95% of three-bedroom owners who sold since 2020 made money, and the median gain was $450,000

Between January 2020 and June 2026, 27,663 three-bedroom condominiums changed hands where the same unit had been bought at a recorded price earlier. Of those, 26,379 sold for more than the owner paid, and 1,246 sold for less.

That is 95.4% above water. The median gain was $450,000, or 33.7%, over a median hold of 9.6 years, which works out at 3.5% a year. The rest of the three-bedroom picture is on the three-bedroom condo guide: what it costs, what it rents for, what it yields and how big it is.

The averages hide two things worth knowing: where the losses are, and when the bad years to buy were.

Key takeaways

• 95.4% of three-bedroom resales since 2020 sold above the purchase price, with a median gain of $450,000 over 9.6 years. What owners made
• The CCR has the largest gains in dollars and the highest chance of a loss. The CCR has the largest gains and the highest chance of a loss
• Owners who bought between 2010 and 2014 did worst: 92.1% above water and 2.31% a year. When you bought mattered more than where
• The spread is wide. A tenth of owners made under 7.1% in total; a tenth made over 120.8%. The spread

What owners made

Pairs measured	27,663
Sold above	26,379 (95.4%)
Sold below	1,246 (4.5%)
Median gain	$450,000
Median gain, per cent	33.7%
Median hold	9.6 years
Median return per year	3.5%

A further 38 units sold for exactly what the owner paid, which is why the two shares above do not sum to 100%.

A three-bedroom held for the better part of a decade made its owner about a third more than they paid. That is the central case, and it is not a dramatic number: 3.5% a year, before any of the costs of owning.

The CCR has the largest gains and the highest chance of a loss

Region	Pairs	Sold above	Median gain	Median gain %	Hold	Per year
Core central (CCR)	3,707	90.1%	$616,000	27.6%	11.1 years	2.71%
Rest of central (RCR)	8,893	95.0%	$502,000	33.5%	9.2 years	3.75%
Outside central (OCR)	15,063	96.9%	$400,000	35.2%	9.5 years	3.55%

In dollars the CCR is ahead: $616,000 against $400,000 in the OCR. In the chance of a gain it is behind: 90.1% of CCR owners sold above what they paid, against 96.9% in the OCR. So roughly one CCR owner in ten sold at a loss, and when they did the median loss was $320,000.

The two facts are the same fact. A CCR three-bedroom costs more, so both the gains and the losses are larger in dollars, and the percentage return is the lowest of the three regions at 2.71% a year.

When you bought mattered more than where

Bought	Pairs	Sold above	Median gain	Median gain %	Hold	Per year
Before 2010	7,612	97.0%	$832,891	97.7%	17.5 years	3.87%
2010 to 2014	9,558	92.1%	$333,992	25.8%	10.3 years	2.31%
2015 to 2018	6,254	96.6%	$360,000	26.0%	6.0 years	4.04%
2019 to 2022	4,155	98.2%	$402,000	26.5%	4.0 years	6.10%

Four cohorts, and the one in the middle is the outlier. Owners who bought between 2010 and 2014 were least likely to be above water at 92.1%, and made the least per year at 2.31%. Every other cohort returned between 3.87% and 6.10%.

That period was the top of the last cycle. The total debt servicing ratio framework arrived in June 2013, and the additional buyer's stamp duty had been introduced in December 2011 and raised in January 2013. Buyers who entered just before those measures paid prices the market took years to reach again.

The cohort bought since 2023 is not shown. It holds 84 pairs, too few to read, and the units in it have been held for a median of 1.9 years.

The spread

The median is one number and owners are not one owner.

	Gain
Worst tenth	under +7.1%
Lower quarter	under +17.8%
Median	+33.7%
Upper quarter	over +61.9%
Best tenth	over +120.8%

The gap between the tenth and ninetieth percentile is 114 percentage points. Two owners buying the same year in the same region can land anywhere in that range depending on the project, the unit and when they sold.

And for the 4.5% who lost money, the median loss was $124,500, or 6.5%. The worst tenth of those lost more than 22.7%.

What this does not tell you

• Whether you will. This measures what happened to people who sold. It is a record, not a forecast, and the 2010 to 2014 cohort is what buying at the wrong moment looks like.
• Your costs. The gain is the difference between two prices. Stamp duty, agent fees, legal costs, property tax, maintenance and any interest paid are not in it, and over a decade they are substantial.
• What owners who did not sell have. Only units that transacted twice appear here. Anyone still holding is invisible, which means this is a measure of realised outcomes rather than of the whole market.
• Anything about a single project. These are medians across thousands of units.

Method and data notes. Sale data to 19 June 2026.

Matched pairs from URA caveat data: a three-bedroom private condominium or apartment bought at a recorded price and resold, with the sale completing between 1 January 2020 and 19 June 2026. Executive condominiums are excluded. Bedroom count is taken from the purchase leg. Pairs are formed from consecutive transactions of the same unit.

Gains are the difference between the two recorded prices, before any transaction cost. The return per year is computed on pairs held at least six months. Units with an implausible area for their bedroom count are excluded, along with two units identified as mislabelled: 119 and 1 pair respectively on the national figure.

Figures were computed on data as at 19 June 2026. Caveats lodged since then are not included, and the same figures back the two-bedroom equivalent of this note, so the two can be compared directly.

Cells below 100 pairs are not published. The 2023-onward purchase cohort holds 84 pairs and is named but not tabulated; region and period crossed together produces cells as small as 12, and none of those appears here.

Sale data to 19 June 2026.