And it begins.

Driving around Singapore is a great way to learn about properties; in fact, most private enclaves do end up becoming great joyride for the kids. But if you were to do that for say, consecutive weekends, you’ll notice the differences for landed homes in Singapore. Bukit Timah, Serangoon Gardens, the Nassim area, the Holland Plains, it’s another way for you to “re-discover Singapore”. Of course, there’s no vouchers needed.

So to clear the air about these typologies, especially if you’re not from around the neighbourhood…

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Building and Construction Authority (BCA)  and Singapore Statistics (Singstat) classifies it into three categories: terrace, semi or fully detached houses. However, we’d like to break it down further to four types, seeing the property landscape shifting interest towards hybrid versions like cluster housing.

First off, like our previous article that compares strata landed and pure landed property, we’ll put it out there that  factually, pure landed homes own the whole purchased land, which means they can rebuild their home with the necessary approvals. However, for strata landed, it is not the case.

One thing to note is that you can’t really carry this specifications to other parts of the world. The term ‘bungalow’, for example, is known in the U.S as single-storey landed properties, while for Singapore, it’s a fully-detached home with one or more levels.

A special mention for penthouse condos, as these homes are alternatives to landed living. In Singapore, where land is of sheer scarcity and great value, the direct solution will be building upwards. Some of these penthouses are way up at the topmost floor of a condo tower, boasting double height ceilings (which you actually pay for), sometimes with a combination of 3- and 4-bedroom space, like two of the units you may have seen in our previous Midtown Modern piece. You’ll often hear this apt adage “landed living in the sky”.

Pricing-wise, condo penthouses start from $900k and can go up to even $4 mil for some Core Central Region units. For more information on penthouse prices for new launches, we have written about a fair few in our blog.

Things to consider before window-shopping for landed homes

Leasehold

Now, for the landed category proper. The 99-year leasehold is not limited to HDBs and condos alone. There are 99-year leaseholds for some semi-detached, cluster houses and terraces as well, which broadly affects pricing by roughly 10-15% lesser than freehold homes, although we’ve recently seen freeholds peak at 20-30% above a 99-year counterpart. There are 999-year leaseholds too, although they are often priced as freehold.

Condition

If the landed plot is a newly built, fully renovated, or partially renovated, it really affects the benchmark. This is easily attributed to the time it takes for a gut renovation, which is almost one and a half years. Pricing for these sort of renovation is upwards of $300k, and sometimes, homeowners may have the cash, but not the time for it.

Location

Of course, this could go unsaid. A landed home closer to the city centre will naturally cost more than in the OCR region —  a Bukit Timah freehold semi-D home is currently going at $8.5 mil, while a similarly sized furnished home with the same specs but in Toh Close (Changi) is going at $3.9 mil.

We’ll probably cover this soon to talk all about location analysis for landed homes.

For further clarity, we’re placing starting prices based with at least 70 years of tenure.

Landed Home Types

Strata landed/Cluster Houses/Townhouses

99-year Starting Price: $1.48 mil at Kew Residences

99-year Brand New: $2.347 mil at Riverfront

These properties, which we have been recently shedding light on, are near-identical houses that owners share ownership of the land plot together with neighbours. It can take the form of a terrace, semi-detached (semi-D) or a detached bungalow. As mentioned, it fills the gap between a pure landed, and the condo sector, which at times is a great balance between affordability and premium status.

Strata landed homes are as the name suggests, you don’t really own the land, but own the airspace above it.

While Townhouses are also another type that seems to have some similarities, it is of a dated form, which has shared walls that connect neighbours to one another. In addition, there are no shared facilities like cluster houses like Parkwood Collection.

Terraced Homes/Inter Terraces

Starting Price for 99-years Terrace Home: $1.43 mil at Westville

Starting Price for Freehold: $1.8~ mil

At least three homes connected by adjoining walls, that form the boundaries. Corner terraces are pegged to semi-detached homes, since they share the same qualities. Because this typology is sort of sandwiched in between your neighbours, designs such as air wells and skylights do give it a refreshing style to it, while solving lighting and cross ventilation concerns.

Semi-detached (semi-D) homes/Corner terraces

Starting Price for semi-detached: $2.68 mil corner terrace

It’s certainly one of the more commonly-known landed homes in Singapore. A pair of houses adjoined with a common boundary wall. Corner terraces are listed under this category as both styles involve more space, and open up on one side of the home.

Detached Homes/Bungalows

Starting Price for detached freehold: $3.38 mil at Matlock Residences

Starting Price for detached 99-years: $3.4 mil at Mera Gardens

Starting Price for 99-years bungalow: $3.4 mil at Almond Crescent

Starting Price for freehold bungalow: $4.6 mil at Marine Parade

Standalone house that does not share a common wall with its neighbouring property. Minimum plot width of 10 metres, and can be built as single-storey houses or 2.5 or even 3.5-storey houses. It’s certainly a premium choice, and comes with an equally premium pricetag.

Good-Class Bungalows (GCB)

Starting Price: $18 mil Binjai Park

The crème de la crème, the plot size has to be at least 1,400 square metres or 15,000 sq ft, with a maximum site coverage of 35%. There’s usually a car porch for more than 3 cars (read: exotic cars), often spotted with elaborate swimming pools, mini putting greens and more. All are freehold, and owners are often seen hanging with their coterie. Well, when you can that is.

Conservation Landed Homes

Then again, there are conservation landed properties gazetted for heritage purposes. One of the recently sold was the stretch on Cairnhill, which is currently asking for more than $10 mil. Edgeprop recently covered a piece on this rare landed living.

Information sourced from Property Guru.

URA has put together some deeper specifications for these land plots, which you can check out below.

Terrace units varying plot limitations, hence the intermediate classifications.

Landed homes are for Singaporeans (mostly)

Pure landed properties in Singapore are eligible for Singapore Citizens, and not foreigners. This includes Singapore Permanent Residents (PRs) as well. There are exceptions to the rule, as long as an approval from the Land Dealings Approval Unit (LDAU) has been given, Foreigners and PRs are allowed to buy landed homes.

Rules in Sentosa Cove differ, though. Foreigners and PRs are able to buy Landed homes there, however, they only can buy one home home at a time, and not rent it out.

Final Words

In Singapore, the government has pretty mapped out the plan for homes, and appealing to those who can afford it. This starts off our Landed Homes Series articles, where we share with you more than what you need to know about landed homes in Singapore.

If you’re keen on finding out what should your concerns be when moving over to landed, check out PropertyLimBrothers’s in-depth analysis, where we weigh in on the thought process.

We hope you have learnt more about landed homes in Singapore. We’ll be posting weekly, so be sure to follow our YT channel for more video content, and Insights blog.

Prices are accurate as of time of writing. This article is unsponsored, and attempts to give a concise description of landed homes in Singapore. For more information or if you would like to reach out to us.