HDB resale's busiest month of 2026 came with cheaper flats

More HDB resale flats changed hands in July than in any month this year: 2,660 of them, up 24.5% from June, according to 99.co-SRX flash estimates. Sellers did not get to name their price for that attention. The overall resale index slipped 0.7% in the same month.

The volume surge broke a pattern of middling months. No month in 2026 had cleared January’s 2,351 transactions until July blew past it, and volume also ran 3.1% higher than in July last year.

Volumes jumped 24.5% from June, clearing January’s previous 2026 high by more than 300 deals. Source: 99.co-SRX flash report, August 2026. July 2026 is a flash estimate. Chart: HomeAsset.

Luqman Hakim, chief data and analytics officer at 99.co, attributes part of the jump to timing. Buyers who balloted in June’s BTO exercise had reason to wait for their results before committing to a resale flat, and the June school holidays slowed viewings. Once the ballot results were out, unsuccessful applicants came back to the resale market in numbers, releasing demand that had simply been parked.

Prices fell anyway, and mature estates fell hardest

The extra buyers did not stop the index from easing. Resale prices fell 0.7% from June, taking the index 0.7% below where it stood a year ago. Mature estates drove the move with a 1.7% monthly decline, while non-mature estates slipped just 0.3%.

The price dip was steepest in mature estates, while non-mature towns barely moved. Source: 99.co-SRX flash report, August 2026. Chart: HomeAsset.

Every major flat type got cheaper on the month, led by executive flats at 1.5% and 5-room flats at 1.1%. Over a full year the picture is mixed: 3-room, 4-room and executive flats are down 1.3%, 0.9% and 1% respectively, while 5-room flats are marginally up, by 0.2%.

The median resale price in July was $635,000. Underneath that single number sits a very wide spread. Bukit Timah and the Central Area posted town-level medians above $1 million, and the Central Area’s 5-room median approached $1.5 million. Five towns recorded million-dollar medians for 5-room flats, and even 4-room flats crossed the $1 million median mark in Queenstown and Toa Payoh.

Million-dollar deals barely blinked

A total of 187 flats sold for at least $1 million in July, one deal short of June’s record 188 and about 7% of all transactions. Queenstown led with 32, followed by Toa Payoh with 28 and Bukit Merah with 20, and the deals reached into Woodlands, Yishun and Punggol. July’s single priciest flat was a 5-room unit at Natura Loft in Bishan, a DBSS project from 2011, which went for $1.58 million.

That resilience at the top while the broad index drifts lower matches what the Q2 data showed: buyers are still paying up for specific attributes, such as high floors, rare sizes and central locations, even as the average flat gets slightly cheaper.

Looking ahead, Luqman cautions that the calendar could repeat the trick. Around 8,000 flats are expected in October’s BTO exercise, the year’s largest, which we previewed town by town. September resale activity could pause the same way June’s did while buyers wait on that ballot.

What this means for you

• If you are selling in a mature estate, price to the month you are in, not to your neighbour’s March transaction. Mature-estate prices fell 1.7% in July alone, and listings priced off stale benchmarks are the ones that sit.
• If you are buying, a busy market with softening prices is a reasonable combination to negotiate in. More stock changes hands, and the index says time is on your side, at least until the October BTO exercise pulls some competing buyers away.
• Sellers eyeing the rest of 2026 should think about the window. A September lull is plausible while buyers wait for the October launch, and the buyers who return after an unsuccessful ballot tend to arrive with a deadline in mind.