Tampines sets a new HDB high: $1.24M for a 31-year-old executive flat

Tampines has a new benchmark for public housing prices. An executive apartment at Block 856F Tampines Street 82 changed hands for $1,240,000 in a transaction registered in June 2026, the highest HDB resale price the town has recorded.

The flat is a 149 sqm executive apartment, about 1,604 sq ft, on the seventh to ninth storey of a block whose lease started in 1995. That makes the flat 31 years old, with roughly 68 years left on its 99-year lease. The price works out to about $773 psf, according to HDB resale transaction data published on data.gov.sg.

It edges out two records set only months apart. A premium maisonette at Block 498J Tampines Street 45 fetched $1.208 million in a sale registered in August 2025, and an executive flat at Block 156 Tampines Street 12 reached $1.21 million in March 2026. The new sale clears the previous high by $30,000.

One cluster keeps setting the pace

Three of the town’s five priciest resales sit in the same row of blocks: 856B to 856F on Tampines Street 82, a mid-1990s cluster of executive flats. HDB’s transaction records show the cluster’s top sale climbing almost every year, from $846,000 in late 2017 to $1.013 million in 2022, $1.2 million in 2025 and now $1.24 million.

The five priciest Tampines HDB resales registered since 2024. All five are executive flats. Source: HDB resale transactions, data.gov.sg. Chart: HomeAsset.

The 856 cluster’s top resale each year, from $846,000 in 2017 to $1.24 million in 2026. Source: HDB resale transactions, data.gov.sg.

The broader current is running the same way. Thirty-nine executive flat resales in Tampines have crossed the million-dollar mark in 2026 so far, against 56 in the whole of 2025, based on transactions registered on data.gov.sg by early July.

Scarcity is doing a lot of the work here. Executive apartments and maisonettes are a discontinued flat type that HDB no longer builds, so the stock of 140-plus sqm public housing only shrinks. For families who want that much space in the east without paying private-condo prices, the bidding gets concentrated on a fixed pool of ageing but roomy flats.

The lease question

A 1995 lease means about 68 years remaining, which is still long enough that CPF usage and bank financing are generally not curtailed for typical buyers. But a flat like this will be a 40-year-old flat with under 60 years of lease within a decade. Buyers paying record prices for older executive stock are paying for space today, not for guaranteed appreciation tomorrow.

What this means for you

• If you own a large HDB flat in Tampines or elsewhere in the east, this record is useful evidence of demand, but records are outliers. Price against recent transactions in your own block and cluster, not against the headline.
• If you are hunting for space, $1.24 million bought about 1,604 sq ft here, around $773 psf. The appeal of executive flats is space per dollar, but weigh it against the age of the lease and your holding horizon.
• Upgraders should run the full affordability math before chasing scarce flat types: TDSR (the rule capping total monthly debt at 55 percent of gross income) applies to HDB purchases financed with bank loans too, and a million-dollar flat needs a substantial cash and CPF outlay.
• Million-dollar flats still make up a minority of HDB transactions. They cluster in specific flat types and locations, so treat them as a segment story, not proof that all resale prices are surging.