself.
Between the deposits, the stamp duty taxes, the renovation and five months of rent, the move itself took just over $100,000 before I'd collected the keys at the lawfirm.
What was still in the bank after all of it: $156,296.
At $4,905 a month, that's 32 months of mortgage coverage in case both wife and me wanted to stop working, or maybe I went through a dry spell at work.
Two and a half years where we didn't have to sell in a hurry in case plans changed.
I spent $1.1mil lower than what I could, and it didn't buy me a smaller home at all. In fact, it bought me peace of mind, 2 years of full reserves. Eventually I've funnelled it all towards other equities, outside property (aka stocks, crypto etc).
Holding power is the first thing I check for a client and it was the first thing I checked for myself.
One way to look at it was that I got the exit wrong by a third of a million dollars. But it really didn't matter. Because it bought a long runway, a strong holding power for my next home.
We're one traffic light from my parents now. The fourth bedroom is 7 sqm (80 sqft) and it's my daughter's room. We're on the second floor, so the trees are at window height, full of birds all day, and the real masters of our house, the cats, watch them from their plushy cushions.
Second floor. Trees at window height.
I still think about that sea view at Bayshore. I expect I always will.
I got the market wrong by $337,000 and my family never felt it. At $2.5M, we'd have felt every dollar.
Tell me your situation. I'll tell you honestly if the move makes sense, and I'll tell you if it doesn't.
Figures are from my own transactions and from URA caveat records. Transaction data and supply counts are factual records. Nothing here is a forecast of prices or market direction. Repayments modelled at the rate and 30-year tenure on my actual loan. Buyer's Stamp Duty calculated at the rates in force at the time of purchase. CPF refund and accrued interest are excluded from the gross gain figure. Your own numbers will differ. Heikal Shafrudin · CEA Reg No. R016820G · PropNex Realty, agency licence L3008022J.
