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Notes on the Singapore property market, each one traced to its source and dated.

Shoebox units: price premium gone, rent premium intact

Shoebox units lost their price premium and kept their rent premium. What that means depends on whether you are buying, selling, renting or renting out.

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Published 9 August 2026

Shoebox units

The articles in this series, oldest first

  1. 1Shoebox psf premium: +21% in 2017, below zero by 2025
  2. 2Shoebox psf up 24% since 2017, family-sized up 57%
  3. 3Prime shoebox psf fell 4.5% since 2017, suburban rose 26%
  4. 4Freehold shoebox premium is negative. Leasehold's isn't.
  5. 5Shoebox premium by completion year: no age pattern
  6. 6Shoebox yield is now 4.3%. Family-sized is 2.9%.
  7. 7Shoebox rent premium: 58% in OCR, 51% RCR, 47% CCR
  8. 8Shoebox yield: leasehold 4.54%, freehold 4.16%
  9. 9Shoebox rent premium by building age: 43% to 24%
  10. 10Shoebox units: 88.8% sold at a profit, at 1-3% a year
  11. 11A shoebox gained $77,672. The owner made $87,079, or lost $119,285.
  12. 12New launch shoebox: rented out +7%, left empty +3.1%
  13. 13New launch vs resale shoebox: 1.1% or 13.1% a year
  14. 14Launch timing: 10.5% a year at launch, 6.2% a year later
  15. 15Shoebox unit price Singapore: $848,000 resale, $1.27m new

Two-bedroom condos

The articles in this series, oldest first

  1. 12 bedroom condo price Singapore: $1.44m resale, $1.81m new
  2. 22 bedroom condo psf Singapore: how it compares with 1, 3 and 4 bedrooms
  3. 32 bedroom condo by region Singapore: prime, city fringe, suburbs
  4. 4Freehold vs leasehold 2 bedroom Singapore: what the premium really is
  5. 5Two-bedroom premium by completion year: no age pattern
  6. 62 bedroom vs 3 bedroom condo Singapore: rental yield 3.29% against 2.89%

Sentosa Cove property: what fifteen years of prices show

Almost everyone who bought at a Sentosa Cove launch has lost money, and one number explains most of it: the price the developer charged, against the $1,679 per square foot the resale market has settled at since 2012. Five notes, summarised.

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Published 25 August 2026

Sentosa Cove

The articles in this series, oldest first

  1. 1Sentosa Cove by project: why outcomes differ 46 points
  2. 2Sentosa Cove landed vs apartments: resale outcomes compared
  3. 3Sentosa Cove launch prices vs resale: why buyers lost
  4. 4Sentosa Cove: entry price beat every other factor
  5. 5Sentosa Cove rental yield: why it is higher than prime mainland

Market Notes

Sentosa Cove resale losses: what the data actually shows

We reproduce the reported loss rate independently and get 65.1%. But the two research houses quoted disagree on direction, and the loss depends almost entirely on the year of purchase: buyers from 2007 lost money 90% of the time, buyers from 2017 made money two thirds of the time.

Published 20 August 2026

Market briefs

URA Q2 2026: index up 0.5%, median down 6%. Both correct

URA's private residential index rose 0.5% in Q2 2026 while the median transacted price fell 6%. The gap is mix, not a price fall. How to read both.

Published 28 July 2026

HDB Q2 2026: index fell 0.3%, a second straight decline

HDB's Resale Price Index fell 0.3% in Q2 2026 to 202.8, a second straight decline, while the median held at S$604 psf. What moved underneath the headline.

Published 25 July 2026

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Guides

Guide

Realila methodology: every figure reproducible and rechecked

Every number we publish can be produced again from source records, is rechecked on a schedule, and is corrected in public when wrong. Here is how.

Published 11 August 2026

Guide

How to read Singapore property price indices (URA and HDB)

What URA's and HDB's price indices measure, how they are built, why they can move opposite to median prices, and what they can and cannot tell you.

Published 31 July 2026