A resale 3 bedroom in the core central region rose 27.2% from 2017 to 2025, against 45.8% outside central

Between 2017 and 2025 a resale 3 bedroom in the CCR rose 27.2%. In the RCR it rose 46.9%, and in the OCR 45.8%. Per square foot the gap is wider, 34.6% in the CCR against 60.6% and 62.9%.

The CCR was the slowest 3 bedroom market in Singapore on every measure available, on both the resale and the new-launch side, for 9 years.

What is in this note

• How far each region moved: growth in the median from 2017 to 2025, on four measures (resale price, resale price per square foot, new-launch price and new-launch price per square foot), for the core central region (CCR), the city fringe (RCR) and the suburbs (OCR).
• The CCR against the OCR: how much more a central 3 bedroom cost than a suburban 3 bedroom, year by year, and what happened to that gap.
• The RCR against the OCR: the same comparison for the city fringe, which did not follow the same path.
• Year by year, resale: cumulative resale growth from 2017, all three regions on one chart.
• Year by year, new launch: cumulative new-launch growth from 2017, where the regions separate earlier than they do on resale.

How far each region moved

Growth in the median, 2017 to 2025.

	CCR	RCR	OCR
Resale price	27.2%	46.9%	45.8%
Resale psf	34.6%	60.6%	62.9%
New launch price	29.5%	68.7%	86.2%
New launch psf	39.2%	79.5%	85.3%

The CCR is last on all four measures. The sections below test that result in other ways.

The CCR's higher starting price does not by itself explain its slower growth. The obvious objection is that the CCR started from a higher base, and a higher base increases more slowly in percentage terms. That is true, but a buyer cares about what happened to their money. A CCR 3 bedroom bought in 2017 gained 27.2% by 2025. An OCR 3 bedroom gained 45.8%, and the OCR buyer paid less than half as much to get it.

The CCR against the OCR

How much more a CCR 3 bedroom cost than an OCR 3 bedroom, each year.

• Resale price
• Resale per square foot
• New launch price
• New launch per square foot

Resale

Year	Price	Psf
2017	110.1%	82.3%
2018	123.2%	81.0%
2019	112.1%	71.4%
2020	120.0%	77.7%
2021	122.6%	78.4%
2022	116.0%	69.5%
2023	95.9%	59.6%
2024	89.0%	52.9%
2025	83.3%	50.7%

New launch

Year	Price	Psf
2017	97.8%	80.0%
2018	188.9%† (not to be read; see the note below this table)	87.1%† (not to be read; see the note below this table)
2019	92.5%	90.6%
2020	79.0%	70.2%
2021	80.3%	72.1%
2022	67.5%	44.0%
2023	53.1%	41.6%
2024	68.2%† (not to be read; see the note below this table)	44.1%† (not to be read; see the note below this table)
2025	37.6%	35.2%

† Calculated from very few sales: 107 CCR new-launch transactions in 2018 and 119 in 2024, against 271 in 2017, 198 in 2019, 295 in 2023 and 493 in 2025. A median drawn from about a hundred sales in a region this small can be moved by a single project. These four figures still appear on the chart, which cannot grey them, but no claim in this note rests on them.

The CCR's premium over the OCR fell on all four measures, by 26.8, 31.6, 60.2 and 44.8 percentage points. A CCR resale 3 bedroom cost 110% more than an OCR 3 bedroom in 2017 and 83% more in 2025. Per square foot, 82% more became 51% more.

Every one of the four measures rose for the last time in 2021, and every one has fallen in each year since, the two excluded years aside. CCR resale price ran 122.6% in 2021 and 83.3% in 2025; per square foot, 78.4% to 50.7%. The highest readings fall in different years depending on the measure, anywhere from 2017 to 2021, so there is no single peak the four share. What they share is the year they stopped rising and the direction afterwards.

The RCR against the OCR

If the whole market were compressing, the RCR would show the same pattern as the CCR, and it does not.

• Resale price
• Resale per square foot
• New launch price
• New launch per square foot

Resale

Year	Price	Psf
2017	28.2%	26.1%
2018	31.1%	27.5%
2019	29.6%	26.9%
2020	31.8%	26.7%
2021	34.9%	28.4%
2022	33.3%	27.0%
2023	27.2%	26.7%
2024	33.1%	23.7%
2025	29.1%	24.4%

New launch

Year	Price	Psf
2017	32.1%	25.0%
2018	26.3%	21.8%
2019	23.1%	23.6%
2020	16.4%	9.6%
2021	23.8%	16.1%
2022	19.7%	8.9%
2023	15.1%	17.6%
2024	16.9%	16.4%
2025	19.7%	21.1%

On resale, the RCR ended where it began. Its price premium over the OCR was 28.2% in 2017 and 29.1% in 2025, and per square foot 26.1% became 24.4%. The price premium moved around on the way: it reached 34.9% in 2021 and fell to 27.2% in 2023, a range of 7.7 percentage points, against a 9-year change of 1 point.

By contrast, over the same 9 years, the CCR's premium over the OCR on the same resale measures fell 26.8 points on price and 31.6 points per square foot.

The new-launch side is less clear-cut: the RCR's premium over the OCR fell 12.4 points on price and 3.9 points per square foot there, while on resale the RCR's premium held. The finding still stands, because the CCR's premium fell on all four measures, and on the new-launch pair where a ratio can be calculated it fell 4.9 times as much on price and 11.5 times as much per square foot.

Year by year, resale

Cumulative growth from 2017.

• CCR
• RCR
• OCR

Year	CCR	RCR	OCR
2018	8.9%	4.9%	2.5%
2019	8.0%	8.2%	7.0%
2020	10.0%	8.1%	5.0%
2021	16.0%	15.3%	9.5%
2022	23.2%	24.6%	19.8%
2023	23.8%	31.8%	32.8%
2024	23.2%	42.2%	37.0%
2025	27.2%	46.9%	45.8%

The CCR's cumulative growth stalls after 2022, having stayed close to the RCR's through 2022, ahead in some years and behind in others. Cumulative growth in the CCR in 2024 is little changed from 2022, 2 years of almost no growth, while the RCR's cumulative growth went from 24.6% to 42.2%.

The gap between fastest and slowest region widened from 6.4 percentage points in 2018 to 19.7 points in 2025, and almost all of that widening happened after 2022.

Year by year, new launch

Year	CCR	RCR	OCR
2018	60.2%† (not to be read; see the note below this table)	4.9%	9.7%
2019	11.9%	7.3%	15.1%
2020	10.0%	7.1%	21.5%
2021	22.1%	25.6%	34.0%
2022	39.1%	49.0%	64.3%
2023	49.9%	68.8%	93.7%
2024	64.5%† (not to be read; see the note below this table)	71.3%	93.5%
2025	29.5%	68.7%	86.2%

The new-launch side moves earlier and further. The OCR pulls ahead from 2019 and stays ahead in every year we can read, reaching 86.2% cumulative against the CCR's 29.5%.

† 2018 rests on 107 sales and 2024 on 119, against between 198 and 493 in the neighbouring years. Both record which projects launched rather than what the region cost.

What this tells you

The core central region (CCR) was the slowest 3 bedroom market in Singapore over these 9 years, and it was slowest on every measure available. Resale prices rose 27.2% there against 46.9% in the city fringe (RCR) and 45.8% in the suburbs (OCR). Per square foot, 34.6% against 60.6% and 62.9%. At new launch, 29.5% on price against 68.7% and 86.2%, and 39.2% per square foot against 79.5% and 85.3%. Four measures, and the core central region is last on all four.

The core central region's higher base does not on its own explain the result. A 3 bedroom bought in the core central region in 2017 gained 27.2% by 2025. One bought in the suburbs gained 45.8%, and cost less than half as much to buy.

The premium the core central region commands has narrowed on all four measures. A central resale 3 bedroom cost 110.1% more than a suburban 3 bedroom in 2017 and 83.3% more in 2025. Per square foot, 82.3% more became 50.7% more. The two new-launch measures fell further still, by 60.2 and 44.8 percentage points.

The city fringe did not follow the same path, so the narrowing is specific to the core central region. On resale its premium over the suburbs ended where it started: 28.2% in 2017 and 29.1% in 2025 on price, 26.1% and 24.4% per square foot. Its premium did fall at new launch, by 12.4 points on price and 3.9 points per square foot, but the core central region's premium fell 4.9 times as much on price and 11.5 times as much per square foot.

The timing is the same across all four measures. Every one of them rose for the last time in 2021 and has fallen in each year since. On resale, prices in the core central region all but stopped rising. Cumulative growth there in 2024 was little changed from its 2022 level, so the median went almost nowhere for 2 years, while the city fringe went from 24.6% to 42.2% and the suburbs from 19.8% to 37.0%.

So the gap between the fastest and slowest region widened from 6.4 points in 2018 to 19.7 points in 2025, and almost all of that happened after 2022.

Rent moved the same way. In the core central region, rent per square foot rose 38.7% over the same 9 years, against 53.7% in the city fringe and 61.4% in the suburbs, so the region that rose least on price rose least on rent too.

What this does not tell you

• Why. The measurement is clean and the cause is not visible in transaction data. Additional buyer's stamp duty on foreign buyers, the size of the units being built, and which projects happened to launch would all leave a footprint of this kind.
• Whether it continues. The 9 years of data show a pattern but do not predict what comes next, and the sharpest part of the pattern is the last 3 years.
• What any project did. Every figure is a median across a region. A CCR 3 bedroom in one project may have done anything at all.
• The rest of the market. This is 3 bedroom units only. The 2 bedroom market moved differently, and that series covers it.
• Rent, and how it moves with building age. This note measures price. Rent runs on its own pattern: a new 3 bedroom outside central now rents for more per square foot than a 26-year-old 3 bedroom in prime.

Method and data notes. Sale data to 1 September 2026.

Medians of URA caveat data for private condominiums and apartments, 3 bedroom by resolved bedroom count, collective sales excluded, resales and new sales counted separately, by URA market segment. Growth compares a year's median against 2017's within the same region and the same market, never across regions or across markets. Premium figures compare two regions in the same year on the same measure. All figures are computed from unrounded medians and rounded once for display.

Two cells are greyed and marked with a dagger, both CCR new launch, and excluded from every claim in this note.

Two kinds of number in this note are arithmetic on the columns beside them rather than figures it registers: a movement in percentage points, which is a later year's premium less an earlier year's, and the gap between the fastest and slowest region, which is one growth figure less another. Both are differences of differences, and the register holds levels and the comparisons between levels. A reader can check either by subtracting two printed cells.

Every figure is a median of whatever transacted that year. CCR new-launch counts run from 571 in 2021 to 107 in 2018, so a single large project moves a CCR year. The finding rests on four independent series across 9 years, so no single series carries it. Sale data to 1 September 2026.

30 October 2026. This note placed homes in market segments by postal district. URA places them by planning area, which moves about one in seven private sales between regions. The figures by region here use the earlier segments and differ from what the same records give now. How regions are set: How we measure prices and sales.