Million-dollar HDB sales crossed 200 for the first time

Singapore’s HDB resale market sold 201 flats for at least $1 million in August 2026, the first time the monthly count has passed 200, according to 99.co-SRX flash estimates. Overall resale prices barely moved. The gap between those two facts is the part worth understanding.

The 201 deals beat the previous record of 188 set in June and the 187 recorded in July, a rise of 7.5% on the month. They made up 8% of the 2,524 resale flats that changed hands in August, up from 7% in July. Put the other way round, 92% of the flats sold in August went for less than $1 million.

Toa Payoh led with 32 million-dollar deals, followed by Queenstown with 26 and Bukit Merah with 21. Those three towns accounted for 79 transactions, roughly 39% of the total. The rest were spread across 18 other towns, including Woodlands, Sengkang, Bukit Panjang and Bukit Batok, which 99.co reads as a sign that seven-figure deals are no longer confined to a few central towns.

The month’s highest price was $1,688,888 for a 5-room flat at Tiong Bahru View on Boon Tiong Road. The 1,206 sq ft unit sits between the 28th and 30th storeys with about 88 years left on its lease, which works out to roughly $1,401 psf. It beat the project’s previous high of $1.648 million, set in March 2026, by around $40,000. In the non-mature estates, the top price was $1.25 million for an Executive flat on Woodlands Street 81.

Five months, three records. August was the first month above 200. Source: 99.co-SRX HDB resale flash reports. Chart: HomeAsset.

The rest of the market did almost nothing

Overall HDB resale prices rose 0.1% in August after falling 0.7% in July. Compared with August 2025 they are still 0.5% lower. Mature estates gained 0.7% on the month while non-mature estates were flat.

By flat type, Executive flats rose 2.8%, 4-room flats rose 0.2%, 5-room flats were unchanged and 3-room flats slipped 0.3%. Treat the Executive number with care: those flats were only 6.9% of August’s volume, so a handful of expensive deals can swing the monthly figure. Over a year, Executive flats are the only type showing growth, up 1.7%, while 3-room, 4-room and 5-room prices are down 1.6%, 0.6% and 0.6%.

Volume eased to 2,524 flats, down 5.1% from July’s 2,660, which had been the busiest month of 2026. August was still the second most active month of the past year and 14.1% ahead of August 2025. Four-room flats made up 47% of deals, 5-room flats 23.4%, 3-room flats 22.7% and Executive flats 6.9%. Non-mature estates took 56.7% of transactions.

Three mature towns took 79 of August’s 201 million-dollar deals. Source: 99.co-SRX HDB resale flash report, August 2026. Chart: HomeAsset.

Why the two numbers can move apart

The record counts deals. The price index measures how prices moved across every flat type and town. A small group of newer, larger, higher-floor flats in central towns can keep setting records while the median 4-room flat in Sengkang or Woodlands goes nowhere. August is a clean example: 201 flats above $1 million, and a price index up 0.1%.

The new factor is the 15-month wait-out period, which the Government removed at the end of July for private property owners buying a non-subsidised resale flat without an HDB loan. We covered the change and its catch at the time: the 15-month wait-out is gone, with one big catch. Luqman Hakim, chief data and analytics officer at 99.co, said the removal may have encouraged more private owners to enter the resale market, and he expects demand for well-located, premium flats to hold up as buyers keep prioritising larger homes in mature estates.

He also cautioned against reading too much into one month. The flash figures are based on registration dates, and some of August’s deals would have been negotiated before the rule changed. The fuller effect should show over the next few months as newly eligible buyers have time to search and commit. September and October will tell us more than August did.

For scale, PropNex counted 902 million-dollar resales in the first half of 2026. Adding July and August takes the year to 1,290 with four months to go, against 1,593 for the whole of 2025 by PropNex’s count.

What this means for you

• Selling a large, high-floor flat in a mature town? Your buyer pool just widened. Private owners no longer have to sell, rent for 15 months and then buy. Even so, price off recent deals in your own block and street, not the town record. The record is one flat.
• Buying a typical 4-room flat? Nothing in August’s data says you are chasing a runaway market. Prices are 0.5% below a year ago and 92% of August’s flats sold under $1 million. Records in Toa Payoh do not set your price in Punggol.
• Upgrading from HDB to private? Demand for your flat is holding up: volume is 14.1% higher than a year ago. Prices are not racing, so build your upgrade sums on today’s valuation rather than a hoped-for number.
• Reading the headlines: when a record and a flat index appear in the same month, both are true. One counts deals at the top; the other tracks prices across the whole market.